Product Development
Companies not infrequently spend a great deal of time and money developing innovative products that turn out to be flops in the everyday, real-life market. Unsuccessful developments of this sort could often have been avoided via early market surveys that take up only a fraction of the development budget.
Need Analysis and Concept Tests
At the start of the development, people often set technical parameters that subsequently exclude certain product features or only make them
possible if a huge amount of time and effort is expended. If it should happen that one of these features later proves essential for market
success, it's virtually impossible at this stage to change course.
In order to investigate customers' wishes, we primarily use in-depth interviews, focus groups, conjoint analyses, and the repertory grid method. For example, conjoint analysis allows one to experiment with fictitious products before they're launched onto the market or before they're actually developed and produced. Products can thus be adjusted as early as the development phase to fit market requirements and the needs of the respective customer segments.
A concept test can focus upon individual product components or the product as a whole. In order to concretise the assessment by potential customers, one can carry out a direct comparison with your competitors' products. You can thus maximise the acceptance of your products and services long before they actually enter the market.
Closely linked to the concept test, we generally also carry out research into pricing so as to develop a price concept that maximises your profit at a given turnover.
Usability Tests
Usability tests check the usability of products and services. In many cases, usability tests relate purely to
website evaluations.
However, with other technological innovations, from mobile phones to online music stores, usability tests can uncover crucial problems
encountered when customers use the product or service.
Our project managers are versed in the latest technology and have the necessary specialist knowledge to develop suitable test designs even for complex technological products or services, and then to implement them in practice.
In doing so, we not only identify satisfaction drivers, but also factors of a technological nature that may critically affect the launch. Despite the company carrying out intensive product tests, certain technical problems sometimes only become apparent once the product is tested by a number of different users. Since the product is often to some extent not yet fully developed at the time of the test, this also presupposes regular communication and interaction with the developers.
One result that is particularly important for the customer here is a detailed description and documentation of technical problems encountered with the product, which nevertheless requires a sound technical understanding. On the basis of these detailed reports, technical problems can often be overcome before the launch, or at least be described so clearly in the operating instructions that they don't become a problem for the end customer.
Based on the test results, we also investigate which changes to the product have the greatest impact on the satisfaction and pleasure derived from using it. At the same time we also include the costs incurred by the company in changing the product so that you only receive proposed improvements that can actually be realised within a manageable timeframe and with a reasonable cost-benefit relationship.