Before a product is launched, concept testing is key. It will significantly increase the odds of success of a product. Concept testing simply means testing a new product or idea with its target audience. This will be costly at the beginning for your business, but in the long run, it will save you money. Since nothing final is being tested, only concepts, the ideas rejected by the target audience can be removed immediately to avoid going down that road. Ultimately, concept testing aims to focus a business’ efforts on the right ideas to launch instead of ones that won’t succeed. This is why it’s important to know the best practices for concept testing, these will give you the best information to further your business.
The 6 Best Practices for Concept Testing are
- Make a difference between a minor update and an entirely new product
- Make the testing process continuous
- Compare concept testing results of previous findings with current ones
- Survey design must be straightforward
- Choosing the most suitable format to present your concepts
- If a concept doesn’t do well right off the bat, it doesn’t mean it won’t do well later
1. Make a difference between a minor update and an entirely new product
Concept testing should be done for everything in a product, from minor changes in its price or features, to launching a new product. Identifying which elements are new and which ones already exist helps businesses focus on what features define the product and choosing optimal testing methods for them. This will give insight into which concepts are riskier and will need more time to develop.
2. Make the testing process continuous
Businesses should invest in ongoing concept testing processes. It’s important to avoid testing occasionally and do it continuously. Every change in the product must have the feedback of the consumer. And every concept must be tested with the target audience. This translates into ongoing data that will help your products keep up with their wants and needs.
3. Compare concept testing results of previous findings with current ones
Comparing data helps businesses develop standards for target audience approval. Previous findings hold information that can apply to pricing, branding, and baseline features. This method also helps determine which concept testing methods are best and which need improving.
4. Survey design must be straightforward
Surveys should be user-friendly. It’s important that they’re simple and easy to fill out. Using Likert scales, for example, helps create a steady structure for concept testing surveys and makes it easier to go through results. With Likert Scales, respondents are supposed to mark their opinions in a 5-to-7-point scale that goes from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. This format is familiar to most people, which will make surveys easy to answer.
5. Choosing the most suitable format to present your concepts
It is extremely important that the product concepts are transmitted to the target audience in the clearest way possible. The consumers must understand the idea properly so when they answer questions or surveys about the product, they give correct answers as opposed to misinformed ones. The best way to get an audience to understand your concept is to choose the right media to convey it. For example, to show the functionality of a product you might want to use a video. But if you want to show the target audience the potential new packaging of a product in several colors, images would be enough.
6. If a concept doesn’t do well right off the bat, it doesn’t mean it won’t do well later.
Once you’re done with concept testing it’s worth revisiting the findings and asking yourself why some ideas didn’t do well. Is there anything that could be done to refine these ideas? Could the problem be this idea was presented to the wrong demographic? If you can answer these questions, you should consider adjusting your concepts and testing them again.
