5 - Is this a good idea?
By Kate DowlerExploring early ideas with consumers during the innovation process can be challenging. When should you do it? How should you do it? In fact, should you do it at all? Here are four of the key problems you’re likely to face and how you can overcome them.
Exploring early ideas
Over the years, I’ve had many debates about the best way of getting consumer feedback on early ideas during the innovation process. When should you do it? How should you do it? What stimulus should you use? In fact, should you do it at all?
Of all the different types of consumer research, exploring early ideas is one of the most challenging. It’s easy to do, but difficult to do well. A poorly executed study can result in ideas with strong future potential being rejected - perhaps because they are unfamiliar, because they are early propositions that need more shaping, or because they are intended for a future world which is hard to imagine.
Here are four of the key problems you’re likely to face, and what you can do to mitigate them.
Over-thinking
The problem with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think, and they don't do what they say. David Ogilvy
Many traditional research methods rely on showing consumers early concepts and asking them what they think. What tends to happen is you get an over-rationalised list of pros and cons (System 2 thinking), but don’t manage to tap into how people really feel about the idea, or how it might influence their behaviour (System 1 response).
Solution: Approaches that allow people to experience the idea in some way are more likely to trigger an emotional response and give a better idea of how someone might instinctively respond in real life. Experience prototyping is a great example. By simulating key touchpoints of the intended product or service experience, it’s possible to introduce early ideas in a more immersive way that allows you to observe instinctive behaviour and then have a discussion about it.
Distracted by the detail
The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up. Chuck Palahniuk
One of the biggest challenges when presenting early ideas is that they are still at an embryonic stage. They’re not yet fully resolved or developed - particularly in terms of the execution. I’ve been in many research sessions in the past where consumers have rejected an idea because of the way it’s been presented: “I don’t like the colour” or “It looks too old-fashioned”.
Solution: Deconstructing an idea into its different elements can be a powerful way of exploring it more fully - by focussing the conversation on key elements of the product or touchpoints of the experience in turn. It’s also really useful when you have a number of possible variants or options for each part of the concept. Combining this with the experience prototyping approach above, you end up with a number of hands-on exercises. For example, if we were designing a new smartphone, we might use material swatches to explore possible textures and finishes, physical block models to illustrate options for shape and size, and a card sort exercise to explore different options for functionality. By keeping each exercise focussed on a particular interaction point, you avoid unwanted distractions whilst allowing for a fuller exploration of different options.
Too new
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer
One of the biggest challenges with presenting disruptive new ideas is that they can be rejected as too radical, or different. A number of cognitive biases are in play which make us gravitate towards things that are familiar and known - the familiarity heuristic, status quo bias and mere exposure effect to name a few. A famous example here is Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner which was initially rejected when presented to consumers in a focus group scenario.
Solution: One technique which can help you to move beyond initial rejection based on “newness” is to build in a repeated exposure to the idea, for example a week later, to explore what happens as the idea becomes more familiar. This also simulates what happens in the real world, as new products are introduced and awareness and interest grows through repeated exposure.
The future’s not here yet
And we danced, on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past. John Wyndham
Today’s consumers may not be the best judge of ideas which are intended for a future world, and this challenge is amplified the more “far out” your ideas are in terms of their potential launch date. In the future, people may have different attitudes, habits and beliefs, and the world around them is likely to be different in ways that have a fundamental bearing on the perceived appeal and utility of an idea.
Solution: There’s no magic wand that allows you to speak to future consumers, but there are interesting techniques you can use to get people into a future mindset. One of my favourites is cognitive visualization - an immersive technique that harnesses the power of the imagination. Participants are asked to close their eyes and listen to a narrator describing parameters of a future world. Each person uses their own imagination to place themselves in this world, filling in details such as the specific sights, sounds and events going on around them (think the film Inception!). Having experienced this personalised version of a future world or scenario, people are much better placed to respond to the ideas with a future-facing mindset.
So, should you do it?
A carefully designed consumer study can be really valuable in helping to explore, build and interrogate early ideas. It’s important to be aware of the (many!) potential pitfalls but these can be managed through spending extra effort on planning the right approach and stimulus and not taking everything you see and hear at face value. Instead, read between the lines and combine the learnings from consumers with your own intuition and judgement to take the right ideas forward.