A successful product creation begins with a concept test or CustDev survey. This survey is designed to understand customer expectations, evaluate the viability of an idea and determine the ROI of the project before wasting time and resources. 

CustDev survey helps companies or startups get feedback on a product, service, or feature. In the test, the respondent is presented with an idea and asked a series of questions to evaluate interest, likelihood of purchase, and strengths and weaknesses of the proposal. Data analysis aids in making effective decisions towards reaching the goal.

A few recommendations will help you to examine the concept correctly and develop the product in the best way possible.

Determine survey purpose

Creating an online survey begins with defining its purpose. Select elements of the future product you want to evaluate in a CustDev survey. It can be design elements or product features. By reducing the number of elements, the testing process will become easier and smoother.

Determine survey target audience

Each product has its audience. If the sample is too wide, survey results will be corrupted by non-targeted respondents, and vice versa. If reducing sample size, you won’t get the whole spectrum of potential customers’ opinions and will lose some valuable insights.

The trickiness of creating a new product is that no one knows for sure who will buy it. That’s why the most reasonable strategy is to survey respondents who have already faced the problem your product solves and used alternative solutions. This audience will be the source of most valuable insights for product development.

Select survey methodology

Depending on the number of concepts and testing methods one of the four methodologies might be used.

Monadic test. In this case respondents evaluate only one concept at a time. To evaluate multiple concepts researchers use the A/B test feature. Sample is divided into equal parts according to the number of concepts, each group of respondents evaluate only one concept at a time.

Sequential monadic test. Respondents evaluate several concepts one by one. Concepts are presented in random order to reduce the priming effect (exposure to one stimulus may influence a response to a subsequent stimulus).

Comparative test. Respondents are shown several concepts and asked to choose the best one.

Comparative monadic test. Respondents choose the best concept out of several options and thoroughly evaluate it.

Make a comprehensive presentation of idea 

Data quality mostly depends on a concept presentation. It should be described in a simple and easily understood manner for respondents to give relevant feedback and properly evaluate ideas.

Put yourself in the respondent’s shoes to make sure you provide all important details to make conscious buying decisions. If data isn’t enough, the chances are the concept isn’t ready for testing yet.

Images, audio, video, scenario and detailed description help to present the idea to respondents. It’s also important to describe concept objectively, so the positive biases of the project’s author won’t affect respondents’ answers.

Vary question types

Use different types of questions to obtain more accurate answers.

Ask single choice questions 

This question type is used to evaluate overall product appealing and the likelihood of target action. 

How much do you like concept name?

• Really like it
• Rather like it
• Rather don’t like it
• Don’t like it at all

How likely are you to buy a product concept name for $ххх?

• Definitely
• Very Probably
• Probably
• Possibly
• Probably Not
• Definitely Not

Ask open-ended questions

Answers to open-ended questions provide insights into motives and feelings of respondents. Lack of answer options let them freely share their emotions and thoughts.

When looking at the description of concept name, what association, plots, or images come to mind?

field for entering answer

That’s how you can obtain the initial reaction, associations, and emotions that the concept evokes. It gives you a hint of how to develop your project.

Open-ended questions also may be used to clarify previous answers.

Respondents who like the concept may be asked what exactly appeals to them.

What do you like the most about concept name?

Follow-up questions give a thorough grasp of feelings and motives and enrich the data.

Evaluate the likelihood of purchase

Multiple choice or open-ended questions can be used to assess likelihood of purchase.

How likely are you to buy a product [concept name] with those features?

• Very likely
• Somewhat likely
• Somewhat unlikely
• Very unlikely

Those who are ready to buy ask why they want to make the purchase. It will indicate if respondents are ready to spend their money on the benefits they were promised. Often, in online education, a product falls into the interest zone, but not into the need zone, so sales don’t occur.

The likelihood of purchase is also affected by the price. No need to figure out the respondent’s intent to buy a product without a price. However, it should be reasonable: under- or overestimated price will skew the survey results.

If you have no clue how to price a product, buy a marketing research. There are multiple approaches to create a pricing survey such as Price Ladder, Brand Price Trade-off, and van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Monitor.

At the same time the intent to purchase doesn’t say much if you don’t know what caused it. Exploring drivers and barriers to purchase often gives deeper understanding than exploring intent in general.

Concept testing as a source of insights

Concept testing is a key to successful product launch. Following our recommendations helps you to obtain valuable insights into launching and developing the product that resonates with customers.

About Anketolog.ru

Anketolog is an online service for marketing research from scratch. The survey builder offers more than 20 types of questions and flexible display settings to collect targeted and accurate data. A link to the survey can be added to the website as a separate block or widget, posted on social media, or emailed. The answers will be displayed online in the Result section of the service.

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Company Name: Anketolog
Contact Person: Vasily Zhavoronkov
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Phone: +7 (983) 126-27-72
Country: Russian Federation
Website: https://anketolog.ru/