Understanding Customer Abilities in Product Concept Tests

Judicious application of concept tests to specific situations contributes not only to the success of the product but also to the success of the product manager. Recognizing respondent limitations helps product managers estimate risk of product failure as well as explain failure to higher management. Respondents have limited ability to keep track of large numbers of items. New situations make categorization difficult. Respondents can seldom imagine or project beyond the test into an actual buying situation. Inadequate risk evaluation hampers decisions and ratings. Design tests falter when the full range of critical issues is not included. Managers improve success probabilities by using more stages in testing, simplifying requests of respondents, and adequately framing the evaluations to be made.