My Pet Project: There’s testing, and then there’s TESTING.
Some of you know that I have been working on a package good product launch for a long time now. For those who don’t, it’s essentially a new take on a commodity in a fairly niche, but hugely lucrative and growing category. For the purposes of this blog and ongoing story, we’ll call it “My Pet Project."
A critical factor in our success and our brand’s DNA is design. Great design always connects with people. To truly connect with consumers, we need to have a deep understanding of people and how they make sense of their world. All of our branding, experience design and point of purchase elements tell a story. And we’re keen to nail that story from day one.
Until now, our “focus group” has been us (the founders) and our friends and family. To call it testing would be appropriate, but a huge overstatement in terms of scientific approach and findings. We’re in a place where we need to go into testing to advance the design. So we’re looking at the usual suspects – focus groups, digital ethnographies, etc. Each presents different benefits and challenges like travel and expense.
The process has been enlightening and truly interesting. BTW, I have done research and focus groups for clients and brands in the past. However, there is something quite different about doing it for yourself and your brand…perhaps a general sense of ‘real’ ownership and entrepreneurial spirit. Here are some of the things I have been thinking about and re-learning. Maybe they’ll be useful to you…
1. Define the real problem – what are the right things to test and uncover? This will really matter when writing your brief.
2. Find the right people – picking the right group of people to talk to is tricky business. So, who are the best people to enlighten you – users, influencers? You can’t talk to everyone...there’s always an opportunity cost.
3. Get good data – what’s the game plan? What questions are you going to ask? Make sure that respondents have chance to share some qualitative stuff with you as well. Meaningful insights don’t fall into your lap. Be patient. Unless you have endless amounts of money, you have one go at this…so, collect as much info as possible.
4. Analyze and interpret opportunities - Don’t underestimate how long this takes! The outcome is super-critical. It will drive thinking, action and next steps for things like design and user experience. Good analysis is more than just mere observation…
