EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This project with Creatum GmbH brings powerful trend spotting to small and medium-sized businesses. We enhanced their current approach that builds on Microsoft Azure by enriching their data sources and deliver visual insights about what’s coming next in the market. By combining fast-moving public sources like Google Trends with deeper research in patents and academic papers, our tool helps users see both early signals and long-term shifts. Every insight is linked back to its original source, so decision-makers can trust what they see and act on it quickly.

Goal

Our aim was simple: give small and medium-sized businesses a way to spot and follow new trends before they hit the mainstream, all in one easy-to-use platform. We built a tiered pricing system starting with a basic model and, if needed, a premium model which adds high-quality sources for deeper research. Inside the tool, AI writes short summaries, shows key numbers, and points out what each trend means for the user’s company. This way, teams don’t need data scientists or expensive consultants to make smart, timely decisions.

Methodology

We began by talking to experts and reached out to 650 businesses in the DACH-region and conducted 17 interviews to learn their worries about data quality and trust. From those insights, we defined clear user needs and created three example profiles to guide our design. In workshops, we sketched several ideas and chose the best ones based on customer value and technical fit. Next, we worked on our deliverables: practical advice for catching weak signals, a plan for adding data sources in stages, and a clickable, working prototype. The prototype was tested and refined with feedback from experts.

Results

The final Trend Radar offers a two-path approach: quick insights from public sources for near-term signals and deeper analysis from custom-trained models on research databases for long-term trends. Users start with free data, then upgrade to paid sources if they want more detail. The heart of the tool is the Trend Deep-Dive Page, where you get a clear summary, live charts, tailored advice, and an AI helper, all with links back to the original data. This setup turns scattered information into a reliable guide for making decisions.

Cooperation Partner

• Creatum GmbH, based in Hamburg, Germany (https://creatum.online), provided data, feedback, and know-how throughout the project. 

Contact Person

• Immo Brüggemann, Managing Director at Creatum GmbH (immo.brueggemann@creatum.io). 

Student Team

• Nils Schönkaes

• Sebastian Leuck

• Viktor Gehringer

• Maximilian Monsberger

• Noah Stark

Project Manager

• Dr. Andrew Isaak

• Dr. Dorothee Horvath