How to screen 20–40 ideas in a single survey — without overwhelming respondents

Why you don’t need focus groups to narrow a large set of ideas — and how to do it quickly, cleanly and reliably.

Innovation teams often begin with a long list of ideas — sometimes 20, sometimes 40, sometimes more.
Traditionally, this gets handed to focus groups for an early “read”.

But a group of 8–12 people is a very small filter.
And because it’s live, rushed and social, people often give polite, safe opinions.

In reality, a well-designed survey can screen a large set of ideas more honestly, more reliably, and much faster.

Here’s how — and why it works.

People can react to far more ideas than researchers assume

Showing respondents 20–40 ideas only becomes overwhelming when:

ideas are long
concepts are densely written
each one requires detailed evaluation
respondents must read paragraphs of text

The issue isn’t the number of ideas.
It’s the format.

If the stimulus is short, and the task is simple, people can react comfortably.

The key is shortening the stimulus

Most early-stage ideas can be expressed in a single sentence or short phrase.

For example:

“A pesto made with British-grown basil.”
“A breakfast bar with only 3 ingredients.”
“A deodorant refill system that uses 90% less plastic.”

Respondents can understand these instantly.
Instant understanding produces true first impressions, not constructed reasoning.

Short ideas also avoid unintentionally leading people.
You test the idea, not the copywriting.

Use simple, repeated tasks

To screen a long list of ideas, you don’t need complex exercises.
Just one clean task, repeated.

For example:

“What’s your first reaction to this idea?” (short open-end)
“Does this interest you?” (Yes / No)
“Which three ideas feel strongest so far?” (occasional selection)

When the task is simple, respondents build a rhythm — answering quickly, naturally and without strain.

You get a broader, more reliable filter

Instead of just a few people giving socially filtered opinions, you may have 50–100 people giving:

unprompted reactions
no groupthink
no loud voices
no politeness bias
no social pressure
more diversity of thought

It’s a truer filter.
If an idea survives this stage, it’s worth developing.

The takeaway

You don’t need focus groups to narrow a long list of ideas.
Once the stimulus is short and the task is simple, people can easily react to 20–40 ideas — and their answers will be clearer, faster and more honest than in a group room.

This is exactly how our Depth Surveys work: short stimulus, simple tasks and thoughtful open-ended answers, at a scale groups can’t match.