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What is Concept Testing? Definition, Methods, Types & Examples

As a product manager, I get requests for adding new features to our existing products daily. Along with that, people always come up to me with new product ideas. It gets difficult to decide which feature requests to take up and which product to invest in for your organization. Especially when you consider that 95% of all product launches fail .

That’s why it’s essential to ensure that every aspect of the product and its launch is perfect. That’s where concept testing comes in. 

Content Index

What is Concept Testing?

Benefits of concept testing, concept testing methods.

• Concept testing survey design
• Concept testing use cases
• Concept testing examples

Concept testing is defined as a research method that involves asking customers questions about your concepts and ideas for a product or service before actually launching it. Thus, you can gauge your customers’ acceptance and their willingness to buy and therefore make critical decisions before the launch. 

In this post, we will talk about the benefits and different methods of concept testing. You will also learn how to decide which method will be best suited for your research . We will then summarize with real-world examples how concept testing was vital in helping companies launch their products successfully.

I always assume that every new feature or product idea I come up with will succeed. However, that’s seldom the case. Only customers can determine whether an idea will succeed, or will it crash and burn. That is why it’s vital to test your ideas and concepts before launching to your customers. The insights gathered using concept testing will help you launch effective and successful products.

Using concept testing, you can also get in-depth insights into different aspects of your idea. You can ask questions about a specific feature, look and feel, pricing, and more. Thus you can assure the validity of every detail before launching the product.

Organizations and businesses use surveys to carry out concept testing making it a simple proposition for brands of all sizes to utilize. In the following section, we will discuss the different methods of concept testing.

Over the years, researchers have designed and applied many different concept testing methods. These methods are categorized based on how the concepts are displayed. Each of these methods is suitable for different types of research. Concept testing is easily achieved with the help of a research platform . Here are the four primary methods of concept testing:

• Comparison testing
• Monadic testing
• Sequential monadic testing
• Proto-monadic testing

1. Comparison Testing

In comparison testing, two or more concepts are presented to the respondents. The respondents compare these concepts by using rating or ranking questions or merely asking to select the best concept displayed.

Comparison tests give clear and easily understandable results. It’s easy to determine which concept is the winner. However, the results lack context. There is no way to tell why the respondents choose one concept over others. It is essential to understand these details before successfully launching a product.

2. Monadic Testing

The target audience is broken down into multiple groups in a monadic test . Each group gets shown only one concept. These tests focus on analyzing a single concept in-depth. A monadic test survey is usually short and highly targeted. 

Since each group of respondents sees a single concept, it is possible to go in-depth without making the survey lengthy . Researchers can ask follow-up questions about the various attributes of a concept, such as what they liked about the concept, it’s look and feel, price point, etc. Though each group of respondents sees different concepts in isolation, each concept’s follow-up questions will be the same.

Monadic test surveys are short and give researchers the flexibility to ask multiple follow-up questions. Thus the results provide more context around why a specific concept is better than others. However, since the target audience is split into multiple groups, the sample size required to conduct a monadic test is extensive. Since various concepts need testing, more significant is the sample size. The increase in sample size considerably increases the cost of research.

3. Sequential Monadic Testing

Like the monadic test, in sequential monadic tests, the target audience is split into multiple groups. However, instead of showing one concept in isolation, each group is presented with all the concepts. The order of the concepts is randomized to avoid research bias . The respondents are asked the same set of follow-up questions for each concept to get further insights.

Since each group of respondents sees all concepts, the target audience size required to perform a sequential monadic test is relatively small. Multiple concepts can be tested in a single round. Thus sequential monadic tests are more cost-effective and easy to field. This concept testing method makes it ideal for research with budget constraints or when only a small target audience is available. 

However, since all the concepts are presented to each group of respondents, the questionnaire’s length is fairly long. This affects the completion rate and might introduce non-response bias . Researchers can reduce the length of the questionnaire by limiting the number of questions. However, this affects the depth of the collected insights. 

Sequential monadic tests are also subject to other biases, such as interaction bias or order bias.  

4. Protomonadic Testing

A protomonadic test includes a sequential monadic test followed by a comparison test. Here, respondents first evaluate multiple concepts and then ask to choose the concept they prefer.

This design is useful to validate the results from the sequential monadic test. Researchers can verify if the concept selected in the comparison test is compatible with the insights collected about each idea.

This article explains how to choose the best-suited concept testing method for research .

LEARN ABOUT: Easy Test Maker

Once you have finalized the method you will be using; you must design a  survey for conducting your test. Creating a survey and then effectively using a block randomizer offers the best results. The following section will discuss the guidelines and best practices for creating an effective concept testing survey.

Concept Testing Survey Design

Concept testing is achieved by using an online survey . The survey needs to be designed to analyze respondents’ feelings about your concepts or ideas. The data collected using these surveys are then used to determine what customers prefer or reject your idea. Here are a few tips to help you design a helpful concept-testing survey.

1. Set an objective for your survey

Once you set an overall objective for your survey, it becomes easy to come up with questions that will collect pertinent insights about your concept. It helps to think about the actual motive of the test and the particular details that you want to learn from your customers. Thus you can design a survey with relevant questions and gather meaningful information about your customers’ viewpoints. 

2. Consistent survey design

It’s always a good practice to group related questions using survey blocks . Survey blocks help create a well-ordered flow for your surveys and make it easier for the respondents to answer them. Respondents can easily focus on one area of your concept without any distractions and provide accurate and insightful feedback. 

3. Likert scales 

Likert scales are rating scales with an odd-numbered series of answer choices, usually between five to seven. You can include Likert scale questions in your survey to ask the respondents to rate their opinion on a five- or seven-point scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Using Likert scale questions creates a consistent design for your survey, making it easier for respondents to answer. Moreover, it’s easier to analyze the data collected using Likert scales.

LEARN ABOUT: System Usability Scale

4. Include images

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” This idiom is true when you want respondents to provide feedback about a visual concept. Logo testing is a good example where it makes sense to use images instead of text. You can display different concepts of your logo design to your respondents and select the one they like best. This negates any bias and provides easily digestible results.  

5. Demographic questions

It’s essential to include demographic questions in your survey to ensure that the respondents are part of your target audience. You may receive negative feedback about your concept. However, it may not be a reflection on the idea itself. Rather the respondent may not be part of your customer base and isn’t interested in your product. It’s essential to have demographic survey questions to ensure your concept will be successful with your ideal customers.

Now that you know how to design a helpful concept testing survey, let’s look at some use cases where concept testing is applicable. 

Concept Testing Use Cases

Here are some of the most common use cases where concept testing can be applied:

Product development

Concept testing is widely used by companies to make decisions while developing new products. You can find out which features customers care about and which ones are to be given a miss. You can also get an idea of what pain points customers face with existing features. 

Using a usability testing survey and concept testing, you can gauge customers’ expectations, make adjustments, and launch your product successfully.

If you wish to save time, you can use one of our expertly designed survey templates for product concept testing . 

New homepage design

Redesigning the homepage for your website can be tricky. For most SaaS and eCommerce businesses, the homepage is the first touchpoint with potential customers. That’s why you must get everything right while redesigning your website. 

Using concept testing, you can present your designs to customers who will interact with them and get a clear idea of what they feel. Using these results, you can iron out flaws in the design and be ready for a perfect launch. 

You can use our website feedback software and the subsequent guidelines to design a survey to test your homepage.

Testing a new logo

Your logo is a vital part of your company’s brand. More often than not, it’s the first thing customers notice about your business. Therefore, while designing a new logo, it’s essential to know how customers might react to the new design and visually communicate your brand.

Concept testing is a great way to test different designs and develop a logo that resonates with your customers. 

Offers and pricing

Concept testing comes in handy when you plan to offer discounts for a new product or implement a new pricing structure altogether. It’s important to test your customers’ initial response and identify the features and perks that will excite them.

You can run a concept test on your upgrade pages or discount offers to gauge if your customers are interested.

You can use the monadic test design to conduct your pricing research .

It’s common practice to test website ads, banners, and images to identify the best possible combination. Concept testing can provide insights such as which ad grabs the most attention or results in most conversions. 

Since the feedback comes directly from consumers, you can trust its internal validity and plan your advertisement and marketing strategy accordingly.

This article will help you get started with ad testing .

Now that we have gone through the different use cases of concept testing, we will learn about some real companies that used concept testing to their advantage in the next section.  

Concept Testing Examples

Some good examples of concept testing are:

Tesla launched its Model 3 in 2017 and made headlines worldwide. Tesla used a unique launch strategy by using concept testing to gain approval from customers and raise capital. 

The participants were presented with the Model 3 concept. Once they were familiar with the car’s different features and benefits, they could put down a deposit. This strategy was a huge success, and Tesla raised $400 million. 

Thus, using concept testing, Tesla gathered invaluable customer feedback and financial resources to go ahead with their launch. 

Lego always faced difficulties selling its products to the female demographic. Despite their best efforts, only 9% of their toys were purchased by young girls. Lego decided to invest heavily in conducting concept testing and market research over an extended period to change this. This research’s primary objective was to understand young girls’ play habits.

This research made them realize that girls preferred to build entire environments rather than stand-alone structures. Girls also focussed more on interior layouts and structure details. 

Using these insights, Lego decided to design a whole new line of products catered to the female demographic – Lego Friends. This series launched in 2012 and tripled the value of construction toys for girls from $300 million to $900 million in 2014.

Yamaha is one of the largest producers of musical instruments in the world. While designing their Yamaha Montage keyboard, the company faced difficulties deciding whether to use knobs or sliding faders. So they decided to do a concept testing survey with their customers to gauge their preferences. After collecting over 400 responses from musicians worldwide, they were ready to make their decision. What might have taken weeks to debate internally, was resolved within a day.

NASCAR decided to change the format of its most significant race in 2017. They wanted to collect feedback about viewer experience following the change. This project was critical since the revenue that NASCAR generates via advertising was directly influenced based on viewership. 

NASCAR engaged in a concept testing and research study with over 200 super fans to gauge their experience, thoughts, and response to the events and advertisements. This study helped NASCAR validate its new format. They also collected vital insights that enabled them to launch the new race format successfully. 

As you can see, from products to advertisements, it’s critical to marketing test your concepts with the target audience to understand what will work and what won’t before going ahead with the launch. The ability to understand the viewpoint of your customers is more vital than ever before. 

Using concept testing, you can enhance your product development and marketing strategies, reduce the time required to market and launch your product, and keep your customers happy.

Deploy your research studies and efficiently manage concept testing using the QuestionPro research software .

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Concept testing 101: what is it & when should you do it?

Last updated

16 April 2023

Reviewed by

• What is concept testing?

Concept testing is a research method to test the assumptions of a target market's needs and their willingness to purchase a solution to solve their needs. Achieving this involves interviewing users about an idea and discovering their acceptance and willingness to purchase through user research. By collecting this information before development and investment occur, you can make crucial decisions before further time and resources investment has incurred. 

What concept testing is not

The concept testing due diligence achieved before launching a new platform or service isn’t the same as new features released. The difference between concept testing and new features is concept testing is the purpose of a platform, while a feature launch is a property of the concept. 

In short, features are an attribute, and there can only be one concept with several features undergoing iterations to improve the solution. 

Concept testing is a means of validating an idea and its business model, which requires market and user research to determine the minimum viable product (MVP) , roadmap milestones, and the platform's vision.   

• When to use concept testing

Consider concept testing as the intermediary between scoping the problem and defining a solution as part of the discovery. Identifying a clear problem statement and the target market is necessary as part of the research process before you test the platform's hypotheses. Once you know what you’re solving for who, you can then generate a hypothesis and brainstorm ideas that will become features to test for the solution you want to offer.

You can solve the same problem in several different ways, from design, function, technology, pricing, and segment, and it’s important to identify who you want to cater to. For example, there are several task management apps on the Google or iOS store, but how many embrace neurodiversity or inclusivity? And which ones target SaaS companies—would SaaS companies use apps, or would they prefer a desktop app?

You can see why identifying who you’re serving before discovering what they need is essential to validate you’re ultimately serving a market and there’s a need from the market. Once you’ve solidified the concept, you can then move on to designing prototypes to experience the reaction of your target audience to new features.

• The benefits of concept testing

Why concept testing is essential:

Saves resources and capital

Concept testing uses a reduced, controllable portion of your budget and minimal personal and reputational investment. It can prevent you from launching an idea that doesn’t solve market needs and that users are unwilling to pay for. 

Validates concepts

Concept testing offers validation that users are willing to purchase and support your idea, enabling support from stakeholders, community, investors, and other team members. Materializing a concept isn’t easy, especially without management exercising caution and risks. But having concept testing validation allows even the most cautious team members to gain confidence in favor of the idea. 

Creates new business opportunities

Concept testing creates the foundation and stepping stones for a new organization or startup to venture on and become a leader in the marketplace. It shows the idea’s essential MVP features and functions gathered from user and market research as a desperate necessity for potential and future users to buy into. When this happens, you can capitalize on the idea's best attributes in the marketing campaigns. 

After evaluating what matters most to the target audience, you can use the learning opportunities to modify or completely change the features to optimize its success.

• When to run a concept test

You can do concept testing at various stages, particularly when you need to validate ideas and make feature and platform strategy decisions. Below are some specific examples of when to run a test:

Before launching the product

Conducting a concept test before pre-launch allows you to determine the market needs for the segments targeted and learn if users are willing to pay before you invest further capital and resources. 

Discovery and feature ideation

Concept testing is critical during the product discovery stage since it identifies the solutions you should continue improving for a specific user problem. This also allows you to check your team's assumptions and validate features with users before proceeding into the development stage. 

Design iterations

After kickstarting your product design process, you can test design concepts. For instance, if you’re developing a new website, you can validate the low-fidelity concepts, such as the layout, graphics, and the brand.  

• Four methods used in concept testing

You can test your ideas using the following:

Comparison testing

Comparison testing involves presenting at least two concepts to measure which one is favored more and performs better through measuring responses. To quantify respondents, you need to use rating or ranking questions to calculate which is scoring higher. Another approach is to increase the options available and ask respondents to select the best concept displayed. 

Without a clear research goal from the question and refined user research question or too small of a sample size group, the results can lack context and fail to specify why the respondents preferred one over others. Designing and structuring clear user research objectives is important for your analysis and will later help you successfully launch a new feature or design preference. 

Monadic testing

Monadic testing aims to analyze a single concept in-depth. It involves segmenting the target audience into multiple groups and presenting only one concept to each group. 

The method of each group viewing a single concept in isolation allows you to maintain in-depth follow-up questions in person and maintain brevity in a survey. This makes it easier to ask multiple follow-up questions about the different attributes of a concept, such as what they like and how they would improve the pricing or change the look and feel. 

Monadic testing is an in-depth approach that gives clarity with more context around why the audience prefers a specific concept. 

Sequential monadic testing

Sequential monadic tests are just like monadic tests, but they differ as each group sees all the concepts instead of just one concept isolated. This process involves user researchers 

randomizing concept orders to avoid research bias and repeating follow-up questions to gain further insights from the respondents. 

Due to the increased user research quality, the sequential monadic test uses a relatively small target audience size, as they are able to go further in depth. This makes testing multiple concepts easier, more cost-effective, and ideal for research with a tight budget. 

However, sequential monadic tests have more questions to be answered by respondents since each person sees all the concepts. These long questionnaires may lead to a reduced completion rate and cause non-response bias. However, the collected insights become shallow if researchers limit the number of questions to reduce the questionnaire length. 

Protomonadic testing

Protomonadic testing involves combining sequential monadic and comparison tests. This works by the respondents first evaluating multiple concepts and then choosing their preferred one. The main benefit is it helps validate sequential monadic results. Further, researchers can confirm if the concept chosen in the comparison test is compatible with the insights gathered about each idea. 

• Concept testing survey design

Concept testing requires a survey designed to record the participant's feelings about your idea. The collected data helps establish what the respondents like or dislike about your idea. To put theory into practice, we’ve designed some tips below for creating an effective concept test survey:

Develop a goal

Establishing a main goal for your survey makes it easy to develop questions that will gather critical insights about your concept. Think about the purpose/actual motive of the test and the particular information you want to learn from the participants to improve the idea or solution. That way, you can create a survey with meaningful questions that offer unique insights into your customer's perspective. 

Create a consistent structure

When you create the questions, make sure they are ordered and grouped together to create a smoother flow and make it easier for participants to answer them. For example, do not mix follow-up questions, and make sure you order questions one at a time. This will help your respondents focus, reduce content switching, and provide more detailed and centered responses. 

Include Likert scales

Likert scales ask respondents to rank their opinions on a scale ranging from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree.' The scale helps create a quantifiable measurement to rate or score a question, making it easier to analyze the question's results. 

Use visuals

Use images when you need user feedback about a visual concept. For instance, if you’re testing new logos, you can present them and ask respondents to select the image most appealing to them. This practice offers an unbiased format and easily digestible results for the researcher. 

Include demographic survey questions

Demographic questions in a survey inform user researchers of patterns in the segments and groups and ultimately confirm they fit your target audience. For example, a respondent may say they disliked your idea, but that doesn't mean it’s bad. That respondent may not be your ideal client and thus has no interest in your offer. 

Including demographic survey questions determines whether the concept will effectively suit your ideal customers and helps you understand how different user groups are responding to your questions. 

• Concept testing use cases

Below are the common cases you can apply concept testing:

Product development

Companies use concept testing to make decisions before launching new products. It helps identify the features customers care about and the pain points they face with features to solve them. With a concept test, you’ll know what your customers expect, make changes, and successfully launch your products. 

Designing new homepage

The homepage is crucial, especially for eCommerce and SaaS businesses, since it is the first point of contact with potential customers. When redesigning it, you must achieve specific performance measures, including user experience (UX) . Concept testing UX allows you to present the designs to your target audience, who interact with them to iron out flaws in the design and prepare for a perfect launch. 

Logo testing

A logo is a critical part of your company's brand. It’s the first thing customers see about the business and helps tell your story. Before designing a new logo, you need to know how the customers might react to the new design. Concept testing logos help to evaluate different designs that resonate with your customers. 

Offers and pricing

A company may want to give discounts for a new product or introduce a new pricing structure. Before advancing plans and resources, testing the customer's initial response and determining the features that excite them will allow you to learn if the customers are interested and what they are willing to pay. 

Testing website ads, images, and banners to identify the best possible combination is common among companies. With marketing concept testing, the business can get insights into outcomes such as which ad results in the most conversions or grabs the most attention. The feedback comes from consumers, so you can trust it and make your advertisement and marketing strategy accordingly.

• Tips for effective concept testing

There are many ways and best practices to improve concept testing. Here are some top tips for performing effective concept testing:

Set a specific goal

A precise testing goal allows you to quickly evaluate if a concept is worth advancing to the next stage of resources, time, and capital investment. For instance, your aim can be 'we want at least 90% of our target audience to find the feature useful'.

Ask the right questions

Ask and phrase questions in a manner that a customer can understand and give you rich feedback. The right research questions, without bias, will uncover the insights required to validate your concept or establish what it’s missing. 

Have the right target audience

Conduct concept testing to validate your idea with the audience that fits the demographics of your customer base. Recruit the right participants whom you can use their feedback as guidance to develop features they need and launch a successful product.

• Common mistakes in concept testing and solutions

Below are some common errors in concept testing and how to solve them:

Mistake #1: Conducting concept testing on a single concept in isolation

Running a one concept test means you miss out on the full benefit of comparative research data over time. Consider what you’re testing and how you’ll use the information once you get it. 

Depending on the research goal and stage, you might ask whether you should conduct repeat exercises to see if your product development process is on the right track for a concept instead of trying to improve its feature.  

Mistake #2: Testing multiple concepts in a single survey

Comparing lots of concepts in a single survey makes your participant's experience long, potentially confusing, but mostly tiring. Giving a reasonable number of questions to your respondents shows that you respect the energy and time and allows you to focus on which questions are most important to solve for the business today. 

Mistake #3: Abandoning too early

Canceling an idea because your target audience doesn't show interest may be short-sighted. Research helps you know what your customers feel about your concept. A negative feeling doesn't mean your idea is not valuable. Perhaps they’re not the right audience, or the pricing is too high. Refocusing the user group, asking the right questions, or pivoting the concept is very common and happens post launch for businesses. 

Mistake #4: Forgetting empathy

Not having enough empathy for user needs and experience and assuming participants think as the researcher is a common challenge. For example, sharing the whole idea in the survey introduction is too much—you should keep it focused. Overcommunication and forgetting empathy means you forget what’s happening in your respondents’ day-to-day lives. You should keep it relevant, simple, and easy to digest. 

Mistake #5: Failure to adjust the survey to cover all geographies

Failure to test different geographical regions could reduce your chances of expanding early on or discovering other potential markets. Consider targeting specific regions and including the language of where you want to widen the respondent pool. 

• Real-world concept testing examples

Various companies have applied concept testing before launching their products. Below are three popular concept testing examples:

Tesla used concept testing for their Model 3 in 2017 to gain customer insights. The company qualified participants who could put down a deposit after familiarizing themselves with its features and benefits. This concept testing strategy allowed Tesla to gather invaluable customer feedback and raise capital from investors. 

Another concept testing example involves Lego, the famous toy making company. Lego consistently faced challenges selling its products to female children across North America of primary and elementary school ages. The company invested in concept testing to understand young girls' play habits and preferences based on age and gender. 

Their research revealed that girls disliked standalone structures. They preferred to create full environments and focused more on structure details and interior layouts. These insights enabled Lego to design a new line of products for young girls across North America that was very successful. 

Yamaha is a world-leading musical instrument manufacturer. The company faced difficulties choosing between knobs and sliding faders in its Montage keyboard. Concept testing gave them valuable and accurate data, which informed their decision to use sliders. 

• Final thoughts: concept testing is worth it

As you develop your concept, it’s necessary to present it to your target audience and gather insights for data-driven decision-making. It saves resources, capital, and time and validates ideas while helping discover new business opportunities. Concept testing is convenient since you can conduct it during ideation, in the early design phase, or even before the product launch.

What is the purpose of concept testing?

Concept testing reduces business risk to make sure you dedicate time, energy, capital, and resources to the right idea. It offers validation, substantiates product and design, and contributes to marketing ideas before launching the product.

Why is monadic testing expensive?

The sample size needed to perform a monadic test is extensive since the target audience is in multiple groups. Further, various concepts need testing, which makes the sample size more significant. A large sample size means the research costs more and takes more time to complete, analyze, and aggregate results to generate a meaningful report.

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Concept Testing: Everything You Need to Know

What is concept testing, what is the point of concept testing, concept testing methods, how to create an effective concept testing survey, when should you use concept testing, what concept tests are not, gather invaluable customer feedback with fullsession, fullsession pricing plans, install your first concept testing survey right now, faqs about concept testing.

Whether you’re testing new products, pricing structures, or marketing ideas, you want to run it by the people whose feedback matters the most: your target audience. This is called concept testing.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the definition of concept testing, the benefits of concept testing, concept testing use cases, and how to run a concept test.

Concept testing is a research methodology used to evaluate consumer response to a product, service, idea, or marketing campaign before you launch it to the market. The goal is to validate the appeal, usability, and potential success of the concept from the perspective of the end-user or consumer.

In other words, concept testing is seeing whether your product, service, or idea will resonate with your target audience or not. Essentially, it’s like determining if what you have right now is more likely to be a success or a flop.

Concept testing is a necessary step in the early development stage of a product, service, marketing message, or branding idea. However, some businesses might think otherwise and go straight into prototyping or further product development.

While the alternative might seem like a faster and more cost-effective approach, these benefits of concept testing should convince you to take the right route:

Saves Time and Money

Diving headfirst into development without a clear indication of market demand or user interest is like navigating a maze blindfolded.

Concept testing acts as the guide that helps you identify viable paths and dead ends before you invest significant time and financial resources. Validating your concept early on can help you avoid the sunk costs associated with developing products or services that lack product market fit . In turn, concept testing makes the development process focus on what truly matters to your target audience.

Reduces Mistakes

Mistakes in product development are not just common; they’re expected. However, the goal is to catch and address these mistakes as early as possible.

Concept testing serves as a feedback loop and offers critical insights into potential misalignments between the product and its intended users’ expectations or needs.

Supports the Development Process

Aside from validating ideas, concept testing supplements the development process with incredibly nuanced insights into consumer preferences, behavior, and expectations.

Such feedback can inspire innovation and uncover opportunities to add features or make changes that you haven’t thought of before. These improvements can further increase your concept’s value proposition and, consequently, its market appeal.

Increases Profitability

Making sure that a concept aligns with market demands and consumer preferences can help maximize your profitability.

Products or services that resonate well with the target audience are more likely to bring you higher sales, command premium pricing, and foster brand loyalty. The early identification of a winning concept allows you to allocate your marketing and production budgets more effectively, which helps maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Before we dive into how to concept test, let’s talk about the three main concept testing methods you can consider. Each method will have its unique strengths and weaknesses, depending on the particular concept you want to test.

Comparative Testing

Comparative testing involves presenting multiple concepts to the target audience at the same time to determine which one resonates the most.

This concept testing method is particularly useful for deciding between variations of a concept, making it easier to decide which features or aspects are most appealing. In turn, you can decide which concept to develop further.

Example: a beverage company tests three new flavored waters—cucumber mint, peach ginger, and lemon lavender—by setting up tasting booths at shopping malls. Survey participants try all flavors and then rank them, providing the company with direct comparisons to determine the most appealing flavor based on consumer preferences.

Monadic Testing

In monadic testing, each respondent evaluates a single concept in isolation and provides detailed feedback on its strengths and weaknesses.

This approach offers insights into a single concept in depth without the influence of direct comparison, which is why it’s the go-to method for in-depth analysis.

Example: A tech company developing a new smartwatch focuses on three features: fitness tracking, health monitoring, and battery life.

They divide participants into groups, with each group evaluating only one feature through detailed information and mock-ups. The monadic testing method allows the company to gather in-depth feedback on each feature without comparison interference.

Sequential Monadic Testing

The sequential monadic testing method combines elements of both comparative and monadic testing. This method has respondents evaluate multiple concepts one after the other and allows for detailed feedback on each concept.

However, there is still room for some level of comparison, which can provide a balanced view of each concept’s merits.

Example: A streaming service evaluating two new UI designs conducts a study where participants use and assess each design in sequence. They interact with UI Design A, complete a survey, and then repeat the process with UI Design B.

This method combines detailed individual feedback with the ability to compare preferences for the UI designs based on the same participants’ experiences.

The best way to conduct marketing concept testing is via surveys. Surveys can measure both quantitative and qualitative data , are easy to conduct at scale, and are relatively cost-effective.

Regardless of what concept testing method you choose, there are several best practices to keep in mind:

Set Clear Objectives

Before drafting your survey, pinpoint exactly what you hope to learn. Your objectives might include understanding consumer perception of your product, gauging interest in a new feature, or assessing price sensitivity.

These goals will shape your survey’s structure and content and help ensure each question will lead to meaningful and usable insights.

Use Various Survey Questions

Diversity in survey question types can widen the feedback and insights you receive. Mix open-ended questions to capture nuanced opinions and stories, multiple-choice questions for straightforward, quantifiable data, and ranking or rating questions to gauge preferences and priorities.

Here are a few examples of concept test questions:

• How likely are you to use/buy this product if it were available today?
• Which of the following features of [Product/Service] do you find most appealing?
• How would you improve this product/service? (Open-ended)
• How well does this concept align with your perception of our brand?
• What words come to mind when you think about this concept? (Open-ended)
• Compared to our current offering, how would you rate this new concept?
• If you had to choose between [Concept A] and [Concept B], which would you prefer?

Ask Demographic Questions

Understanding who your respondents are can be as important as understanding their opinions. Include questions about age, gender, location, and other relevant demographics at the beginning of your survey.

Demographic data lets you segment responses and tailor your analysis. Therefore, you can see how different groups perceive your concept, which can be invaluable for targeted marketing strategies.

Consider Likert Scales

Likert scales are a powerful tool for measuring attitudes and opinions across a spectrum. They ask respondents to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with a statement on a scale (e.g., from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree”).

These scales can provide clear, quantifiable insights into how your target audience feels about various aspects of your concept, from overall appeal to specific features.

Include High-Quality Images

If you’re testing a visual concept, make sure that the images you include are high-resolution. The same applies when you’re doing a comparison test on two or more concepts, such as logos, social media templates, and typography.

Clear and detailed visuals allow respondents to fully appreciate the nuances of the design, color schemes, and other aesthetic aspects, which leads to feedback that is more accurate and reflects their true perceptions and preferences.

Ask Multiple Follow-questions

Initial responses often only scratch the surface of consumer perceptions and preferences, which is why asking follow-up questions is a must. These questions provide clarity and detail and allow researchers to understand the nuances behind participant feedback.

Deeper insights are crucial for fine-tuning concepts, addressing specific concerns, and potentially uncovering innovative ideas or unexpected market trends that initial questions might not reveal. Plus, follow-up questions help you validate initial findings and back decisions based on data.

Concept testing is a versatile tool that you should use at various stages of the development and marketing process. However, there are a handful of situations where concept testing becomes a must rather than a nice-to-have:

Product Development

At the heart of product development, concept testing can validate your idea before you commit significant resources to it. In other words, concept tests let you know whether your product is heading in the right direction or not.

Concept testing helps you assess market needs, understand consumer preferences, and identify potential improvements or adjustments. Whether it’s a completely new product or an update to an existing line, concept testing can save time, reduce costs, and increase the likelihood of market acceptance.

New Website or Re-Design

An entirely new website or a major website relaunch is both expensive and time-consuming. Either way, you wouldn’t want your investment to go to waste.

When you’re either kicking off a brand-new website or revamping one that already exists, diving into concept testing can reveal what users prefer in terms of design and experience. Conducting a concept test helps you create a site that is visually appealing and user-friendly. Plus, you can gauge if your content communicates your message to the intended audience the way you want it to.

Brand Testing

Introducing a new brand or refreshing an existing one might come with a mix of negative and positive reactions. So, you need concept testing to gauge how existing and potential customers view your brand as a whole. This process might include logo testing, comparison testing for two different taglines, and gathering reactions about your typography.

Essentially, concept testing for branding answers critical questions: Does your brand’s voice echo in the hearts and minds of your audience? Are your values in harmony with those of your consumers? Does your visual identity captivate and communicate effectively?

Concept testing can serve as a preventative measure against misfires before you deploy marketing campaigns. It evaluates audience reaction to various elements of your ads, such as the messaging, visuals, and calls to action.

Then, you can use the feedback for further improvement and ensure the campaign resonates with and motivates your target demographic.

New Pricing Structure

Changing your pricing model is bound to come with some risks, especially if you’re raising the prices of your most popular products or services.

You can use concept testing to gauge customers’ reactions to price changes and understand perceptions of value at different price points. The results of your concept test make it easier to develop a pricing strategy that maximizes both revenue and customer satisfaction.

Marketing Messages

The success of your marketing efforts heavily depends on the clarity, appeal, and resonance of your messages with your audience.

Concept testing helps you determine which messages are most effective at engaging and converting your target audience. Plus, it serves as a helpful guide in honing your overall communications strategy.

Concept testing is not a replacement for product development, market research, ongoing customer feedback systems, or the ideation phase. Instead, it’s an early-stage technique to gather insights on initial concepts, mainly done to save resources and make sure you’re heading the right way.

In some cases, it can also be an effective method to identify the most promising concept among multiple options. This benefit can be particularly useful when you find yourself at a crossroads with more than one product idea with lots of potential.

In-depth concept testing is the secret to creating successful products that don’t require you to empty your development and market research budget. You’re not just finding out whether you’re heading in the right direction–you’re also saving resources that you would have otherwise unnecessarily spent without early-stage testing.

Want another way to save money? Use FullSession to see how your target audience feels about your product ideas, design concepts, existing features, and more.

FullSession gives you access to the best analytics tools, including:

• Interactive Heat Maps : Get visuals on where your users are clicking, what elements they find most interesting, and which ones they are ignoring.
• Customer Feedback Tools: Customize your own feedback forms and find out what your users really think about your website.
• Session Recordings and Replays : See how your users are interacting with your website and the potential frustration points they might be encountering.
• Market Segmentation and Filtering: Divide users into distinct categories for more comprehensive market research.

The FullSession platform offers a 14-day free trial. It provides two paid plans—Basic and Business. Here are more details on each plan.

• The Basic plan costs $39/month and allows you to monitor up to 5,000 monthly sessions.
• The Business plan costs $149/month and helps you to track and analyze up to 25,000 monthly sessions.
• The Enterprise plan starts from 100,000 monthly sessions and has custom pricing.

If you need more information, you can get a demo.

It takes less than 5 minutes to set up your first website or app feedback form, with FullSession , and it’s completely free!

How often should I do concept testing?

Whenever you’re making significant changes or introductions, the frequency depends on your pace of innovation and market dynamics. If you’re in a sector that’s constantly evolving, such as technology or fashion, you might find yourself engaging in concept testing more frequently to stay ahead of the curve. On the other hand, in more stable industries, you might dial it back a bit.

Is concept testing expensive?

It can vary, but the cost of not doing it—like launching a flop—can be far greater. For instance, digital surveys or focus groups can be relatively cost-effective, especially if you have access to an engaged customer base willing to provide feedback. On the other end of the spectrum, more extensive, in-depth testing methodologies involving prototype development or hiring external agencies can significantly increase costs.

Can I do concept testing in-house?

Conducting concept testing in-house is entirely feasible and can be an excellent way to maintain control over the process while keeping costs down. Many businesses successfully implement internal surveys, utilize social media polls, or conduct informal focus groups using their existing resources. 

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Product Testing

• Product Concept Testing

What is concept testing?

What concept testing is not, how concept testing fits into market research, what are the benefits of concept testing, an essential tool for product managers and executives.

• Three examples of successful product concept testing

How do you conduct a concept test?

Concept testing common mistakes and how to rectify them, learn more about concept testing, try qualtrics for free, your ultimate guide to concept testing.

20 min read Ensure you know how to product test new ideas correctly before they go to market with our essential guide to successful product concept testing.

It’s a tough job to manage the launch of your company’s products and services. You’re already facing several statistics that paint a grim picture of the reality of product launches:

• Only 55% of all product launches take place on schedule, and 45% of product launches are delayed by at least one month,  according to a 2019 product manager survey from Gartner .
• More than 25% of total revenue and profits come from launching new successful products across industries,  according to a McKinsey research survey .
• Preparing is the biggest problem when launching new products,  according to a Harvard Business School report .

Under this pressure, you want to make sure your product connects with your customer before it goes to market. By  doing the right product research , you’re checking that your assumptions about your customer are correct.

Product concept testing is an early  market research method that maximises the odds of you launching a product or service that people want to buy. You explore the viability of a product or service with its  target audience  early on and improve its development from the  feedback .

Concept testing is  not  a replacement for the ideation phase of a development cycle. Instead, it tests the basic idea that comes out of the ideation phase – whether it is fully formed or not. In this way, your target audience might vary as the product idea develops.

It’s also different from brand testing, advertising, or  marketing campaigns  – these promote the product or service when it’s near-complete or fully developed.

Free eBook: Introduction to product concept testing

Traditional market research requires audiences to choose from a company’s predefined criteria  to provide their feedback . It is one-way and ends when the company gets the answers they want.

Concept testing is different. It’s based on listening to the audience’s views and exploring how viable the concept is for them – without bias. You get their direct feedback on what they want, which might shed light on your blind spots. It’s an open learning process that goes both ways – you can continue to engage with the same target audience to get their take on your product developments as they happen.

It’s also a way to show good  Experience Management . At a product launch, your  brand’s perceived value  and the strength of your offering are directly linked to your profit and loss. Likewise, a disappointing loss can hurt internal staff morale, investor relationships, and future business ventures.

“Poor test-and-learn execution has been known to hobble a company’s fortunes for years to come.”

– Bain & Company

Based on its uses in the market, there are two main benefits of concept testing:

1. Leaders have actionable insights to make the right decisions

Mistakes and do-overs are costly, so it’s important to  utilise research and insights from your audience(s) to make the right decisions . Concept testing provides the granularity and depth researchers, managers and leaders need to make the right choices.

2. It helps you gain support for the concept at an early stage

If your plan for a product or service requires a lot of input from senior leaders or colleagues, providing them with a ‘first look’ at evidence can speed up the process and show the potential of the work they’ll be helping with. When a team is confident, there is more support and willingness to go the extra mile for you.

Why is this an essential tool for product managers and senior executives?

1. Concept testing can be a cost-effective and flexible solution

You can set up a  simple and quick survey  if you want high-level feedback, or you can delve deeper to understand more detail.

Concept testing is also a great money-saving technique as it prevents launching a faulty concept. And in comparison with the cost of outsourcing to  external market research programs , research for an internal concept testing project is cheaper.

2. Concept testing can help you optimise the product or service

The insights are evidence that can make you feel empowered to act with authority.

You can uncover or identify information that will have a true impact on your product development process decisions. A few examples are:

• How effective the concept’s  brand equity ,  brand image , and benefits are to the customer.
• The customer’s perception of the concept’s price range , buying preference, and how they might use it.
• The concept’s status among its  target market competition .
• The concept’s weaknesses (E.g. Is there unclear communication, low customer value, or an unmemorable product personality?)

You can also test multiple concepts at the same time to see which works best at solving your customer’s problem. If a product concept doesn’t work, invest in the ones that do make a difference.

3. Concept testing acts as a quality-assurance check over time

It’s common for there to be several rounds of concept testing, allowing product managers to check in with target audiences and optimise the offering.

Vary your audience to get different insights. You can use the same target audience for reflections on your improvements, or a new target market to get fresh insights on your design and developments.

Concept testing programs also lay the foundations for future benchmarks. Ideas that satisfy key criteria and land well with your audience can be used as barometers for new and/or similar concepts.

4. Research can help you build up good customer relationships

You can build brand and customer loyalty  and increase your brand equity value, by including your potential customers in the concept’s design and development.

As a brand, you look transparent and open to innovation. It’s also a great way to show you value the opinions of your customers. In addition to this, you should include a broader sample to understand if and how your concept appeals to wider audiences — you don’t want to innovate for just your current customers.

5. Companies that product concept test can avoid costly consequences

In 1957,  Ford spent the equivalent of $3.1 billion on the “car of the future,” the Ford Edsel. While Ford conducted consumer polls, they failed to implement feedback and many of the touted new features were unreliable.

Coors made a similar blunder when they attempted to enter the bottled water market in 1990. The packaging and branding of Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water were similar to Coors beer, which frightened many of Coors’ target demographic.

Three examples of successful concept tests

Some brands have leveraged the testing process to make decisions that have tremendous payoffs. They can cover lots of areas, including:

• A product’s marketing strategy
• Design concepts
• Go to market strategy
• Positioning testing

A few examples include:

• Emerging fashion brand Shinola used customer research to verify which watches to feature in their spring 2018 collection.
• Yamaha  used concept testing to make a product design decision about using a knob or a sliding fader in a new electronic keyboard. Understanding customer preferences has helped Yamaha maintain its top keyboard in the industry.
• Chobani  used product testing to adjust packaging in one of its new products, Chobani Oats and Ancient Grains. This helped the brand increase the user-friendliness of the product and maintain the top spot as Australia’s preferred yogurt brand.

We’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you create the best concept tests for your products and services. We cover these topics:

• Choose the right concept testing survey methodology
• Choose the right survey components for your concept test
• Choose the right flow for your concept test
• Identify the most promising concept

Or, you can also identify your most promising product concepts using our Concept Testing Tool . It’s an expert solution that tests and reveals what people think of your company’s concept ideas.

Step 1. Choose the right concept test survey methodology

For a successful concept test, in the early stages, consider which methodology will best fit your needs. Some of the most common survey methodologies include:

• Single Concept Evaluation (Monadic) – Respondents complete a full evaluation of a single concept.
• Multiple Concept Evaluation (Sequential Monadic) – Respondents complete full evaluations for multiple concepts.

Each product testing methodology comes with its own positive and negative trade-offs. Get a closer look at our pros and cons table below:

Step 2. Choose the right survey components for your concept test

Concept tests can easily be constructed once the researcher has determined the key components for the survey (which vary according to your purpose).

Carefully consider the objectives of your concept testing to make sure the measures used will successfully answer your team’s questions.

The major components needed for a concept test:

• Measurement for the overall concept reaction
• Concept need or relative improvement over the current method of doing things
• Overall reaction to the concept (acceptability, desirability, interest)
• Likelihood to purchase or use the concept

Components for detailed concept analysis evaluation

• Likes and dislikes about the concept
• Attribute list evaluation, e.g. quality, value for money, durability, tastes, and so on
• Whether the concept would be an addition or replacement
• Awareness of substitute and complementing products

Components for use situation evaluation

• Likelihood of use in specified situations
• Current use of similar / competing products

Components for value analysis

• Price sensitivity analysis
• Preferred method of purchase

Component for segmentation analysis

• Market segments of your target market that you’re most likely to use (order and prioritise)

Step 3. Choose the right flow for your concept test

The  flow of your concept test survey  ensures that audiences understand and buy into the survey they’re taking.

In the introduction section, make sure to introduce your survey in clear language. Qualify the respondent with a few suitability questions to make sure they fit your audience preference.  Ask demographic questions  to give the respondent initial easy-to-answer questions to get them started (you can use the results to also filter your results later).

Next: The main section. Here you can start to add in the core  survey questions . For example:

Establish a baseline of respondent’s buying history

• What brands have you purchased (within the product class) in the past three months?
• Identify purchase dimensions: number of bottles, frequency of purchase, frequency of consumption in a day
• Is the respondent an “early adopter” in the category?

Introduce the concept

Evaluate the concept as a whole.

• What is the perceived value of the product concept?
• How innovative is this concept?
• Is this relevant to you?
• What do you think about the packaging ? (Though not typically included in concept testing)
• What do you want to be different?

Explore the concept’s attributes

• What do you think about this X attribute? (Continue for each attribute)
• Is it good value for the money?
• Would it help you to… (do something more easily or better)?
• Would it improve your health?

Compare the concept

• What’s the concept’s power to replace the current brand you purchase?

Ask about respondent’s buying response now

• What is your likelihood of purchase?
• Where might you purchase from?
• Do you believe in the concept?

End the survey by thanking the respondent. You could also use this opportunity to remind them that their data will be stored securely, and it’s only accessed by the research team.

Check out one example of a concept testing survey below. You can  access this template for free, and begin using it immediately here.

Step 4. Identify the most promising concept

When you carry out concept testing, you’ll receive a lot of data back. If you’re using a turn-key system like the  Qualtrics Concept Testing Tool , you can pre-assemble data together quickly into reports. If you’re sorting the data by hand, use spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel to begin to sort, filter, compare and pivot-chart your results. You can also try to pull information into a visual format with the in-built charting tools.

We recommend splitting your analysis into two sections:

• Overall results will give you a high-level view of which concepts performed the best.
• Individual results will let you dive into each concept and understand how they performed and why. Here you can use  psychographic segmentation  to uncover more from your results.

Where qualitative analysis for open-ended questions has been captured, try parsing out common themes, strengths, and weaknesses. Using a tool like Qualtrics  Text iQ  can make this analysis quicker.

Some common mistakes when creating your concept tests are:

Mistake #1: Running concept testing on an idea in isolation

You might choose to run a test to get your initial insights, but then you stop there. This might provide you with the answers you wanted, but you may be missing out on the full benefit of comparing research data over time.

Solution : In advance, think about what you’re measuring and how you’ll use that information when you get it. This might direct you to use a different methodology or suggest whether you need to repeat the exercise to see if your product’s development is on the right track.

Mistake #2: Over-stuffing lots of ideas into one concept test survey

You may want to use the tool to compare lots of ideas in one survey and ask a long list of questions for each, to save time. Even if you explain this in the introduction, it could make your target audience’s experience long, tiring, and confusing.

Solution : It’s important to respect the time and energy of the targeted audience. For one idea, use the Monadic approach, which goes into depth on a single idea. For multiple ideas, try using multiple surveys that explore one idea each, and think about how many survey questions are reasonable to ask. This way, your target audience is clear about the focus of the survey and more likely to finish them.

Mistake #3: If you don’t get the answers you wanted in the concept test, you automatically cancel the idea

You find out that there is no demand or interest for your product ideas with your target audience. That could be a reason to stop investing your time and energy into the product’s development. However, this may be short-sighted as there may be potential profit in changing it.

Solution : The purpose of the research is to see what target customers think and feel about the idea. If it’s negative, then it could mean that the target audience is not interested at this time, or they are not the right audience. You may find more by testing more widely or trying again after some time. A bad result doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. This is also where an early adopter question is useful — especially if you feel your new concept is ahead of its time or the market.

Mistake #4: You assume the audience thinks like you do

You’ve got an in-depth understanding of the product idea, and you want to share this in the survey introduction. You may also want to share marketing and brand ideas now, as you’ve been thinking of them already.

Solution : Avoid using technical jargon or acronyms that won’t be immediately understood by your audience. They can be intimidating and confusing for survey participants.

Also, avoid making a strong marketing pitch. Adding this information now can suggest the idea is set in stone – remember that marketing and brand activities come in at a later stage when the idea is close to or fully formed and you don’t want to prevent getting honest feedback.

Mistake #5: You don’t adjust the survey to cater to all geographies

You may have an audience you haven’t considered. Trial your test in different countries to avoid missing out on expanding your product idea’s reach.

Solution : Where you want to widen your audience pool, consider translating the survey into the native language. In addition, you can use images as survey answers, displaying them together to see which is preferred.

As we’ve seen, concept testing is more than  getting feedback using a Likert scale . It involves considering the methodology, components, and flow of your survey for maximum impact.

It can be tricky to do and lots of companies are looking for support. Here are a few customers that turned to Qualtrics with their concept testing issues, and here’s how we helped them:

• Under Armour : This sports clothing and accessories brand struggled to scale its product testing with its current technology. By implementing the centralised Qualtrics Experience Management  solution, they were able to increase product testing from 100, to 10,000 testers.  Read more about this story.
• Pinterest:  This image sharing and social media platform was trying to find out what would make their platform number 1 with their customers. Feedback on potential product developments was the starting point for an entirely new feature set.  Read more about this story.

eBook: Introduction to product concept testing

Related resources

Product testing surveys 4 min read, product testing 13 min read, concept testing questions 10 min read, product feature research 10 min read, usability testing questions 17 min read, product research 25 min read, product-market fit 16 min read, request demo.

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Step-by-step guide to concept testing for new products

Concept testing is the process through which research is used to assess whether a new or updated product gives customers what they're looking for.

What is Concept Testing?

Concept testing use cases, concept testing for new product development, how to do concept testing for new products.

Concept testing is the process through which research is used to assess whether a new or updated product gives customers what they’re looking for. Through concept testing, brands can gauge customers’ receptiveness to their product, informing their go-to-market strategy.

For example, a well-loved soda brand can determine whether it will maintain its loyal fan base once it launches a new flavour, or a traditional bricks and mortar store can assess whether a new load of revenue will come in from an eCommerce expansion.

It makes sense to start your product concept testing right at the beginning of your product development process. This will ensure that you know there’s actually a need for your product long before you get into the details of its development and production. You should also continue to build on your product concepts throughout the whole of your new product development (NPD) process.

There are lots of different uses for concept testing for a business. Here are a few examples of key concept testing use cases to get you started:

New products and features

Loads of companies and product managers use concept testing in new product development. It’s a surefire way to get to the bottom of what your target market wants and needs, and how a new product idea like yours can benefit them.

Concept tests for your product ideas can help you by giving super granular insights into the opinions, habits and behaviours of your target audience. Something like a concept testing survey gives you the opportunity to get to the heart of what your customer base needs and expects from your products or new features.

New website or logo testing

Developing a new website or logo can be a long process that might end up being a waste of time if you’re not confident the work will be rewarded by increased conversion or more customers.

Through concept testing, you can find out the consumer acceptance of your website, rebrand or logo work. Building brand testing like this into your marketing strategy and your marketing campaigns will ensure you’ve done the necessary research and have the insights you need to make the best use of your time.

Identifying new customer segments

You might think you have a good idea of who your target customers are and that you only need to create a product that appeals to them, but don’t be so sure!

Concept testing can also be a really useful way for marketing and commercial teams to uncover potential customers that you might not have considered before. Market research on a large scale like this gives you an in depth understanding of markets, new customers and consumer needs you might want to tap into.

A key part of any product development is nailing your pricing strategy. You obviously want your product concept to make money for your business, but to make sure that happens you also need it to be positioned at the right price for your target customers.

Successful products are ones that customers are happy to pay for, so pitching your new concept at the right price for the market is crucial. Luckily concept tests give commercial and marketing teams the actionable insights you need to move towards your product launch.

Start testing your concept for free

Find out what real consumers think about your idea with this east concept testing template survey

A successful concept test strategy is an essential part of any product launch, from the ideation phase through development, to the final product and into the market.

For a product manager to deliver a successful product concept, it’s essential they have a full understanding of their target audiences, their entire product category and existing products.

There are a few tried and tested methods for concept testing , which we’ll explore later in this guide.

Let’s look at each stage where concept testing could be applied.

The four main stages of new product development are: identification, assessment, development and positioning.

At a minimum, concept testing should be a vital ingredient within each of these stages.

• Concept testing should be used first to help identify the key markets, and the gaps open in those key markets.
• Next comes the assessment of product-market fit, including the potential for comparison between concept options.
• Concept tests should be used during the development stage to keep a finger on the pulse of the target audience, ensure the product features meet their needs and that the market isn’t shifting significantly away from a demand for the product currently in development.
• Finally, concept testing should be used to optimise the positioning of the final product, including pricing, the packaging preferences, advertising copy, visual merchandising and so on.

Why concept testing is essential for new product development

It’s no secret that it costs money to test a product idea prior to launch. Businesses will often forgo testing in favour of intuition and experience of the market. This is obviously a risk. It might pay off, but backing up your different concepts with robust testing and product research before product launches is clearly going to put you on more solid foundations.

Research into the reasons business strategies fail found that nearly one in five CEOs say they fail because the strategies themselves are flawed. The same study found that four out of five failures are preventable.

Product testing is a massive part of creating and delivering a business strategy, so it’s clear that when it’s done well and thoroughly it can mean make or break for businesses.

Examples of concept testing for new products

When a concept test goes well, it can go spectacularly well. Here are a couple of examples of just that – concept testing that paid off massively:

Leading toy manufacturer Lego wanted to branch out their products to an audience they’d previously struggled to tap into – girls. Less than 10% of their sales came from girls so Lego saw massive opportunity here, but how do you become successful to a target audience that clearly isn’t a huge existing customer group for you?

Concept testing is the answer!

Through tests into play habits Lego found out that girls prefer to build entire environments and interior layouts, rather than single structures. So they developed a new product range to appeal to this target market, tripling the market for girls’ construction toys in just two years.

Yamaha, the world-leading manufacturer of a range of products, from motorbikes to keyboards, had a dilemma – should they use sliding faders or knobs on one of their biggest keyboard products?

Ever the innovators, Yamaha decided to ask musicians which feature they preferred. They sent out a concept test survey, gathering hundreds of responses from their target audience.

Using the insights they gained from their concept test surveys, Yamaha was able to confidently offer their customers a single concept they knew would resonate and create success.

And sometimes the lack of concept testing has disastrous results:

Cosmetics giant Avon made the move into retirement homes, hoping to engage a previously underserved target market. Due to a lack of understanding about what this market wanted and needed, the move ended up costing the company a whopping $545million.

There are some crucial steps to take when carrying out concept testing for new products:

Setting objectives

Selecting the right concept testing methods, choose the right tools, audience selection, pick the best concepts and share.

Right at the beginning of your concept testing process you should set out what you want to achieve. Your objectives should be clearly in line with your overall business objectives to make sure that your product concept test projects are useful for the business as a whole.

Your objectives could include:

• Quantify how likely your product is to be purchased by the existing/newly identified target audience.
• Determine how well the product will stand out among other competitors’ products. Will your existing features be enough to win over new customers?
• Discover which concept features would be most likely to encourage current customers to renew their membership, subscription or purchase from you again.

These are just three goals you could set to make sure you feel the benefits of concept testing.

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There are several methods for product testing. The different methods are generally differentiated by how your single or multiple concepts are displayed to your target audience. You’ll end up with a different set of data at the end of each method, and each will be useful to you in different ways.

Here are four essential methods of concept testing:

Comparison testing

For comparison testing, multiple concepts will be presented to your audience, and the respondents rate or rank each concept.

Comparison testing is a simple way to understand which concept or concepts resonate best with your target audience, but remember that it has its limits: you will have reliable data on which concept is best, but you won’t yet have insight into why your audience made these choices.

Monadic testing

Monadic testing is when you break your audience down into groups and each group is shown a single concept to evaluate. The great thing about this is that it allows you to go into greater depth about each concept, without asking your target audience to take too much time and effort answering a long concept testing survey.

Through monadic testing you’re more able to ask follow-up questions about your specific concept test, giving you more overall insight into why consumers made their choices. Think of it like large-scale focus groups.

Sequential monadic testing

As a combination of monadic and comparison testing, sequential monadic testing can give you the best of both worlds.

Just like monadic testing you split the target audience into multiple groups, but here you show them all of your concepts. This does mean that this type of market research can be lengthy and result in a lower completion rate overall. But it can also be a cheaper form of concept test, because the audience needed for sequential monadic testing is relatively small.

Protomonadic testing

This sounds more complicated than it is – it’s essentially a combo of all of the above! Protomonadic market research tends to include sequential monadic testing followed by a comparison test, where your audience chooses their favourite concept.

This allows you to gain a full understanding of your product concepts, as it covers the most useful aspects of sequential monadic testing and helps back up insights uncovered during comparison testing.

The simplest and most effective way to carry out your concept test surveys is to start using a tool that does the legwork for you.

Luckily for you there are loads of great tools out there that allow you to concept test, reaching real consumers around the world.

Find out how you can use Attest to get to the bottom of what your customers want .

To make sure your concept test allows you to confidently evaluate consumer acceptance of your product, choosing the ideal audience is key.

Your consumer responses need to tell you how likely your target audience is to buy what you’re offering, otherwise your product managers will have the wrong customers in mind during development.

A good place to start is by excluding consumers that wouldn’t ever be attracted to your concept. For example, if you’re developing a new type of baby food, you can confidently exclude consumers who don’t have children.

Make sure not to narrow your consumer range too much though. Most survey platforms, like Attest, allow you to filter your survey results, allowing you to analyse segments within your broader audience group once the results are in.

Sometimes you might wish to keep the net wide enough to capture both current and potential future customers. Asking for respondents’ current brand and market purchases, then routing the survey based on their answer to this question will allow you to dig deeper into the motivations behind their status as a current customer or not. Considering whether your concept seeks to grow new leads or build loyalty will help inform this decision.

Put simply, your survey audience should reflect how broad your target market could conceivably be.

Once you’ve carried out your concept testing, it’s time to evaluate your results and take the findings back to your business. If you’re a marketer, your marketing or commercial leads will want to know the test results. And your product colleagues will also be top of your list – they’ll need the insights you get to inform their product development work.

And you’ll want to start thinking about how to market your new product —take a look at our steps to make sure you get your product in front of the right people at the right time.

Concept testing best practices

There are some important dos and don’ts for when you’re organising and analysing your concept testing. Here are some things to avoid:

• Don’t forget about the Uniqueness Paradox. While ‘unique’ is a characteristic sought-after by marketers and product developers, measuring uniqueness through market research is infamously problematic, and the more unique a concept is, the lower its purchase intent can sometimes be.
• Don’t mix and match metrics across concept tests. Even something as simple as varying the wording of a survey question can skew results, so be careful not to be too inconsistent.
• Don’t cram too many concept testing questions into one survey. This one may seem obvious, but it’s surprising how easy it is to overload a survey with questions, particularly if multiple stakeholders are involved in its development. Too many questions will cause fatigue among your respondents, and your response rate might drop off or they might not pay much attention to your questions.
• Don’t forget to set a benchmark. It’s wise to include a benchmarking or control variable to directly compare results to. Adding a control, perhaps in the form of a previous concept that was successful, can help you translate the raw data into real-world application and results.
• Don’t encourage bias. It’s important to be aware of biases that are common in concept testing. Whenever you’re asking for a single or multiple responses, unless it’s necessitated by a scale, answers should be randomised to reduce primary bias. Without answer randomisation, responses could skew to the answers at the top of the list.

This has been a far-reaching guide to all things concept testing. Your next step should be to start testing your awesome concepts with real target audiences. Even if they don’t all think your concepts are awesome ( yet! ), at least then you’ll know.

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Nick joined Attest in 2021, with more than 10 years' experience in market research and consumer insights on both agency and brand sides. As part of the Customer Research Team team, Nick takes a hands-on role supporting customers uncover insights and opportunities for growth.

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5 cutting-edge concept testing examples and use cases to inspire you

Concept testing fuels innovation while reducing risk, giving you priceless customer insights to confidently launch your ideas. 

But nailing the perfect concept testing strategy for your specific use case can be challenging. You have to make countless decisions along the way—from selecting the ideal testing method to deciding which types of questions will yield the most actionable data.

Last updated

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This article takes a deep dive into five brilliant concept testing examples and use cases to show you how it’s done and guide your decision-making process. You’ll walk away with new ways to test prototypes and ideas to create customer satisfaction and delight .

Validate your ideas fast

Hotjar’s digital experience insights tools help teams conduct concept testing for a product that delivers.

5 ways to use concept testing (+ helpful examples)

Concept testing is a research method that lets you test early-stage ideas with real users, so you can validate your hypotheses and gather feedback for your next iteration.

You can conduct concept testing through one-on-one interviews, focus groups, or surveys . Many teams prefer using surveys as a quick and easy way to gather user input—and the Hotjar Surveys tool lets you validate your concepts with three free template options designed just for that purpose:

Concept tests show users a design or copy and ask them about their first impressions, what they liked, and what they didn’t like 

Preference tests let you share multiple designs with users to see which one they like best

Design satisfaction surveys let you show a particular design to your users and ask how satisfied they are so you know how to iterate on it 

Let’s look at five concept testing use cases where these templates work well—so you can gather the data you need to create customer-centric designs.

1. Logo preference tests

Your logo is a core part of your company’s brand identity. It works with other elements, like colors and tone of voice, to give your customers a distinct feeling about your company. 

But before you commit to a new logo design—which you’ll use everywhere—from your website to product packaging and emails—you need to see how your users react to it with a survey.

Here’s how a marketing team would conduct logo testing:

The challenge: a marketing team is leading a rebrand for an ecommerce company. They have two new logo designs and want to find out which resonates more with their audience. 

The solution: using Hotjar’s survey templates , they launch a preference test. They add an image presenting two logo options and:

Ask users to click a radio button to select the logo they prefer

Add an open-ended question to collect more feedback based on the user’s initial choice

Once that’s done, the marketing team launches this pop-over survey on their pages with the highest traffic to quickly collect as many responses as possible.

💡 Pro tip: ensure your on-site customer surveys pop up only for your ideal customer profile (ICP) by targeting certain user attributes . For example, you can set the survey to show only on mobile to paying customers who made a purchase more than two weeks ago.

Set up user attributes to target specific audiences for your survey to get the most accurate results possible

2. Wireframe tests

Wireframes are sketches of a new web page or app—and they’re a crucial step in the user interface (UI) design process. 

By testing wireframes via a design satisfaction or concept testing survey, you get early feedback and validate your vision before you invest further resources into product development and create a working prototype.

Here’s how a tech company might test a new wireframe:

The challenge: a product team in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company has a UI idea for their most popular feature, and they want to learn whether their highest-paying users would be satisfied with the new design, so they decide to run a test. 

The solution: they choose Hotjar’s concept test template, adding an image of the new design. The survey starts with a rating scale question that asks users to score the wireframe design from 1–5, and then follows up with open-response questions about what they liked most and least to understand the reasoning behind their decisions.

💡 Pro tip: continue testing long past the prototype stage. 

Once you’ve moved past the wireframe stage to a fully functional website or product, it’s time for usability testing . This process lets you see how real users interact with your product so you can find and fix bugs and user experience (UX) issues.  

Two main usability testing methods exist:

Moderated tests , where researchers interact with test participants by introducing the test and asking follow-up questions. ( Hotjar Engage 👋lets you recruit users from a pool of over 175,000 testers to do just this!) 

Unmoderated tests , where users explore the product or website without supervision. For example, session recordings reveal the mouse movements, scrolls, and clicks of anonymized individual users.

Use Hotjar Recordings to easily conduct unmoderated usability testing 

3. Packaging design tests

First impressions matter. In retail and ecommerce, packaging impacts a consumer’s initial reaction to a product. The right packaging catches a shopper’s eye and nudges them to purchase by showing that it's fun, sustainable, professional, and trustworthy. 

By conducting packaging preference tests, you keep customers’ wants and needs at the forefront of your product strategy. For example, you can ask questions about the packaging’s overall appeal or how likely the shopper would be to purchase an item with that design. 

Here’s what a packaging test looks like in action:

The challenge: a packaging design team has created basic prototypes of a shampoo bottle design, and they want to confirm that shoppers find the designs appealing—and different from what they typically see on store shelves.

The solution: the design team creates a questionnaire, using the design satisfaction template as a quick starting point. They upload a photo of the prototype to their website and ask users:

How much do you like this new product packaging? 

How different is this packaging design from what you see when shopping? 

How likely would you be to buy this product? 

What would you change about this packaging design?

The first three survey questions let users select an answer on a 1–5 rating scale, while the final question collects open-ended feedback. The team then repeats this process with their alternative packaging design.

💡 Pro tip: take a customer-centric approach by always asking testers at least one open-ended question in your concept testing surveys.  

Unlike close-ended questions, these bad boys allow users to express their opinions in their own words. They may take a few seconds longer to answer, but yield rich, actionable user insights. You learn which aspects of a design your customers care about most—so you can prioritize them in your iterations.

4. Naming tests

What’s in a name? More than you think. Whether you’re naming a brand, product, or feature, you need to find a name that appeals to customers and helps you stand out from the competition.

Running name tests lets you check if users can pronounce the term you’ve selected and see whether it strikes the right tone. For instance, testing may reveal that users see a name as young and fun, whereas your company was hoping the name would evoke professionalism and luxury.

Here’s how a company might run a naming test: 

The challenge: a product team is preparing to release a new feature. They have several naming options for it, but they’re not sure which one their users would prefer, or whether they have better naming suggestions. 

The solution: the team creates a three-question survey in Hotjar. They follow this simple process to set it up:

For the first question, they add the wireframe design and a brief description of the feature and ask, ‘What would you call this feature?’ as a short-text answer

Next, they follow up with a long-text question about their reasoning—why the participant chose that name 

Finally, they ask, ‘What would you call this feature?’ again, but this time as a multiple-choice question, where testers will select one of the provided naming options

With this test, the team walks away with a sense of how users perceive their feature, data on which option resonates, and user-generated name alternatives to inspire new thinking.

💡 Pro tip: only test one specific element at a time.

For example, if you're running a side-by-side naming preference test, use the same font or type treatment for each. Otherwise, testers may view these as logo designs and react to the design concept rather than the name itself.

5. Marketing assets tests

Marketing assets—like emails, social media ads, and website content—either make or break your campaign. They can mean the difference between stopping a potential customer mid-scroll and not even showing up on their radar. 

Running concept tests on marketing campaign elements helps you understand how users will react to visuals or copy—so you can tweak them before launching your campaign for maximum results.

Here’s how a company might test marketing assets:

The challenge: a marketing team is working on new ad creative to use in an upcoming campaign on social. They’ve narrowed down their options to three eye-catching designs and want to see which will get a higher click-through rate (CTR) . 

The solution: the team sets up a Hotjar survey, selecting the design satisfaction template. They use a Likert scale question with the image of the design asset and ask users how well it communicates the concept, repeating these questions for each marketing asset they want to test. 

💡 Pro tip: get ideas for your next campaign by viewing engagement zones with Hotjar Heatmaps.

Heatmaps have always let you see separate click, scroll, and move maps of how the average user interacts with your page. With engagement zones, you now get an overview of how all your heatmap data come together—with a grid over your page highlighting its most and least engaging parts.

For example, if a certain image halfway down your landing page falls squarely in a high engagement zone, consider testing it in a social media ad. On the flip side, if an image gets no engagement, steer clear of similar creative in your next campaign or product launch.

Engagement zones help you quickly discover appealing sections on desktop or mobile

Let customer insights shape your product ideas

With so many applications for concept testing, you may not know where to start. Our advice? Just dive in, letting your users guide your priorities. Testing ideas early and often lets you adjust your plans based on user feedback—so you spend less time and money fixing problems later. 

Use a survey template to start testing your concepts and prototypes in minutes—and quickly collect valuable insights about your customers’ needs to create a product or website they love. 

FAQs about concept testing examples

What is concept testing.

Concept testing is a way to assess user reactions to early business ideas or prototypes through surveys, interviews, or focus groups. The goal is for companies to gain confidence in their ideas before investing time and money to develop them further. 

What are some concept testing use cases?

Concept testing has wide-ranging applications for product, marketing, and tech teams. Some common concept testing use cases include: 

Wireframe tests

Packaging preference tests

Naming tests

Marketing assets tests

Why is concept testing important?

Concept testing helps companies develop empathetic designs based on users’ wants and needs. 

Many teams also use concept testing to gain buy-in from stakeholders. With data from concept tests, a team can make a case for a product’s viability and get the green light to move forward with the project.

Concept testing guide

Previous chapter

Concept testing steps

Next chapter

• A/B Monadic Test
• A/B Pre-Roll Test
• Key Driver Analysis
• Multiple Implicit
• Penalty Reward
• Price Sensitivity
• Segmentation
• Single Implicit
• Category Exploration
• Competitive Landscape
• Consumer Segmentation
• Innovation & Renovation
• Product Portfolio
• Marketing Creatives
• Advertising
• Shelf Optimization
• Performance Monitoring
• Better Brand Health Tracking
• Ad Tracking
• Trend Tracking
• Satisfaction Tracking
• AI Insights
• Case Studies

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Concept Testing Survey Questions To Ask (With Examples)

This blog guides you through what dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280758" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758"> dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280745">survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758"> questions are, which questions to ask in your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280744" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744"> survey , how dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing is beneficial, and how quantilope’s automated dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing approach can help.

Table of Contents: 

• What are concept testing questions? 
• Considerations when drafting concept testing questions 

Types of concept testing survey questions  

• Formats for concept testing questions  
• How to conduct automated concept testing with quantilope  

What are dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions?

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">Concept testing questions are types of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280746">market research questions used to gather current or dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280767">potential customers ’ views about a proposed product, service, dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280761">prototype , or any other type of collateral that could eventually go to market. 

Testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280782">new concepts before they go to market is a crucial part of the product/ dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280751">service dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280781">development dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280781" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280781"> process . Without knowing if your idea has dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280772">validity you’d be leaving its potential success entirely to chance by trusting only your own judgment; this can create a biased concept, especially if you’re not the prime dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280747">target audience for the final product, service, etc.

The most important type of information while generating a concept idea is whether your concept is likely to be a hit with consumers who are truly in the market for it. To determine that, brands use dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280744" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744"> surveys to ensure that information is reliable, useful, and actionable. The type of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions you ask, and how you ask them, need to be carefully thought through before your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280744" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744"> survey is launched. In the next section, we’ll explore things to keep in mind when drafting dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions. Back to table of contents

Considerations when drafting dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions 

The exact dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions you choose to include in your survey will depend on your business objective and the concept you’re testing, but there are some general factors to bear in mind when deciding what to ask.

Study goals

First, decide what the goal(s) of your study are. What kind of information about your concept do you want to gather from your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents ? You might want to know how unique the concept feels, which features of the concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents like the most (and why), which features they would remove (and why), how impactful certain design elements are, or how likely your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280757">target market would be to buy the product or service. Once you’ve established your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing study goals, these should serve as a guide for which dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280766">metrics to measure and which are the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280785">right questions to ask.

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280757">Target market

Second, think about who your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280757">target market is. The type of person you want to attract with your final concept will help inform your questioning; think about what they’re like as people, what their lifestyle is like, and what they might need from the product or service. Figuring out who your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280747">target audience is might even be a goal of your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing study, but anything you can gather in advance to steer your questioning will help make sure your concept will appeal to the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280778">right audience .

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">Concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280774">testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280774" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280774"> methods

Finally, the content of your study questions will be partially determined by the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280774">testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280774" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280774"> method you use. There are three main methodologies to consider for dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing :

A/B Monadic Testing

A/B Monadic Testing involves asking dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents to evaluate one concept in isolation. With monadic testing, equally structured dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondent groups are each shown just one concept to assess, with the advantage that brands can directly compare concept feedback to choose one winner, based on dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents ’ dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280770">in-depth reactions to a single concept (rather than reviewing multiple at a time). As an example of monadic A/B Testing , say dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents are evaluating a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280782">new concept for a carbonated beverage. The beverage brand would show equally-structured groups of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents a different version of the concept, and ask follow-up questions about what they’ve seen (do they remember certain elements of the drink, would they likely buy it from the shelf, what did they dislike about the concept, and so on.)

Conjoint analysis

Conjoint Analysis is another type of advanced method commonly used for dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing . With Conjoint Analysis, dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents are presented with a number of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280764">different concepts at once - each with a different variety of features. With this method, brands can design their ideal products and see which portion of the audience each concept captures. dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">Respondents will choose which concepts they prefer, which (via automated analysis) reveals which individual dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280763">product features they place the most importance on for a certain type of concept. The cool part about Conjoint Analysis is that though dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents are choosing an overall concept as their most preferred, brands can still deduce which aspects of the concept led them to that decision.

Using sneakers as an example, there might be three concepts shown: Concept A is a white sneaker with black shoelaces, a silver logo, and regular insoles; Concept B is a black sneaker, with white shoelaces, a purple logo, and cushioned insoles; Concept C is a white sneaker, with white shoelaces, a purple logo, and cushioned insoles. There may be more concepts than just these three, but the analysis would reveal which of the attributes (color of the shoe, shoelaces, logo, and sole type) most strongly influence the final purchase decision. With this advanced method, dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents are asked which ‘concept’ they would choose, and their individual preferences would then be inferred in the automated analysis.

Qualitative research

In contrast to quantitative dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280775">research methods like A/B Testing and Conjoint Analysis, qualitative research allows for a more spontaneous, dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280770">in-depth approach to gathering feedback - especially useful early on in the product or service dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280781">development process . Questions are open-ended, and follow the lines of: ‘What do you make of this concept idea?’, ‘Which specific elements of this concept do you like?’, or ‘Which parts of it don’t you like?’.  Consumer feedback gathered from qualitative research can reveal aspects of the concept’s appeal that a design team might not have thought of, which can be really useful for feeding into further quantitative rounds of research. Back to table of contents

Types of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280758" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758"> dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280745">survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758"> questions

After determining your study goals, dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280747">target audience , and types of advanced dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280775">research methods you might want to leverage in your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept test , you’ll start to draft your actual dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280758" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758"> dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280745">survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280758"> questions that dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents will see.

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280773">Screening questions

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280773">Screening questions ensure that the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents who complete your survey actually fit your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280757">target market credentials.

If you want to know whether a new sports sneaker concept will be successful in the market, there’s no point in asking consumers who don’t have any interest in buying or wearing sports sneakers. That being said, you might want your screener to allow for consumers who don’t wear sneakers themselves but do buy them for others. After all, you’re looking to get opinions from the person who will be making the purchase, whether they personally use your product/service or not. In this case, you’d ask a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280773">screening question like ‘Do you personally buy/wear sports sneakers?’ If yes, that dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondent will continue on in the survey. If they answer no, you’d ask a follow-up dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280773">screening question such as ‘Have you purchased (or plan to purchase) a pair of sports sneakers for yourself or someone else?’. If they still answer no to this question, this dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondent is likely not a good fit to provide feedback on your concept and will be ‘screened out’ of taking the survey.

You’ll also want to screen dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents by dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280756">demographics so that you’re selecting people who fall into your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280747">target audience age range or so that you have a representative sample group. You can set quotas on these demographical questions so that a certain percentage come from each age group, gender, region, etc. You can personally decide on those individual percentages based on your unique audience dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280756">demographics , or by following a representative sample based on something like the US census (if fielding in the US).

Concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280772">validation questions

Concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280772">validation questions are the questions that gather feedback on your concept - both the good and the bad. They will be guided by the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280766">metrics you want to measure (e.g. relevance, usability, appeal, uniqueness...) and will give you a good idea of which parts of your concept are liked most by your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280747">target audience , which ones need improvement, and which should be dropped altogether. This feedback will often feed into further iterations of your concept, which can be put into subsequent rounds of quantitative testing until you narrow down your best-performing features.

The kinds of questions you might ask for concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280772">validation are:

Which of the following best describes how you feel about this idea? (Love it, like it, neutral, dislike it, hate it)

How important are the following features? (Very important, somewhat important, neutral, not that important, not at all important)

How relevant is this concept to your lifestyle? ( Very relevant, somewhat relevant, neutral, not that relevant, not at all relevant)

For a deeper understanding of consumer responses, it’s useful to ask ‘why?’ as much as possible within your concept testing survey. This might mean including some open-ended answer boxes as follow-ups to rating scales, using logic around their responses (i.e. if a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondent answers 'not that relevant' or 'not at all relevant' - ask why it’s not relevant). It’s useful to know the reasons behind people’s preferences as this guides future concept ideation/creation.

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280762">Purchase intent questions

What you really want to know when you’re testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280759">product ideas is whether your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280757">target market is likely to buy the finished product. This is particularly important at later stages of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing  when you have a polished concept with all its features that you want to take to market. Like the examples we saw above for concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280772">validation questions, a dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280762">purchase intent question is often structured according to the 5-point dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280755">Likert scale (also see ‘ Formats for dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions ’ below):

How likely would you be to purchase this product?

Would definitely buy

Would probably buy

Might or might not buy

Probably won’t buy

Definitely won’t buy

General dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280746">market research questions

Getting a broader sense of the market into which you intend to launch your product will set the scene for how it will fit into a category. For example, is your assumed dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280757">target market the right one? Might your product attract consumers you hadn’t initially anticipated? How will your product be used - alongside others or as a replacement? You can ask consumers about their shopping habits and typical spending - anything that you want to know to give yourself a clearer idea of how your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280748">new product will fare in the market.

For example:

Which are your favorite brands [in X category]?

How much do you usually spend on this type of product?

When/how would you use this product?

Back to table of contents

Formats for dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions  

There are a number of ways in which dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing questions can be formatted.

5-point dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280755">Likert scale  

The 5-point dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280755">Likert scale is frequently used in dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280746">market research as it gives a good overall idea of where dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents stand on an idea - as you’ll see in some of the example questions above.

This format consists of 5 possible answers, often structured as follows:

How much do you agree or disagree with [X]?

Strongly agree

Neither agree nor disagree (sometimes displayed as ‘neutral’)

Strongly disagree

One advantage of the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280755">Likert scale is that it shows how many people are neutral about an idea, which in itself is revealing about how strongly consumers feel about your product or service.

This format can also be applied to other dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280766">metrics , including likelihood to buy (very likely, somewhat likely, neutral, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely); frequency (every time, almost every time, sometimes, almost never, never); and satisfaction (very satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied). These are just a few examples of how the answers can be written; you can include more or fewer levels of agreement/disagreement as you prefer, and tweak the language as it fits best to your question.

Ranking questions 

Ranking questions ask dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents to rank attributes or other items in order of preference. For example, you might ask them to rank different features of a sneaker from most to least important - like color, style, price, etc.

You can decide how many items you want dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents to rank, and how many they have to rank (i.e. dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondent must select their top 3 or dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondent can select up to 3).

Rating questions 

Rating questions are another kind of descriptive dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280766">metric question that asks dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents to score a concept or its attributes in terms of appeal, relevance, importance, and so on. This can be a numerical score (1-5), a star rating system (i.e. 1-3 starts), or any other form of rating.

To see what ranking and rating dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280766">metrics look like in a real study, check out quantilope’s grocery loyalty program study dashboard which compares these descriptive dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280766">metrics to an advanced method output: MaxDiff .

NPS questions

NPS (Net Promoter Score) questions ask how likely people would be to recommend a product (in this case, based on a concept) to other people. NPS is a great way to gauge the value consumers place on an idea, in terms of their confidence in telling others to buy it.

To learn more about NPS, check out this page on the method .

dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280752">Open-ended questions

As mentioned above, qualitative research is all about getting unbiased responses to dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280752">open-ended questions , which is important for an authentic picture of appeal and dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280762">purchase intent . However, you don’t always have to conduct a qualitative survey to ask these questions - you can include this style of questioning in a quantitative project too.

Instead of providing a list of possible responses to a question (like the dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280755">Likert scale , rating scale, and ranking scale questions), you include an open text field and ask dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents to type in their answers.

It’s worth noting that dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280752">open-ended questions are harder to analyze than pre-coded questions, so keep in mind the number of these questions that you include, especially if you have a really large sample.

Some examples of dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280752">open-ended questions you could ask are:

What do you like about this idea?

What do you dislike about this idea?

How would you improve this idea?

How to conduct automated dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing with quantilope 

quantilope offers an automated approach to reliable dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280771">product dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280771" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280771"> testing . Through its online Consumer Intelligence Platform, quantilope users can choose to start their dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744">concept testing dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-menu-id-param="menu_term_277280744" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280744"> survey based on a survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280749">template or build their dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280750">questionnaire from scratch with drag & drop modules. With a library of pre-programmed screeners, descriptive questions, and advanced dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280775">research methods , users have high-quality dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing right at their fingertips. Even dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280760">survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280749">templates are fully customizable to ensure your dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing is uniquely tailored to your business.

Along with quantitative dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280760">survey dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280749">templates and a question library, quantilope’s qualitative video research solution - inColor , offers brands the opportunity to gather dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing feedback in consumers’ own voices. inColor works by prompting dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280743">respondents with video questions and receiving video answers back. The automated technology on the backend then analyzes each video for things like keywords, facial expressions, and sentiments.

As dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing is often an iterative process, with successive versions of an idea being tested and built upon as consumer views come in, quantilope’s real-time platform is the ideal way to manage the concept testing process . Monitor consumer feedback as it comes in, share the study with colleagues or other dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280765">product managers with a single link, and generate actionable dashboards for stakeholders all in one end-to-end platform. quantilope offers three levels of research support based on researchers’ needs - from a DIY approach, to Do-It-Together with quantilope’s research team, to a fully managed study, you pick what works best for your needs.

To learn more about how quantilope’s dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280742">concept testing tools can lead to sound concepts and dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280769">successful dropdown#toggle" data-dropdown-placement-param="top" data-term-id="277280753">product launches , get in touch below!

Get in touch to learn more about concept testing with quantilope!

Related posts, a full year of better brand health tracking in the soda category, non-probability sampling: when and how to use it effectively, survey results: how to analyze data and report on findings, how florida's natural leveraged better brand health tracking.

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Concept Testing in UX: Moving Forward with the Right Ideas

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3 Real-life concept testing examples

Learn how companies Todoist, NewsWhip, and Better Proposal used concept testing to test and validate the right ideas to move forward with.

Reading about concept testing is all well and good, but putting it into practice is another story. We’ve asked our community for three examples of concept testing to help you figure out what concept testing goals, methods, and questions may be best for you and your product.

Set a test, be the best

Concept test your product using Maze to confidently move forward with the right ideas.

Example 1: Todoist validated their new Boards feature

Company: Todoist , a to-do list software

Todoist were aware that lots of their customers were clamoring for the Boards feature. With this in mind, their Product Designer Alex Muench says, “We knew it was important to get the first version right so that [it] fits our product and user’s needs.” That’s where concept testing came in.

The product team decided that the aim of their concept testing was to “figur[e] out how to focus on the key features that build a solid foundation for the future and make our users happy.”

Conducting the test

In order to obtain the necessary insights, Alex and his team “contacted people who have requested the feature in the past and interviewed 17 of them from our worldwide user base in 30-minute 1:1 sessions.”

The questions they asked

• “We asked questions about understanding and adapting to the board view concept inside Todoist and how it enhances their workflows.”
• “We also tried to get insights into the transition to this view and if we designed the interface in an intuitive way.”
• “Lastly, we tried to find out if this new feature meets people’s expectations. We kept the interview script structured but also open at the end to allow participants to share any ideas and wishes they might have.”

Using the data

The concept test helped Alex and his colleagues “identify the most relevant usage patterns and were then able to prioritize specific requests regarding sections.”

The results from the test allowed them to roll out the Boards feature to a favorable reception from their customers. As Alex puts it, their research helped them “ship a beta feature that was perceived as very mature and at the end led to a successful public launch that met our user’s needs.”

Example 2: NewsWhip rolled out a new Top Authors Leaderboard feature

Company: NewsWhip , a social media engagement analytics firm

NewsWhip was looking to launch a Top Authors Leaderboard feature with the expectation that other Leaderboard features could follow.

As NewsWhip Product Manager Grainne Conefrey explains, “We wanted to work very closely with users to get the first version right because we were aware that what we were introducing is the foundation of other Leaderboard types that we wanted to work on in the future.”

After their ideation phase, Grainne and her team whittled down the concepts to a few that they felt would best meet their users’ needs. They started concept testing in order to ensure the Top Authors Leaderboard’s success and pave the way for future Leaderboard iterations.

The team set up 30-minute one-on-one calls with users “who had requested this feature, who had been using this data in our tool (because it was available in other parts of the tool), and who'd been showing an interest in this data and understanding it more.” Each user was introduced to one of the concepts Grainne and her team were considering on the call.

• “We asked them more about the problem area and more about what their needs were, so we could capture that upfront.”
• “We asked them questions around their first impressions and if they could describe certain elements of the feature to us to make sure our language was industry standard and easy to understand.”
• “We asked questions about usability and the navigation around the feature as well.”
• “Since we were introducing a new way of ranking the authors into our product, we also asked them to explain the ranking back to us so we could see if they understood the ranking system.”
• “We asked questions around our visual elements to make sure it was beneficial there and it was providing an easier way to interpret the data.”
• “To get a better understanding of the value of the feature as we went, we asked how users would include it in their workflow.”

Grainne says through these one-on-one interviews, her team was able to solidify their core values and eliminate friction:

“Concept testing really helped us to narrow down core values and narrow down on areas where we could make things a little easier for users. We also identified a couple of opportunities as well to come back to at a later stage.”- Grainne Conefrey, Product Manager at NewsWhip

With the feedback from the interviews, Grainne and her team set about eliminating areas of friction and identifying opportunities they could iterate on in the future. “These were just kind of small delighters that were identified by users during those calls. They were bigger elements that we could iterate on, but they weren't part of our core value add there,” she says.

Once they refined their design, the product development team used concept testing again, “making sure that we interpreted everything they said in their feedback and that we captured everything important to them.”

In the end, Grainne says that concept testing was useful because it helped them to remove any early friction in the products before the launch, making the Top Authors Leaderboard feature more intuitive. Since then, Grainne and her team have released two additional Leaderboards using the same structure.

Example 3: Better Proposals tested their blog strategy

Company: Better Proposals , online proposal making software The team managing Better Proposals blog was unsure of which type of blog content to create. Petra Odak, the Chief Marketing Officer, says, “we were doing a mix of SEO-focused keywords and content based purely on our own experience with sales, marketing, and product development.

While the first type of content brought in new visitors from organic search, the second type of content kept our existing readers coming back to our blog.”

The challenge? Finding out which content the team should continue creating for their blog.

Tests conducted

The Better Proposals team went ahead and “asked our subscriber base what they thought.”

• “How would you rate the quality of our content on a scale from 1-5?"
• "Where have you found our blog? (recommendation, newsletter, Google search result, social media)"
• "Which posts do you read the most? (Listicles and marketing type of content vs. Content describing our own experience with sales and marketing)”

Results gathered

From the concept test survey , Petra and her team learned that the readers’ interests showed “a 50/50 split between the two types of content.”

For them, this meant they continued creating both content types. Or, as Odak puts it, “we now write content both focused around specific SEO keywords and based on our own experience so we can get the best of both worlds.”

Final words

The benefits of concept testing are undeniable, and their usefulness persists throughout the product development process. As Grainne puts it, concept testing in its many forms “provides insight into how users perceive your idea, if it solves a problem for them and if they are willing to pay for it.”

You have the tools now to pick the right concept testing methods for you and your team. With those at the ready, you can craft solutions that are data-informed and user-centred.

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