Going from Good to Great with Concept Testing
Transcript of 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