Which technique is used during the product development to determine how people respond to the product?
What is a concept testing survey?It’s a tough job to manage the launch of your company’s products and services. You’re already facing several statistics that paint a grim picture of the reality of product launches: Show
Under this pressure, you want to make sure your product connects with your customer before it goes to market. By doing the right product research, you’re checking that your assumptions about your customer are correct. Product concept testing is an early market research method that maximizes the odds of you launching a product or service that people want to buy. You explore the viability of a product or service with its target audience early on and improve its development from the feedback. Free eBook: Introduction to product concept testing What concept testing is notConcept testing is not a replacement for the ideation phase of a development cycle. Instead, it tests the basic idea that comes out of the ideation phase – whether it is fully formed or not. In this way, your target audience might vary as the product idea develops. It’s also different from brand testing, advertising, or marketing campaigns – these promote the product or service when it’s near-complete or fully developed. For more information on concept testing methods and making an effective concept testing survey, read our eBook: Introduction to Product Concept Testing How concept testing fits into market researchTraditional market research requires audiences to choose from a company’s predefined criteria to provide their feedback. It is one-way and ends when the company gets the answers they want. Concept testing is different. It’s based on listening to the audience’s views and exploring how viable the concept is for them – without bias. You get their direct feedback on what they want, which might shed light on your blind spots. It’s an open learning process that goes both ways – you can continue to engage with the same target audience to get their take on your product developments as they happen. It’s also a way to show good Experience Management. At a product launch, your brand’s perceived value and the strength of your offering are directly linked to your profit and loss. Likewise, a disappointing loss can hurt internal staff morale, investor relationships, and future business ventures. Special Event: The 3 steps of product concept testing What are the benefits of concept testing?
– Bain & Company Based on its uses in the market, there are two main benefits of concept testing: 1. Leaders have actionable insights to make the right decisions Mistakes and do-overs are costly, so it’s important to utilize research and insights from your audience(s) to make the right decisions. Concept testing provides the granularity and depth researchers, managers and leaders need to make the right choices. 2. It helps you gain support for the concept at an early stage If your plan for a product or service requires a lot of input from senior leaders or colleagues, providing them with a ‘first look’ at evidence can speed up the process and show the potential of the work they’ll be helping with. When a team is confident, there is more support and willingness to go the extra mile for you. An essential tool for product managers and executivesWhy is this an essential tool for product managers and senior executives? 1. Concept testing can be a cost-effective and flexible solutionYou can set up a simple and quick survey if you want high-level feedback, or you can delve deeper to understand more detail. Concept testing is also a great money-saving technique as it prevents launching a faulty concept. And in comparison with the cost of outsourcing to external market research programs, research for an internal concept testing project is cheaper. 2. Concept testing can help you optimize the product or serviceThe insights are evidence that can make you feel empowered to act with authority. You can uncover or identify information that will have a true impact on your product development process decisions. A few examples are:
You can also test multiple concepts at the same time to see which works best at solving your customer’s problem. If a product concept doesn’t work, invest in the ones that do make a difference. 3. Concept testing acts as a quality-assurance check over timeIt’s common for there to be several rounds of concept testing, allowing product managers to check in with target audiences and optimize the offering. Vary your audience to get different insights. You can use the same target audience for reflections on your improvements, or a new target market to get fresh insights on your design and developments. Concept testing programs also lay the foundations for future benchmarks. Ideas that satisfy key criteria and land well with your audience can be used as barometers for new and/or similar concepts. 4. Research can help you build up good customer relationshipsYou can build brand and customer loyalty (find out more about customer loyalty) and increase your brand equity value, by including your potential customers in the concept’s design and development. As a brand, you look transparent and open to innovation. It’s also a great way to show you value the opinions of your customers. In addition to this, you should include a broader sample to understand if and how your concept appeals to wider audiences — you don’t want to innovate for just your current customers. 5. Companies that product concept test can avoid costly consequencesIn 1957, Ford spent the equivalent of $3.1 billion on the “car of the future,” the Ford Edsel. While Ford conducted consumer polls, they failed to implement feedback and many of the touted new features were unreliable. Coors made a similar blunder when they attempted to enter the bottled water market in 1990. The packaging and branding of Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water were similar to Coors beer, which frightened many of Coors’ target demographic. Three examples of successful concept testsSome brands have leveraged the testing process to make decisions that have tremendous payoffs. They can cover lots of areas, including:
A few examples include:
How do you conduct a concept test?We’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you create the best concept tests for your products and services. We cover these topics:
Or, you can also identify your most promising product concepts using our Concept Testing Tool. It’s an expert solution that tests and reveals what people think of your company’s concept ideas. Step 1. Choose the right concept test survey methodologyFor a successful concept test, in the early stages, consider which methodology will best fit your needs. Some of the most common survey methodologies include:
Each product testing methodology comes with its own positive and negative trade-offs. Get a closer look at our pros and cons table below, here. Free eBook: Introduction to product concept testing Step 2. Choose the right survey components for your concept testConcept tests can easily be constructed once the researcher has determined the key components for the survey (which vary according to your purpose). Carefully consider the objectives of your concept testing to make sure the measures used will successfully answer your team’s questions. The major components needed for a concept test:
Components for detailed concept analysis evaluation
Components for use situation evaluation
Components for value analysis
Component for segmentation analysis
Step 3. Choose the right flow for your concept testThe flow of your concept test survey ensures that audiences understand and buy into the survey they’re taking. In the introduction section, make sure to introduce your survey in clear language. Qualify the respondent with a few suitability questions to make sure they fit your audience preference. Ask demographic questions to give the respondent initial easy-to-answer questions to get them started (you can use the results to also filter your results later). Next: The main section. Here you can start to add in the core survey questions. For example: Establish a baseline of respondent’s buying history
Introduce the conceptEvaluate the concept as a whole
Explore the concept’s attributes
Compare the concept
Ask about respondent’s buying response now
End the survey by thanking the respondent. You could also use this opportunity to remind them that their data will be stored securely, and it’s only accessed by the research team. Check out one example of a concept testing survey below. You can access this template for free, and begin using it immediately here. Step 4. Identify the most promising conceptWhen you carry out concept testing, you’ll receive a lot of data back. If you’re using a turn-key system like the Qualtrics Concept Testing Tool, you can pre-assemble data together quickly into reports. If you’re sorting the data by hand, use spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel to begin to sort, filter, compare and pivot-chart your results. You can also try to pull information into a visual format with the in-built charting tools. We recommend splitting your analysis into two sections:
Where qualitative analysis for open-ended questions has been captured, try parsing out common themes, strengths, and weaknesses. Using a tool like Qualtrics Text iQ can make this analysis quicker. Concept testing common mistakes and how to rectify themSome common mistakes when creating your concept tests are: Mistake #1: Running concept testing on an idea in isolationYou might choose to run a test to get your initial insights, but then you stop there. This might provide you with the answers you wanted, but you may be missing out on the full benefit of comparing research data over time. Solution: In advance, think about what you’re measuring and how you’ll use that information when you get it. This might direct you to use a different methodology or suggest whether you need to repeat the exercise to see if your product’s development is on the right track. Mistake #2: Over-stuffing lots of ideas into one concept test surveyYou may want to use the tool to compare lots of ideas in one survey and ask a long list of questions for each, to save time. Even if you explain this in the introduction, it could make your target audience’s experience long, tiring, and confusing. Solution: It’s important to respect the time and energy of the targeted audience. For one idea, use the Monadic approach, which goes into depth on a single idea. For multiple ideas, try using multiple surveys that explore one idea each, and think about how many survey questions are reasonable to ask. This way, your target audience is clear about the focus of the survey and more likely to finish them. Mistake #3: If you don’t get the answers you wanted in the concept test, you automatically cancel the ideaYou find out that there is no demand or interest for your product ideas with your target audience. That could be a reason to stop investing your time and energy into the product’s development. However, this may be short-sighted as there may be potential profit in changing it. Solution: The purpose of the research is to see what target customers think and feel about the idea. If it’s negative, then it could mean that the target audience is not interested at this time, or they are not the right audience. You may find more by testing more widely or trying again after some time. A bad result doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. This is also where an early adopter question is useful — especially if you feel your new concept is ahead of its time or the market. Mistake #4: You assume the audience thinks like you doYou’ve got an in-depth understanding of the product idea, and you want to share this in the survey introduction. You may also want to share marketing and brand ideas now, as you’ve been thinking of them already. Solution: Avoid using technical jargon or acronyms that won’t be immediately understood by your audience. They can be intimidating and confusing for survey participants. Also, avoid making a strong marketing pitch. Adding this information now can suggest the idea is set in stone – remember that marketing and brand activities come in at a later stage when the idea is close to or fully formed and you don’t want to prevent getting honest feedback. Mistake #5: You don’t adjust the survey to cater to all geographiesYou may have an audience you haven’t considered. Trial your test in different countries to avoid missing out on expanding your product idea’s reach. Solution: Where you want to widen your audience pool, consider translating the survey into the native language. In addition, you can use images as survey answers, displaying them together to see which is preferred. Learn more about concept testingAs we’ve seen, concept testing is more than getting feedback using a Likert scale. It involves considering the methodology, components, and flow of your survey for maximum impact. It can be tricky to do and lots of companies are looking for support. Here are a few customers that turned to Qualtrics with their concept testing issues, and here’s how we helped them:
When concept testing is done right, it saves a lot of time, money, and energy. Most importantly, this essential, money-saving tool lets you know you’re on the right track and gives you the insights you need to move forward with confidence. Which technique is used during the product development?There are four main tools for development of products viz., standardization, simplification, specialization and diversification. All these have a direct relation with production process and the acceptability of the product in market.
What are the 4 types of product development processes?The 4 stages of product development are as follows – R&D, Growth, Maturation, and Decline. These may be difficult to map out correctly, but over time when you scale a product you can get a better idea about the stage, it's in.
How can we determine that your product is accepted in the market?Here are seven ways to determine if your product will be successful before you invest in everything to perfect and sell it:. Do a test. ... . Talk to potential customers. ... . Ask people to buy now. ... . Do some research. ... . Remain positive. ... . Become the customer. ... . Identify your market.. What are the 5 stages of product development?Five phases guide the new product development process for small businesses: idea generation, screening, concept development, product development and, finally, commercialization.. Phase One: Idea Generation. ... . Phase Two: Screening. ... . Phase Three: Concept Development. ... . Phase Four: Product Development.. |