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?

Carefully facilitated

Customers, clients or internal stakeholders.

Carefully recruitedAccording to the right demographics for your project.

8-12 people

To avoid groupthink and bias.

What is in a concept testing session?

Capturing real goals and work patterns first…

… then gathering feedback about what works, not what they like

Green dots for useful, red dots for not useful

Everyone’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’re led to think our ideas need to meet all 3 areas first time…

Lies, Ben! Lies!

Stifling creativity #1: FEASIBILITY ANXIETY

…but Desirability often lucks out.

We’re led to think our ideas need to meet all 3 areas first time…

Stifling creativity #2: REPUTATION ANXIETYWe’re led to think that we have

to unearth THE BIG ONE…

Lies, Ben! Lies!

Stifling creativity #2: REPUTATION ANXIETY

…so we end up under-rating all the ‘little’ ones.

We’re led to think that we have to unearth THE BIG ONE…

Stifling creativity #3: PERFORMANCE ANXIETYWe’re led to think that innovation is 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)

When did you last put an idea in front of a customer, not to

ship, but just to learn?

If that sounds like an empty aphorism, consider this:

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

Customers liked the idea, but not the execution of the idea

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?

Try it internally first

Thank you

BEN CROTHERS • PRINCIPAL DESIGN STRATEGIST • @BENCROTHERS

• Getty Images• Pinterest.com • Huffingtonpost.com

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