Marketers and engineers often have the need for customer feedback that goes deeper and into more detail than the typical satisfaction survey or new product concept tests among a random group of product  users.  What is needed is the type of expert feedback, from an “early adopter” group of users in the product category, which can help the marketer and engineer to see beyond just the next incremental change and on to a whole new version of a product that gives it a distinct competitive advantage.  In addition, such an early adopter expert panel group can also help with ideas and feedback that can be the catalyst to formulate entire new product categories.

As new products and services are being developed, it typically is prudent to take steps to do the following market research with key groups of early adopters: 1) Test general product or service concepts; 2) Test initial prototypes, or “betas”; then further usability testing to refine and finalize the product or service before going to market; 3) Product naming.

Following are a few of the types of new concept test we conduct:

Naming Research

Purpose and Benefits

New name testing is an obvious first step for a new organization, or when it has developed a new product.  Established organizations may also need to develop a new name when its products, its markets, and/or its corporate culture have changed and a new name is needed to signal a change in the organization’s products and/or its approach to doing business.

Key Questions Answered

  • What does the name need “to do”?
  • What markets does the name need to appeal to?
  • Which name will clearly differentiate us from the competition?
  • Which name connotes the right “feel” and general sense about who we are and what we do as a company?

Research Techniques

  • Focus groups
  • Web survey

Needs Exploration Research

Purpose and Benefits

New product development research typically involves two phases of research: 1) Needs exploration research, and; 2) New product concept and features testing.  In the needs exploration research phase, organizations often have the need to look outside the confines of their engineering departments to come up with ideas for new products.  Customers, particularly heavy users of a product or service, often have a wealth of excellent ideas for new products.  Instead of making incremental improvements, research with heavy or expert users (or “early adopters,” as explained by Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm) of a product or service category can help to develop completely new ideas for products or services that can give a company a large competitive advantage.

A very effective method for conducting this initial type of needs exploration research is to recruit a group of “experts” or “early adopters,” that group of people, which can be both customers and non-customers, who are heavy users of the product or service.  By setting up an “expert panel” a company and its research firm can periodically “pick their brains” to generate new product or service ideas based on needs and functional areas of usage that are not currently being met.  These panels can be a great source of ideas and new direction for the company.

Key Questions Answered

  • What do our customer markets need that we haven’t picked up on?
  • How should we meet these needs?
  • Should we extend our current offerings in ways we haven’t considered?
  • Should we develop completely new products?
  • Are there existing markets for our products that we haven’t considered?
  • What are the emerging user markets?

Research Techniques

  • Qualitative research – focus groups or triads
  • Expert panels, either in person or via the web

New Product and Service Assessments

Purpose and Benefits

The investment into new product development can be large, so it makes sense to make sure, first, that the general concept itself is something the target market would be interested in and that, two, the specific features and capabilities of the developed product are in the form that the market would like to see.  In both these cases – initial concept testing, and subsequent features and capabilities testing – the relatively small outlay for research can help to avert failed new product introductions and large amounts of wasted R&D money.

The early adopter-types noted above are researched because typically their interest level in a prospective new product or service will reflect the subsequent interest of the broader market.  The results from this first phase of new product research will tell an organization whether it is worth the R&D efforts and budget to pursue the product concept further.  Spending money on this upfront research can potentially save organizations millions of dollars by avoiding pursuing R&D of a product that has little chance of success in the marketplace.  On the other hand, if the product concept shows promise, then product prototypes can be developed, with various feature sets, for subsequent testing with prospective customers.

Once a product concept has passed muster, the next step is to develop and test actual product prototypes with various feature sets.  This step is conducted with next level of the market, referred to as the “early majority” or the “pragmatists” by Moore.  This portion of the market is much larger than the early adopters, and if a substantial portion of them are compelled to purchase a particular product they will provide the momentum to drive the product successfully into the rest of the mainstream market.

By laying out several product “options,” differentiated by various feature sets and capabilities, we can make a determination as to what will be the set of features and capabilities that will be most compelling to the target audience and help to ensure product success.

Key Questions Answered

  • Overall, does this product concept generate interest?  Why or why not?
  • How can we increase product appeal to prospective customers?
  • What specific needs does the target audience see this product addressing?

Research Techniques

  • Qualitative research – focus groups, triads or one-on-ones.
  • Expert panels
  • Prototype testing using diary methodology
  • Quantitative research
  • Conjoint analysis