Product concept validation

Overview

Before you invest in developing a new product, you want to know if the idea itself actually appeals to people. Product concept validation tests a product idea, shown as an image or a simple mockup, with real people, to see whether it's worth pursuing before you spend time and money building it.

What you're actually trying to learn

You're not testing a finished product here, you're testing whether the underlying idea has legs, before it's real. Specifically, you want to know:

• Appeal — do people actually like this idea when they see it
• Uniqueness — does it feel different from what already exists, or does it feel like something they've already seen
• Purchase intent — would they realistically consider buying or using this if it existed

These three together tell you whether an idea is worth developing further, an idea can be liked but not unique enough to stand out, or unique but not appealing enough to buy, so it's worth measuring all three rather than just one.

How to run this in Decode

Set up a Consumer Insights (Quantitative Study) and present your concept image or mockup using a Media block, see Set up a media block. After participants see the concept, add follow-up questions to measure the three things above, a Likert Scale or Star Rating block for appeal and uniqueness, and an NPS block if you want a loyalty or recommendation signal.

If you have more than one concept to test, show each participant only one, rather than several. Seeing multiple concepts back to back can influence how someone reacts to each individual one, so use Group & Randomization to set this up as a monadic design, see Sequential vs monadic design.

What to do next

See Read media block results to interpret your results. Once your concept is validated, see Storyboard screening to test an early creative direction for how it might be advertised.