At Quirk’s London, Hana Hussein, Customer Success Manager at Cambri, sat down with Steph Garland, Insights Manager at Absolute Collagen, to discuss the evolving role of concept testing, consumer insight, and AI-powered innovation within modern FMCG and CPG organizations.
Across six short video conversations, Steph shares perspectives on the challenges innovation teams face with traditional research approaches, how Absolute Collagen is evolving its innovation process, and why faster, more iterative, and data-driven learning is becoming increasingly important in today’s market.
Traditional concept testing often produces conflicting KPIs and metrics, making it difficult for innovation teams to confidently identify the strongest concepts and decide which route to pursue.
In this discussion, Steph shares how Absolute Collagen used Cambri’s AI-powered concept testing to create a clearer and more actionable view of concept strength — while still being able to fully explore and understand the drivers behind the results. The conversation also explores the value of earlier-stage testing and iterative learning throughout the innovation process.
Innovation teams have always relied heavily on instinct and experience - but scaling innovation across multiple products and decisions increasingly requires a more structured and evidence-based approach.
Steph discusses how Absolute Collagen is evolving from occasional concept testing toward a broader innovation process spanning idea testing, advertising testing, concept testing, claims and messaging evaluation, and even product naming. The conversation highlights the importance of balancing intuition with data-driven learning throughout the development journey.
As categories evolve and grow, brands must increasingly think not only about their existing customers, but also about the consumers they are not yet serving.
Steph shares how the growth of the collagen category is bringing in new types of consumers beyond the early adopters who helped establish the market. The discussion explores how concept testing and consumer insight can help brands better understand the motivations, hesitations, and unmet needs of prospective customers and category entrants.
Traditional research approaches can sometimes slow down decision-making due to timelines, budgets, and project complexity.
In this conversation, Steph discusses how faster and more flexible access to consumer insight has enabled Absolute Collagen to respond more quickly to stakeholder questions, support faster-moving innovation decisions, and bring insights into a wider range of strategic business conversations. The discussion also explores how accessibility and speed can move insights teams closer to the center of decision-making across the organization.
Research has traditionally been treated as a “one-and-done” activity - delivering static results before the business moves on.
Steph explains how improved speed and accessibility are enabling Absolute Collagen to conduct more quantitative research, answer more business questions, and make consumer insight part of a more continuous and iterative learning process. Rather than simply reporting results, insights are increasingly becoming part of an ongoing cycle of refinement, development, and innovation improvement.
When evaluating modern innovation and concept testing platforms, organizations increasingly look for a combination of flexibility, speed, transparency, and predictive confidence.
In this final discussion, Steph shares what stood out about Cambri’s approach - particularly the ability to combine self-service flexibility with expert support, while grounding AI-powered concept evaluation in real-world sales and commercial data. The conversation also explores the importance of trust, explainability, and maintaining visibility into the learning process behind AI-driven recommendations.
A huge thank you again to Steph Garland and the Absolute Collagen team for openly sharing their perspectives and experiences.
These conversations highlight many of the broader themes currently shaping innovation and insights across FMCG and CPG - including the shift toward faster learning cycles, more iterative development processes, AI-powered concept evaluation, and the growing importance of combining intuition with evidence-based decision-making.
If you are an Insights or Innovation leader, we would love to hear your perspectives: