Product Testing

Back in the heyday of landline phones, TRS-80 (the Radio Shack desktop computer, not the drum+synth band), and broadcast TV, Orson Welles, one of the most innovative filmmakers of all time, made a series of commercials for Paul Masson winery, always concluding with the promise: “We will sell no wine before its time.” A renowned innovator touting patience and process as positives seems like a quaint idea now, but it connected with the public and, along with Welles’ imperious reading of it, was often repeated and parodied.

However, it wasn’t too long before the digital revolution popularized its antithesis: we will only sell “wine” before its time so we can get a cash infusion, build our user base, and worry about perfection later. Much of the public was willing to make the trade-off between having something finished and having something new, betting that it would fulfill its promise over time.

For significant portions of the commercial universe, product testing transitioned from a pre-launch activity conducted with research participants to a post-launch activity delegated to customers. This model was more common for digital and subscription-based products, but the pressure to get to market faster impacted more established products, too.

Lately, however, technology has become an avid enabler of product testing, and, ironically, particularly for digital products and marketplaces. Nowadays, if you search the internet for “product testing,” you are likely to find digital product testing to be very prominent, but you might have to look twice because it shares much of the same terminology with physical product testing.

Despite their common vocabulary, digital and physical product testing face fundamentally different challenges, especially with respect to time and scale. Creating physical prototypes, distributing them widely to testers, and observing how they interact with them is time-consuming and costly, especially as more iterations are required. Technology can help streamline this process.

For example, by gathering data via smartphone apps, platforms give you a broader yet deeper view into how your products are used and experienced. They can capture in-the-moment reactions, such as video or verbal commentary, as well as reflective feedback, such as surveys. Some measure non-conscious reactions, such as eye movement or biometric response, during usage, and all-in-one platforms for IHUT can streamline distribution of prototypes. Platforms also provide analysis tools for all these kinds of data plus ways to collaborate with a larger team.

Augmented and virtual reality approaches can improve prototype creation and distribution as well as data quality. Virtual prototypes can make it easier to distribute “products” more quickly as well as cut cycle time between iterations. They can also provide a richer, more immersive user experience, yielding data that better matches how customers would experience the real product post-launch.

Without product testing, products are more likely to fail, and, without successful products, who needs branding, marketing, or market research? This showcase should be engaging for anyone working in those areas who wants to see how all these elements come together when products are used, and, of course, it will be especially captivating for those in product research, product management, or R&D.

Professional interests aside, who doesn’t have an interest in testing new products? There are no less than 30 organizations who focus on recruiting product testers, some with millions of panelists. Product testing seems like a popular activity, so maybe you’ll have a personal interest in this showcase, too?

On the other hand, if you think IHUT is Apple’s take on affordable housing, this showcase is probably not for you.