Thought Exercise: Customer Testing

Agile Strategy

What is it?

It’s getting direct feedback from customers who use your product or service.

Why do it?

There’s no better way to understand what your customers truly think of your product than to find out firsthand from the customers themselves.

When to do it?

Do it throughout the life cycle of the product because all feedback and customer engagement is good, but specifically when debating, for example, one new recipe over another or a new packaging or branding design.

How to do it?

Guerilla testing: When you’ve got little budget or time, simply grab your designs and take them to the nearest person. The idea is that some feedback is better than none at all.

Structured testing: To specifically solicit the feedback of customers and those that you’d want to be exposed to your product, set up the two designs or recipes side-by-side at your stand at the farmer’s market or on the sidewalk at a community gathering. You can ask for verbal feedback, have people fill out comment cards, or even have them vote in two separate jars or shoeboxes with paper votes or spare change (a la Kickstarter) for one idea they particularly favor.

The agile flavor

Guerilla testing is probably the most agile flavor of customer testing as it’s quick, relatively easy to do, and free. Divide the project team into small task forces to get more feedback from a wider range of people in a shorter amount of time. Naturally, ensure that each group have a supervisor, as they will be interacting with strangers. Further, define boundaries and set up a common time and place to meet back up.