Strengthening market intelligence for product design
The Evidence Briefer & Transfer Portal, at proof-of-concept stage, consolidate and synthesize market intelligence evidence into accessible formats such as short briefers at crop and country level using AI and an online evidence submission platform.
Strengthening market intelligence for product design across CGIAR: Insights for co-creating of MI Evidence Briefer
As CGIAR advances toward more market-responsive breeding, recent consultations and concept development highlight the critical role of CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow’s Area of Work Market Intelligence (MI) in shaping product design and advancement decisions across CGIAR. Three major activities underscore the need for standardized evidence-based MI insights to guide Product Design Teams (PDTs) including national partners, target stakeholders, and private sectors:
- Key Informant Interviews (KII)
- The development of a proof-of-concept for an MI Evidence Briefer, a package of MI evidence generated by the upcoming MI Transfer Portal in the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP)
- A presentation in a Product Design Standard (PDS) Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.
Why Market Intelligence matters
Product design has evolved from breeder-driven decisions to transdisciplinary collaboration, involving economists, agronomists, gender specialists, nutritionists, and value chain actors. However, insights often remain fragmented across journal articles, reports, and webinars, making it difficult for Product Design Teams (PDTs) to timely access consolidated evidence during meetings. Without a standardized and harmonized baseline of real-time and forward-looking MI evidence, breeding programs risk designing products that fail to meet farmer, processor, and consumer needs, ultimately reducing potential adoption of future products.
The MI Evidence Briefer and MI Transfer Portal, both currently at proof-of-concept stage, aim to address this gap by consolidating and synthesizing MI evidence from various sources (i.e., MI briefs, reports, articles, datasets, webinars, and project-level outputs) into accessible formats such as short briefers at crop and country level using AI and an online evidence submission platform. Hosted through GloMIP, the MI Transfer Portal serves as a repository for these syntheses, enabling PDTs to make informed decisions on market segmentation, refining Target Product Profiles (TPPs), and prioritizing essential traits for improvement.
What we learned from holding national Product Design Team Meetings
Between September 15–26 2025, key informant interviews (KII) with CGIAR and partner experts revealed that decision making in national product design team (PDT) meetings crucially hinges on credible, concise snapshots of markets, geographies, constraints, and the current variety/trait landscape. Essential information includes:
- National priorities and production targets
- Market structure and end use
- Spatial distribution of production and constraints
- Current variety and trait gaps
Trusted data sources start with national statistics and FAO, complemented by private-sector insights and MI validation studies. Respondents emphasized that national PDT meeting workflows, from pre-meeting preparation to post-meeting consolidation, require harmonized data to ensure consistency and alignment of MI information from national partners and CGIAR, supporting the prioritization of market segments and TPPs. Aggregation of national market segments and TPPs to the regional level will be conducted during regional PDT meetings.
During the interviews, participants stressed the importance of actionable evidence. As one of the participants in KII explained:
“The most important evidence we can provide is real, up-to-date statistics, such as crop hectarage, production groups, and key challenges. Synthesizing data from literature and government sources helps us map issues like drought or disease by region, which is critical for guiding decisions.”
Building momentum in Nairobi
At the recent Product Design Standard (PDS) workshop in Nairobi, Kenya (November 26–27, 2025), participants collectively recognized the importance of making trait prioritization, positioning of current products, and decision-making more evidence-based using market intelligence. To support this, the GloMIP team introduced the MI Evidence Briefer proof-of-concept; a tool designed to consolidate key MI evidence to support PDTs in product design and advancement decisions across CGIAR and its partners. This marks a significant step toward harmonizing and embedding data-driven insights into breeding strategies.
Next steps
- Proof-of-Concept to Prototype: Refine the MI Evidence Briefer and MI Transfer Portal from proof-of-concept to a working prototype through controlled testing and user feedback, aiming for integration into future product design and advancement meetings.
- AI Integration for Crowdsourcing and Evidence Synthesis: Leverage AI to crowdsource and synthesize evidence, delivering both real-time and forward-looking, low-cost and actionable market intelligence to accelerate decision-making and support development of varieties that meet market demand.
- Populate evidence across crops and countries: Collaborate with MI colleagues, PDTs and CGIAR Centers to systematically gather and organize MI evidence across different crops and regions.
Acknowledgements
We extend our gratitude to all participants of the key informant interviews who shared their valuable insights during interviews, as well as the participants in the Nairobi PDS Workshop. Your expertise and collaboration are driving progress toward market-led breeding.
Call to action
We value your insights! Help us shape the future of market-led breeding by sharing your feedback on the MI Evidence Briefer proof-of-concept. Your input will help us co-develop a resource that works for all of us.
Link to complete the feedback form: https://forms.office.com/e/zzDNRvntVj?origin=lprLink
For more information about the MI Evidence Briefer, or to share feedback, please contact: Jhoanne Ynion (j.ynion@cgiar.org) or Neale Marvin Paguirigan (n.paguirigan@cgiar.org).
This work contributes to CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow Science Program, as part of its Market Intelligence Area of Work.
Written by Jhoanne Ynion, Neale Marvin Paguirigan, Ruvicyn Bayot, Matty Demont