The 5 Critical Questions to Ask When Testing Ideas

Do you want to evaluate a new idea but not sure where to start? Evaluating a new idea is always a good idea before you introduce it into the market. Here are a few common reasons you might want to test:

Is it worth the investment – before sinking time and money into expensive people and capital resources, figure out whether it will pay back.  Understand its sales potential.

Optimize - make adjustments to things like price, packaging, naming, messaging, etc. so you launch with an optimal product.

Catch any red flags – does the name connote something you hadn’t thought of?  Do you have the right target audience?

Once you’re ready to do market research on a new idea, there are 5 critical questions to ask when testing ideas.  This blog will cover all 5, and one bonus question, in more detail below.  This will focus on products specifically, but you can apply these same principles to services too.

Identify whose feedback you need

Before you start gathering feedback, define who you want to hear from and why. Clarity here ensures that your research is focused, and that the results are actionable.

Here are a few groups worth considering:

Current customers – Understand if this idea would be in addition to or instead of what they currently buy.

Potential customers – If growth is a priority, check your product’s appeal among those who haven’t purchased your products yet.

Competitor customers – Learn whether your product is competitive. Would they buy this instead of a competitor?

Lapsed customers – Learn if this idea would bring them back.

Once you know who to survey, you can move on to the important questions that form the foundation of a simple, effective new product idea evaluation.

Question #1 – Purchase Intent

This should be the first question to understand if it has potential without the influence of any other questions. Their response will give you a clear measure of overall purchase interest.  Just make sure that you have a price included with the idea that they’re evaluating.

Use a rating scale (often called a Likert scale).  You can pick how many points you want on the scale, but usually a 5 or 6-point scale – like the one below – is good.  Sometimes anything larger can be harder for respondents to choose an answer.

Which statement best describes how interested you would be in buying [insert product name here]?

1. Definitely would buy

2. Probably would buy

3. Might or might not buy

4. Probably would not buy

5. Definitely would not buy

Question #2: Why

Follow up with an open-ended “why.”  This gives context to the rating and helps you understand what’s driving positive—or negative—purchase interest.  Open-ended questions allow for more in-depth thoughts from the respondent versus forcing them into a choice.

To make this research actionable, you have to know what to do about it.  What is driving positive or negative purchase interest and are there any common themes that you can address?

If your survey tool doesn’t let you connect responses, consider splitting the question into two parts:

Q: What, if anything, do you like about [product]?

Q: What, if anything, do you dislike about [product]?

Or keep it simple:

Q: Please explain why you gave that rating.

Tip: Always ask this after the initial rating, so you don’t bias the score.  Sometimes, when respondents are forced to think about why they like or don’t like a product, it can skew their overall purchase interest rating.  You want that to be as unbiased as possible, so you get a realistic read on the potential of your product.

Question #3: Do they like it?

This question may seem redundant to question #1, but it actually provides a way of understanding pricing.  In the first question, we asked about purchase intent, but we don’t know if those responses were heavily influenced by the price.  Of course, price is always an important factor, but that might be the only reason someone wouldn’t buy your product.  This question, in combination with the next question about value, will help you assess if they actually like the product, but the pricing is off.

You can pick how many points you want on the scale, but usually a 5 or 6-point scale – like the one below – is good.  Sometimes anything larger can be harder for respondents to choose an answer, but if you want more granularity in the answers, a scale that’s up to 9 or 10 points can also work.  But keep in mind that respondents will have a harder time responding reliably and consistently.

Q: Which statement best describes how much you like or dislike [insert product name here]?

1. Like it extremely well

2. Like it very well

3. Like it quite well

4. Like it somewhat

5. Like it slightly

6. Not like it at all

Question #4 - Value

This question is a good way to assess if price is negatively impacting purchase interest or whether it’s priced just right.  And when combined with the previous question about liking can help you understand if you’re on the right track or need to spend more time optimizing the idea.

This question is most useful as a rating. 

Q: Considering the price for [insert product here] which statement best describes how you feel about the value of this product?

1. Extremely good value

2. Somewhat good value

3. Average value

4. Somewhat poor value

5. Extremely poor value

Question #5 – Uniqueness

It’s important to understand whether your new idea will be any different than what is currently in the market.  It will have more potential if there is something unique about it. 

That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a good idea that’s like other ideas in the market, but there is more potential if it’s unique. 

That said, maybe your idea is a better version of what’s out there – consumers may or may not see that as more unique, but it still is viable because it’s meeting a consumer need that others are not.

Q: How would you rate [product] in terms of being unique, that is new or different, than other products currently available?

1. Extremely unique

2. Very unique

3. Somewhat unique

4. Slightly unique

5. Not at all unique

Bonus Question: Incrementality

This is an optional question depending on whether your new product idea is appealing to current consumers.  When you introduce a new product to an existing product line, you usually want it to lead to incremental sales, or you want current customers to trade up from a lower margin product to a higher margin product.

The razor category is a perfect example of this.  Each new razor is better than the last one – more blades per head, ergonomic handle, etc.  And they cost more, so customers are moved up to higher margin businesses which drives profitability.

This question type is a very simple approach to gauging incrementality but is not as precise as some other ways that lend themselves to statistical modeling to get at a more granular answer.

Q: Thinking about this [product] which of the following statements best describes how this would fit into your purchasing:

• Would buy this instead of other similar products I currently buy.  Note: if you have specific products in mind you can include them in this question rather than leaving it generic.

• Would add this to the products I currently buy

• Would not buy this product

It’s Not Just the Questions to Ask but The Concept Board Too

As part of any new idea evaluation, you need to present the idea in an easy way so consumers can quickly understand what it is – that’s the concept board.

The concept usually has the name of the product, the price, where they can find it, a short description and preferably a visual of the product.  That visual can be a sketch, drawing or picture.  It is strongly recommended to include a visual as a text-only concept leaves it up to the consumer to visualize what it is, which may not be what you had in mind.

Spend time getting this solid to make sure your message is clear and communicates the key benefits of the product.

How do you collect feedback when testing a new idea?

You don’t need anything complicated to run this survey.  Free tools like SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics make it easy.  For instance, you can send a survey link to your email list or post it on your social media.  Survey answers can be easily downloaded into a spreadsheet like Excel which will make it easy to analyze the results.

To Review – The Key Questions to Ask When Testing Ideas

In summary, below are the key questions to include in any new idea evaluation:

1. Purchase Intent

2. Why/Why Not

3. Overall Liking

4. Value

5. Uniqueness

6. Incrementality (optional)

Testing a new idea doesn’t have to be expensive or complex. With just a few well-designed questions, you can uncover valuable insights about a new idea —and make confident decisions about how to move forward.