lumni

Innovation Consultancy For Businesses

We provide Strategic Innovation Consulting to corporate teams & business owners

⚡️ Spot unexplored new revenue stream opportunities without reinventing your business

⚡️ Quickly validate early concepts with actual customers

⚡️ Launch market-ready, revenue-generating new products & services

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Validation Strategy For Founders

We provide MVP Validation Strategy for pre-seed & early-stage founders

⚡️ De-risk your idea, find Problem-Solution Fit, Solution-Market Fit, and early traction

⚡️ Gather investor-grade evidence for your pitch deck

⚡️ Strengthen your pitch storyline and credibility

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Fractional CPO For Startups

We provide Fractional CPO services and Product-Market Fit Acceleration for post-MVP teams

⚡️ Diagnose and fix what’s blocking your path to PMF

⚡️ Run targeted validation sprints to find your Product-Market Fit

⚡️ Improve UX, retention and value delivery for customers

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Hi 👋 I’m Daniela Navaes, a Fractional Product Leader & Innovation Consultant based in the UK.

With 16+ years experience in Entrepreneurship, Product & Service Design & Strategy, User Research, Branding, and Lean Startup Experimentation, I help businesses turn ideas and uncertainty into validated ventures.

Services

Validate your venture with confidence

Whether you’re launching new business, validating your startup idea, or chasing Product-Market-Fit, we’ll work together in a way that fits your goals, stage, and budget.

Product & Service Design Acceleration

👩‍💻 Fractional CPO
⚒️ Product/Service UX Audit
🗺️ Product Roadmapping
💎 Experimentation Results Analysis

Innovation & Validation Services

👩‍💻 Corporate Innovation Consulting
💰 Monetisation Strategy
😍 Desirability Validation
✨ Clarity & Direction Workshop
🧠 Design Thinking Facilitation
💡 Product & Service Ideation
⚠️ New Venture Risk Audit
🔍 Research Plan Review
🧪 Validation Sprint
🎯 Opportunity Mapping

User, Customer & Market Insights

👨‍🦱 Customer & Problem Discovery Sprint
📝 Survey Feedback Clinic
🔍 Competitor & Market Signals Review

Raising & Investment Support

📣 Pitch Deck Design Sprint
✅ Investment Readiness Assessment
📈 Evidence-building strategy for fundraising

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“I couldn’t have achieved this by myself”

“Daniela helped me to think outside of just my brand and we begun to see a thread across other influences which help to communicate the ideas I had in my head. I now feel clear of my branding direction and have a great document which I can refer to as I develop this further.”

Olivia Michaela
Founder of Olivia Michaela Flowers

“Effortless progress towards a clearer understanding”

“Working with Lumni Works has been effortless progress towards a clearer understanding of delivering value. Daniela coached us to revisit fundamental truths and translate this into new opportunities for user growth.“

Founder
Donup

“Uncomfortable in the best possible way”

I find this deck very insightful, useful and uncomfortable. And I mean that last one in the best possible way. Feeling uncomfortable is part of the nature of entrepreneurship, so being able to bring that up in a safe situation, and learn to sit with it is gold.

Sara Gonzalez
SY&Z

DIY Guides for Early-Stage Founders

⚡️ The Startup Quick Clarity Deck

A digital deck designed to help early-stage founders get clarity and make smarter decisions.

Go to product >>

👨‍🦱 The Problem-Solution Fit Playbook

Run end-to-end lean User Research sprints for customer discovery and solution evaluation.

Go to product >>

🦄 The Pitch Deck Makeover Kit

Storytelling techniques that turn dry slides into a story investors want to keep listening to.

Go to product >>

Check out my other DIY early startup guides here

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

Are you ready to make smarter moves?

Tell me a bit more about your goals so we can figure out how we can work together.

Let’s work together »

FAQs

❓ Why work with you instead of just building and seeing what happens?

You can absolutely build and see what happens! Many founders do this, and most end up failing spectacularly. The risk is that time, money, and effort become the experiment, rather than something you learn from intentionally.

I help founders and entrepreneurs slow down the right decisions and speed up the rest. We make assumptions explicit, design lean experiments to test what really matters, and turn messy signals into clear next steps BEFORE scaling, hiring, or fundraising.

The goal isn’t foolproof certainty, it’s reducing avoidable risks, spotting dead ends earlier, and building a business with evidence rather than hope.

❓Will this guarantee I get funding for my new venture?

No one can promise you’ll get funding (and if they do, run!). What I can help you with is building the clarity, evidence, and narrative that investors look for. You’ll leave with stronger validation, a sharper story, and more confidence in your conversations with investors.

❓How much does it cost?

I adapt my methods based on where you are financially, whether you’re bootstrapping on a tight budget or already have some investment to work with. Having said that, support can start for as little as £180.

My goal is to give you support that’s genuinely useful and moves you forward, without draining your resources. With me, you’ll always know what you’re getting, and we’ll make sure it fits your stage and budget.

❓ I’m just at the idea stage. Is this too early for me?

Quite the opposite! In fact, the earlier you start validating your ideas, the less time and money you waste building the wrong thing. Many of my clients come to me with just an idea and walk away with a clearer path forward.

❓ What if my idea fails validation?

That’s a big win! It means you saved months (or years) of effort chasing the wrong thing. And it doesn’t end there: we’ll work together to uncover what’s worth pursuing next.

❓ I’ve already done some validation. Will this still help me?

Yes. We can build on what you’ve already done, spot the gaps, and take your evidence to the next level, so you feel confident talking to investors and partners.

❓ But isn’t talking to customers pointless? Didn’t Henry Ford say “they’d just ask for faster horses”?

This quote gets thrown around a lot, but it’s often misunderstood. The point of customer conversations isn’t to ask people what they want, or to design your product for you. Customers may not know the solution, but they do know their struggles, needs, and desires better than anyone.

When Ford’s customers said “faster horses,” what they were really saying was: “I want to get from A to B faster”. That’s the gold! Your job as a founder is to listen for the underlying need—the why behind their words—and then create the best solution.

Talking to customers helps you uncover those insights so you don’t waste time building the wrong thing.

❓ Can you teach me how to talk to customers?

Talking to customers is one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a founder—and yes, I can help you get really good at it!

Most founders feel nervous about customer conversations, either because they don’t know what to ask, or they’re worried about biasing the answers. I’ll guide you step by step on how to run effective discovery interviews: from crafting non-leading questions, to structuring conversations that uncover real needs (not just polite opinions).

Or you can get started with my DIY guide 👨‍🦱 The Problem-Solution Fit Playbook.

❓ Do I need a product already?

No, you don’t need a finished product to start testing your idea or creating investor-ready evidence. We’ll design experiments and tools that work at your stage.

❓ What if I already have a pitch deck?

Great! Then we can stress-test it together. We’ll make sure your story resonates, your ideas are backed up, and your deck positions you as credible and fundable.

❓ How much time will this take?

That depends on your needs and how far you want to go. Some founders only need a single focused workshop, others prefer ongoing support over a few weeks or months, or even longer. Either way, you’ll see clarity and momentum from day one.

❓ Do you work with other types of businesses or only founders and startups?

Yes, I work with all types of businesses that are trying to launch something new, whether you are a startup or an established business.

I also facilitate workshops for startup accelerators and teams.

If you’re a startup accelerator or incubator running a programme and want your founders to learn validation and evidence gathering skills, reach out to me on LinkedIn.