Validate ideas before they hit the market with Concept Testing

Imagine if you could understand how successful a product idea might be before you have built it.?

Whether it’s a product, feature, or even a change: Spending loads building without understanding how your idea resonates with your target audience is risky.?

Concept testing serves as a critical checkpoint in product development, allowing businesses to evaluate and refine their ideas before full-scale production.

What is Concept Testing

Concept Testing involves presenting your product idea to a sample of your target audience to analyse their reactions.?

This process can involve showing images, product descriptions, or even prototypes. The goal is to understand the consumer’s perception, interest, and the likelihood of purchase, allowing you to refine your concept before investing heavily in development and marketing.

This process is vital for several reasons:

Reduces risk: By testing concepts early, you can identify potential issues or areas for improvement, minimising the risk of product failure.

Saves resources: Concept testing helps you avoid costly mistakes by ensuring that only the most promising ideas move forward in the development process.

Enhances market fit: Through feedback, you can tailor your product to better meet consumer needs and preferences, increasing the likelihood of success.

Encourages innovation: It provides a safe space to explore ideas and explore their potential impact.

Best Practices for effective Concept Testing

1. Start as early as possible: You can’t test too early, but you can test too late. The longer you leave it the more an assumption will cost you and the more committed your organisation will be to a solution that doesn’t work. I’ve had situations where I’m testing an idea half an hour after the workshop that generated it. With as little as post-it notes or photos of a whiteboard sketch. High resolution is great for accuracy, but often with concept testing we just need to make sure we’re in the right ballpark.
2. Define clear objectives: To conduct effective Concept Testing, it’s important to define clear objectives. What do you want to learn? Are you testing for desirability, feasibility, or usability? Once your goals are set, select your target audience carefully to ensure that the feedback you receive is relevant.
3. Select the right participants: The success of your test depends on the quality of the feedback. It's essential to select participants who represent your target audience. Their feedback will be more relevant and provide insights that are directly applicable to the final product.
4. Iterate and refine: Concept testing doesn't need to be a one-time activity. If you consider it as an iterative process, you can continuously refine the concept based on feedback and test it again, as much as needed. This continuous cycle of testing and improvement ensures that the final product is well-tuned to user needs.
5. Analyse data thoroughly: Collecting data is only half the battle; analysing it effectively is crucial. Look for patterns and common themes in the feedback.?

Approaches for Concept Testing

There are several ways of doing concept testing, each suited to different stages of the design process and types of concepts being tested. Here are a few commonly used approaches:

Surveys: These are great for gathering quantitative data. They allow you to reach a broad audience and collect numerical ratings that can be easily analysed.

Focus groups: These provide qualitative insights through group discussions. They help in understanding the ‘why’ behind consumer opinions.

Prototypes: Offering a prototype can give consumers a more realistic experience of the product, leading to more accurate feedback.

Don’t ask “would you use this?”

Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” We don’t ask people “would you use this” or “do you like this” for several reasons:

Inaccurate predictions: It is hard for people to accurately predict what they might do in real situations. A product might look great, but when it’s their money, they are comparing other solutions, or other more intangible factors means, they don't really know if they would do in real life.

Demand characteristics: In short, this means that the participant being aware of what you as the researcher are investigating which biases their behaviour, often to try and please you. (something about how the participant should view you as being unbiased about the solution).

Zero-risk responses: In these situations there is no risk for the participant being wrong. We’re not actually selling them a solution, or asking them to invest in real terms.?

How to discover the true needs

There is a famous (though perhaps apocryphal) story about Sony testing a new walkman. They wanted to know which colours to sell it in. They brought a group of participants in and showed them the different options and everyone got excited about the bright yellow device. On the way out participants were told to take one as a thank you…?

…They all took the black walkman.

This is often held up as an example of ‘don’t ask, show’ in user research. Look at what people do rather than what they say.

Daniel Pidcock had talked about a similar situation when he was designing the menu for Just Eat: 'Actual usability VS perception of usability’

Instead of asking “Would you use this?”, focus on understanding the problem your product aims to solve.

• Does the problem exist?
• How painful is this problem?
• Does your solution solve it?
• How does it compare to other solutions?

Jobs To Be Done is a powerful framework for identifying the core customer needs and what an ideal solution might look like. According to Tony Ulwick it can:

• Determine which needs are unmet
• Discover segments of customers with unique sets of unmet needs
• Systematically conceptualise breakthrough products
• Predict which new concepts and offerings will win in the marketplace
• Align the actions of marketing, development, and R&D to orchestrate the systematic creation of customer value

At Glean.ly, when we have done this type of research for companies that need a repository solution we assumed our competitors would be the likes of Dovetail and EnjoyHQ. Actually we found that it was more likely Excel or Confluence, or simply PDF reports. Even those with a repository tool were only using them for analysis rather than storage and insight distribution.

This is great because we can play nicely with those great tools knowing they are focused on a different part of the research journey.

Tools for Concept Testing

Speaking of great tools: We like to recommend Helio as the go-to for Concept Testing.?

It is a versatile platform that simplifies the whole process, making it accessible to teams of all sizes. You can run tests for memory, comprehension, sentiment, click tests, yes/no (success) tests, and a number of other types of concept tests. All designed to get you and your team actionable data.

For more insights on how to conduct Concept Testing effectively, explore Helio’s article about this subject and see how it can transform your product development strategy.

Conclusion

By validating ideas early and often, teams can create products that truly resonate with users. It reduces the risk of product failure, fosters user-centered design, and leads to more informed decision-making.?

In the competitive landscape of digital products, Concept Testing can be the difference between a successful launch and a costly misstep. As the saying goes: "Test early, test often".

Once you're done with all the tests, don’t forget to import your findings to your Glean.ly repository to synthesise, combine with other knowledge, and share with the wider organisation.