Creating a new product is no easy task. It’s also something that you can’t expect to be a quick process if it’s going to be successful. There are many stages to product development, each one is vital to the overall success of a product. In this article, we’ll be focusing on concept testing, the stage that directly follows the first main creative process of product development. Taking your time with concept testing research is key, as you want to make sure you’ve put the right parameters in place for the process to accurately show you how the market is likely to react to your product launch.
First things first, is to collate everything that has been learnt from the creative process. This normally has gone through two different processes so far, idea generation, and idea screening. The latter of these two processes is trying to narrow down the potential features of a new product, preferably to the point where there is one clearly defined concept. If, when collating, it seems there isn’t a singular harmonious idea to present to the public for concept testing, don’t panic. Instead, design the concept test into trying to narrow down a specific concept based on public feedback. There’s always the option to have two rounds of concept testing. One which narrows it down to a singular concept, and one that helps flesh out that specific concept.
Secondly, take your time preparing questions for your survey. Make sure to remove any mention of your brand/company in this process as you want unbiased feedback, if this process is going to be worthwhile at all. Check out some methods too, on how to generally remove bias from the questioning and structures of surveys.
Finally, time needs to be taken to make sure an adequate size and representation of the public are being surveyed. If you have a key target market in mind, make sure the majority of those being surveyed represent this. You want some variation though, as you want to try and see other avenues of expansion outside that target market. Meanwhile, if your new product idea is more for the general market, or your creative process couldn’t designate a particular target market, then you need an accurate representation of the population. So firstly, ask yourself what the scope is for the new product; local, national, or international. Then make sure that those being surveyed represent the demographics of this area.
