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Physical Product Concept Testing 

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4 minute read

Ascertaining customers' perceptions of and level of trust for a new product concept.

The Challenge
One pain point that we knew many chemists have is the amount of time and effort involved in making their own buffers for LC-MS (liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry) work. Some users even had an additional pain point: the time and effort involved in finding the correct reagents for their buffers. In some labs, this was likened to a "scavenger hunt."

The project team wondered whether a pre-filled buffer pack would solve these problems. The buffer pack would be a concentrate that would simply need to be dissolved in water, without any need to adjust concentration or pH. But the question remained: would users trust it to be an accurate and usable buffer? Would they trust it just as much as, if not more than, buffers they made themselves?

The goal of this concept study was to get answers to these questions before fully committing to production of such a product.

The Team
I was the UX researcher on the project team, which also consisted of two chemists, a creative specialist, and a content strategist.

The Prototype
The chemistry team created a set of prototype buffer packs, complete with a makeshift label and instruction sheet. We decided to conduct this research project with two sets of participants: 1) external customers and 2) internal users (Waters chemists).

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, we were not able to bring customers on-site to test out the prototype, so we decided on two frameworks for the study: one for employee participants and one for customer participants.

• Waters chemists: It would be easy enough to have employees physically test out the prototypes, so they were asked to 1) try out the prototype in their labs, 2) read through a brochure explaining the product concept, and 3) answer a survey.
• External customers: These participants could not come on-site and the logistics and timing didn't allow for mailing prototype packs to them, so they were asked to 1) read through the same brochure as the internal participants and 2) answer a similar survey.

Research Questions
The project team wanted the concept study to answer the following questions:

• ​Would customers trust a product like this (using "instant sauce") rather than making their own buffers?
• Would they use a product like this in their lab?
• What do they think the benefits are for a product like this, and what concerns do they have?
• What are the differences, if any, between external customers and internal users in terms of answers to these questions?

UX Research Method: Unmoderated Diary Study with Survey
I recruited 10 chemists online through UserInterviews.com (some of whom were Waters customers), as well as 6 internal Waters chemists.

I worked with the project team to design the brochure and the survey. Participants were first asked how many stars (out of 5) they would give the product concept.

Later on, they were presented with a list of potential benefits, and they were asked to choose which ones they think this product concept offers.

Lastly, participants were asked to rate the level of trust they felt with this product concept.

The Bottom Line
The product concept earned 4.1 stars out of 5 overall, with a slight difference between external and internal participants (4.2 vs. 3.8, respectively). The biggest differences between external and internal customers were around trust. The internal participants, being the only ones who were able to actually try out the prototype in their own labs, had reasonable concerns across the board that only came up with a few external participants (who were not able to try out the prototype).

Overall, this first version product concept was deemed a success, and the project team decided to produce a second version, which will eventually go through the UX research process, too.