going from good to great with concept testing

BEN CROTHERS • PRINCIPAL DESIGN STRATEGIST • @BENCROTHERS

Going from Good to Great with Concept Testing

CHALLENGE:Moving beyond

iteration to innovation

CHALLENGE:Making product

decisions confidently

CHALLENGE:Creative confidence

CONCEPT TESTING:Helping you gain more

creative confidence

E X A M P L E S I N A C T I O N

W H AT I S C O N C E P T T E S T I N G

W O R K I N G I T I N TO Y O U R P R O C E S S

B E I N G M O R E C R E AT I V E A N D C O N F I D E N T

What I’ll cover

What is concept testing?

Open inquiry

Getting customers to use raw low-fidelity concepts and prototypes.

Facilitated groupsStructured activities and discussions about how people work, and why.

Raw prototypes

Inviting new ideas, and uncovering happy accidental insights.

What is concept testing?

Removing risk

Gathering data about customers’ jobs, tasks, goals and mental models.

Validating earlyBusting assumptions, checking if we solve the right problem, not just how.

Customer context

Failing refining early before spending serious $$$ on development.

What is concept testing for?

• Big cool statistic

• 2,569

• Add-Ons in MarketplaceCapturing real goals and work patterns

• Big cool statistic

• 2,569

• Add-Ons in MarketplaceFeedback about what works, not what they like

• Big cool statistic

• 2,569

• Add-Ons in MarketplaceGreen for useful, red for not useful

• Big cool statistic

• 2,569

• Add-Ons in MarketplaceEveryone’s invited to observe

Results:

Welcome done wrong

Results:

Welcome done better

Results:

Workflow editing done wrong

Results:

Workflow editing done better

This or that…?

Testing various interface designs for specific tasks (usability testing).

Button coloursTesting conversions based on fine-grain interface differences (A/B T).

Testing screen design

It’s not a bake-off, but about strengths and weaknesses of options.

What is concept testingnot for?

Where does concept testing happen?

PRODUCT BACKLOG

PRODUCT STRATEGY AND DESIGN

CONCEPT TESTING

How can concept testing give you

creative confidence?

How can concept testing give you

creative confidence?

How do we make ourselves

less creative?

Stifling creativity #1: FEASIBILITY ANXIETY

We want to make sure our ideas meet all 3 areas…

Lies, Ben! Lies!

Stifling creativity #1: FEASIBILITY ANXIETY

We want to make sure our ideas meet all 3 areas… …but Desirability

often lucks out.

Stifling creativity #2: REPUTATION ANXIETYWe want to unearth

THE BIG ONE…

Lies, Ben! Lies!

Stifling creativity #2: REPUTATION ANXIETY

…but we end up under-rating all the little ones.

We want to unearth THE BIG ONE…

Stifling creativity #3: PERFORMANCE ANXIETYWe want our ideas to WIN…

…but the wins feel like a let-down… like bingo.

Ideas are a fluid collection of

connections, sparks, meanderings and

questions

Innovation is a series of stones across a river

Problem

Solution Solution Solution

We want to come up with ideas to learn

(not to win)

Example: Real-time chat while looking at a task board?

Concept testing helps you cross your river

It makes conversation

for a greater range of creative possibilities.

It lets you be opento new and unexpected insights and directions.

It frees you up

to involve customers in your creative problem-solving process

I’m in, Ben! What’s one thing

I can try?

• Big cool statistic

• 2,569

• Add-Ons in Marketplace

Try it internally first

Thank you

BEN CROTHERS • PRINCIPAL DESIGN STRATEGIST • @BENCROTHERS

• Getty Images• Pinterest.com • Huffingtonpost.com

Image credits