Actual Behaviour Analysis (Mainly Action-Insights)
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding leverages online platforms to gather financial support from a wide audience for a new idea, project, or product before it is fully realised. This approach serves as a market validation tool, where creators present their concept and seek pre-orders or donations from potential customers. If the idea resonates and the target funding goal is met, it serves as a strong indicator of market interest and helps to mitigate financial risk by securing funds upfront. A successful crowdfunding campaign can also provide initial capital to start production and validate the concept with an engaged community. However, it does carry the risk of exposing the idea to potential copycats and may need to be more effective for products aimed at a B2B audience.
Pre-Sales
Pre-sales is a validation technique where a business engages with potential customers to assess their interest and willingness to purchase a product before its actual development. This method can involve direct communication with customers or setting up a pre-order mechanism, such as a button on a landing page. It serves as a way to gather financial commitment and valuable customer feedback early in the product development cycle. This direct customer interaction can provide deeper qualitative insights, particularly useful when forming user personas or tailoring the product to meet specific needs. While pre-sales can be time-consuming and labour-intensive, it clearly indicates the product's potential success in the market.
Search Engine Research
This method involves investigating if people are actively searching online for a solution to their problem, indicating if the problem is worth solving for the end-user. It emphasises the importance of understanding actual search intent over hypothetical interest.
Message testing
A validation method where you pitch your problem or solution to prospects through messages and measure their responsiveness, thereby testing the hypotheses and assessing whether the problem is significant enough for them or the solution is adequate.
Wireframe
A validation method that uses digital wireframes as a limited simulation of your product solution for user interaction, acting as a static visual guide to identify potential usability problems and non-intuitive elements.
Mockups
An App Mockup involves creating a clickable prototype of an application or digital service without coding. This method allows designers or individuals with little design experience to quickly create a prototype that users can interact with. This approach’s key advantage is enabling testing of iterations and refinements based on user feedback before starting full-scale development. Users can navigate through the app's essential functions, such as the home page and sign-up flows, providing insights and feedback that can ultimately save time and money in the development process.
Physical Prototypes
Creating a tangible, basic product model enables real-world testing by letting potential users interact with a concrete representation. This approach is beneficial for assessing the practicality and user-friendliness of a concept, offering direct feedback from hands-on experience. It often involves using easily sourced and cost-effective materials to construct a simple product version, which can be crucial for early-stage development and decision-making.
One-Feature MVP
Focusing on a single, essential element of a product, this method involves creating and testing a minimalist version that includes just that one core feature. This approach is designed to challenge and verify the fundamental hypotheses about the product's necessity and functionality. It's a streamlined process that zeroes in on the most vital aspect of the product to evaluate its impact and potential in the market. This technique is often a preliminary step before developing a more comprehensive version of the product.
Bare Bone MVP
This validation method involves crafting a fundamental yet operational model of a product that includes only the most essential features needed for initial testing. It's a pragmatic approach that employs readily accessible resources and tools to create a version of the product that can be presented to potential customers. The aim is to gauge their interest and secure early financial commitments, testing the product's viability without needing full-scale development. This method is prevalent for software solutions and usually follows the creation of a single feature MVP, serving as a bridge between the concept and the fully realised product.
Product Stimulation
This method utilises advanced digital tools to construct virtual models of a product, allowing for the exploration and testing of its features and functionalities in a simulated environment. It's especially beneficial for intricate products where physical prototyping can be costly or impractical. The simulation is a predictive tool that can inform decision-making and reduce the risk associated with product development by identifying potential issues early in the design process. This technique, which often requires specialised software and expertise, can encompass various simulations, such as mechanical, fluid dynamics, and structural analysis, contributing to a more efficient and refined product development cycle.
Impostor Judo
This strategy involves presenting an existing product or service as your own to gather direct feedback from potential users. It’s a method that capitalises on "acting as if" to assess customer interest and behaviour. The technique typically involves modifying existing materials to remove or replace branding elements, enabling a business to collect genuine user reactions and feedback without initially investing in product development. It's a quick and cost-effective way to test market reactions to a concept by leveraging already available resources.
Concierge Service
The concierge method is a hands-on validation technique where a person delivers services or features manually rather than through automated systems. The intent is to provide a personalised experience to customers while also learning from direct interactions. This method offers insights into the customer's needs and the value proposition of the product or service. It's beneficial for understanding and refining the customer experience before investing in technology or automation. Although this approach is resource-intensive and may not be scalable, it is invaluable for gaining deep customer insights and validating the core functionality of a service or product.
Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz method involves the manual execution of services while presenting them to the customer as if they were automated. This technique is effective for simulating the experience of a fully functional product without the actual infrastructure in place. The customer interacts with what they perceive as a complete system, system, but behind the scenes, the service provider manually handles the work. This allows testing and learning about the user's experience and the service's viability before committing resources to develop the automated systems. It's a practical approach for validating concepts and customer satisfaction, albeit it requires significant time and labour to maintain the illusion of automation.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a comparative method where two variations of a single element are tested against each other to determine which performs better in achieving a specific goal. This goal could be anything from improving user engagement to increasing the conversion rates on a website. The process involves simultaneously presenting the two versions to a similar audience and then analysing which is more effective. It's commonly applied to a wide range of digital content, such as email campaign headlines, webpage layouts, and call-to-action buttons, making it a versatile tool for data-driven decision-making. This technique is straightforward and highly quantifiable, though it does require a sufficient number of users to be statistically significant.
Paid Ads
Online ad campaigns serve as a method to assess the market's response to a product or service. Businesses can target specific audiences and measure interest through click-through and conversion rates by employing platforms like Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. This form of testing provides insights into what features attract customers, how much they are willing to pay, and the potential market size. It is a direct way to drive traffic to a landing page and gather customer behaviour and preferences data. While it offers rapid results and valuable data, it does come at a cost and requires marketing expertise to execute effectively. Additionally, online ad campaigns are often used with A/B testing to refine marketing strategies and product offerings.
Stated Behaviour Analysis (Mainly Opinion-Based Insights)
Picnic in the Graveyard
This method suggests investigating the most significant failures within an industry to understand the reasons behind them. It emphasises learning from past mistakes to inform future ideas and avoid repeating unsuccessful attempts.
Generative Research
A qualitative approach using generative research to gather clearer signals about the customer. These sessions are about learning more about the user and their problems, habits, and contexts without starting from a specific hypothesis, focusing on motivational drivers and contextual observation.
Consumer/User/Customer Interviews
Interviews are a method to actively learn through fundamental and in-person interactions, focusing on understanding if the product addresses a real need and solves a real problem and to see if the solution resonates with the customers.
Comprehension Test
This method is designed to eliminate false negative biases by evaluating whether customers understand the message, aiming to see if at least 80% of customers can display a positive conversion in understanding the value proposition.
Feature Sorting Cards
A method involving users sorting cards for specific features to discover patterns that reveal user priorities and expectations for feature organisation.
Process Simulation
Process simulation is a method used to virtually represent and analyze the workflow of a current or proposed system. Organisations can experiment with changes and improvements in a risk-free environment by constructing an animated model that replicates the operations. This approach is particularly useful for optimizing operational efficiency and evaluating different scenarios without disrupting actual processes. The insights gained from simulations can inform strategic decisions, helping to forecast the outcomes of process adjustments before any real-world implementation. It requires a solid understanding of the current operations and often specialized software and expertise to conduct effectively.
Explainer Videos
Explainer videos are a visual communication tool designed to illustrate the mechanics of a service or product. These videos are crafted to simulate a real-life application or scenario where the product is being used. They serve as a means to articulate the value proposition and functionality of an offering, potentially influencing customers' purchasing decisions. By incorporating a mix of storytelling, visual elements, and audio, these videos aim to clarify the who, what, and why of the product or service, making them a compelling medium for conveying complex information in an accessible and engaging way.
Co-Creation
Co-creation is a collaborative approach to product or solution development that involves partnering with a key customer from the early stages. This method leverages the customer's insights, willingness to engage, and knowledge of their business needs to create a solution closely aligned with market demands. It focuses on building a relationship with the customer, which can lead to a better understanding of the market and more tailored product features. By involving customers directly in the development process, businesses can ensure that the end product is more likely to meet the customer's needs and objectives. While beneficial for its direct customer engagement and valuable insights, co-creation depends on having a willing partner and communicating effectively outside of technical jargon.
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