Advanced Concept Testing Approaches To Guide Product Development and Business Decisions
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Concept testing is crucial before product development to validate market need but is underutilized in UX research.
-
•
Three types of concept testing address different questions: what a product does, why users should care, and how to communicate benefits.
-
•
Monadic, sequential, and trade-off testing methods offer varying cost, complexity, and discrimination power trade-offs.
-
•
Trade-off techniques like MaxDiff and conjoint analysis provide stronger discrimination and work well across cultures.
-
•
Combining qualitative research before and after quantitative concept testing improves hypothesis formulation and insights interpretation.
-
•
Including pricing in concept tests impacts user responses and business decisions significantly.
-
•
Brand presence in tests alters multiple metrics, requiring strategic decisions on branded vs. blind studies.
-
•
Online scrappy tests like A/B experiments capture behavior but lack insight into motivations and messaging impact.
-
•
Concept testing helps bridge the gap between UX discovery and business outcomes, strengthening business cases for UX research.
-
•
Expertise is needed to design and analyze complex trade-off tests; partnering with specialized researchers can maximize value.
Notable Quotes
"Concept testing is about testing ideas before development to confirm there is a real need for the product."
"UX researchers tend to focus on the experience after features are approved, missing the chance to validate earlier."
"People care not about product features but what these features do for them."
"Showing several concepts side by side and forcing choices yields better discrimination than rating scales."
"Qualitative research is excellent for discovering needs but poor at quantifying their scale or priority."
"If you have limited resources, start with a simple monadic test using low-cost survey tools."
"MaxDiff is great for prioritizing feature backlogs, especially when you have long lists to evaluate."
"Testing price effects requires careful design because user behavior can be irrational when prices are shown or hidden."
"No research method is perfect; use a mix and triangulate results depending on whether you want to predict or explain."
"When you start concept testing, be clear about what parts of the concept describe the what, the why, and the how."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If you don’t feel connected and you’re standing alone, the challenge looks much bigger."
Marc Fonteijn Ru ButlerIncrease your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
December 3, 2024
"Climate tech means always learning more; the world is learning so much every year."
Dem Gerolemou Alexis Oh Neef RehmanClimate technology fundamentals
May 15, 2024
"Mobile users gave Amazon a higher Net Promoter Score than desktop users, indicating a better mobile experience."
Daniela Magaña Flores Ariane Rahn Jeff Ephraim BanderAhead of Competition: Learn What UX Benchmarking Can Do for Your Business Today
March 10, 2022
"I met with my partners and leaders to really dig into their hopes, fears, and dreams about where they wanted to go."
Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaScaling UX Past the Size of Your Team
January 8, 2024
"We created a tiers of support model so even low priority projects get some level of guidance, even if just a 45-minute consultation."
Patrick CommarfordDesign Staffing for Impact
January 8, 2024
"Data sovereignty is about who owns your data, which country’s laws apply, and how vulnerable groups are fairly protected."
Xenia Adjoubei Sean BruceEmpowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
March 29, 2023
"Doing nothing is not a neutral act. Ignorance may be bliss, but it doesn’t absolve you from responsibility."
Craig VillamorDesign Systems for Ethical Design
January 26, 2023
"The missing hub is the design planning and management tool."
Jon Fukuda Ellie KryslDesign Planning and Management Support
October 3, 2023
"Business language is for communication. We use it to explain why user centricity matters to broader audiences."
Iain McMaster IHan ChengDesign and Product: from Frenemy to Harmony
November 29, 2023
