How do you test your R&D ideas before investing too much?

2 Design Thinking Process

The design thinking process is a human-centered way of solving problems and generating ideas. It involves five stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. By empathizing with your users, you can understand their needs, pains, and goals. By defining the problem, you can frame it clearly and concisely. By ideating, you can generate multiple possible solutions and select the most promising ones. By prototyping, you can create low-fidelity models or mockups of your solutions. By testing, you can evaluate your prototypes with real users and collect feedback.

3 Experimentation Platforms

Experimentation platforms are online tools that allow you to run experiments and tests on your R&D ideas. They can help you measure various metrics, such as user behavior, engagement, conversion, retention, and satisfaction. Some examples of experimentation platforms are Optimizely, Google Optimize, and Unbounce. They can help you create different versions of your web pages, landing pages, or apps, and compare their performance with different audiences. Experimentation platforms can help you optimize your R&D ideas based on data and evidence.

4 Customer Interviews

Customer interviews are one of the most effective ways to test your R&D ideas and gain insights from your target market. They can help you validate your problem, solution, value proposition, and customer segments. Customer interviews are structured conversations where you ask open-ended questions and listen actively to your customers' responses. You can conduct customer interviews in person, over the phone, or online. The key is to ask the right questions, avoid leading or biased questions, and probe deeper into the underlying motivations and emotions of your customers.

5 Surveys and Questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires are another way to test your R&D ideas and collect feedback from a larger sample of customers. They can help you quantify your customer needs, preferences, and satisfaction. Surveys and questionnaires are usually composed of multiple-choice, rating, or ranking questions, as well as some open-ended questions. You can distribute them via email, social media, or online platforms, such as SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or Google Forms. The main challenges of surveys and questionnaires are to design them well, avoid response bias, and analyze the results.

6 User Testing

User testing is a method of testing your R&D ideas by observing how real users interact with your products or prototypes. User testing can help you identify usability issues, user feedback, and user satisfaction. User testing can be done in a lab, in the field, or remotely, using tools such as UserTesting, UsabilityHub, or Lookback. User testing can be moderated or unmoderated, depending on the level of guidance and interaction you want to provide to your users. User testing can help you improve your R&D ideas based on user behavior and feedback.