Getting a head start: How McDonald’s uses historic data to design its next great product

From McFlurries to celebrities’ favorite meals, McDonald’s is the leading innovator in QSR. But before firing up its test kitchens, McDonald’s looks to its “secret sauce” to ideate on its next great product offering.

McDonald’s partnered with Zappi’s concept-testing solution to establish a research system that unlocks fast iteration at different stages of the development process. Because of its systems-led approach, McDonald’s took its innovation process one step further: the brand can use historic data to “predict” what will matter to consumers and use this to design its next great product.

Here’s how:

Dynamic benchmarking: a consistent tagging taxonomy enables McDonald’s to tap into meta-analysis of past innovations – across products, regions, demographics – to proactively identify high-performing concepts. By seeing meta-analyses of product features that perform well, McDonald’s can start every new innovation process with an in-depth understanding of the trends in consumer preference.

A systems approach to up-level insights teams: Because of its systems-led approach, McDonald’s enables its insights teams to spend less time managing projects and more time influencing consumer-centered product ideas and serving as strategic consultants to the business.

In this talk, McDonald’s and Zappi will discuss how their partnership enabled the brand to become more agile and increase ROI on new product innovation. The speakers will discuss case studies of this approach in action and deliver an actionable framework for how to build a systems-led approach to product innovation.

Key Takeaways:

1. Harnessing historic data for predictive innovation: Explore how McDonald’s utilizes historic data to predict consumer preferences, facilitating informed decision-making and staying ahead of market trends.
2. Dynamic benchmarking for proactive concept identification: Understand McDonald’s use of consistent tagging for analyzing past innovations, enabling proactive identification of successful concepts for new product development.
3. Empowering insights teams with a systems-led approach: Discover how McDonald’s implements change management and systematization to transform insights teams, fostering a focus on consumer-centered ideas and enhancing ROI on new product innovation.