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Kadence International

How do you enter a new potential market?

Expanding your business to new markets allows you to reach potentially vast numbers of new customers and grow your revenue massively. However, the process can be difficult and filled with complications.

A market entry strategy is a way of maximizing your chances of success when moving into a new market. In this article, we'll look at some of the reasons to consider moving to a new market, the differences between domestic and international markets, and some of the strategies you can use.

Why move to a new market?

First up, why should you consider moving to a new market in the first place? It's challenging and expensive, so what are the reasons that make it worthwhile? Here are some of the main ones:

You'll gain more customers and make more money - The number one reason to consider new markets is, of course, to grow your business and increase revenue by selling more products to more customers.

There might be no more opportunities for growth in your home market - If you've maxed out what your local market is capable of in terms of revenue, expanding to new markets may be the only way to grow.

You'll reduce risk by diversifying your business - If one market suffers for whatever reason, you'll have others to keep you going.

Domestic markets vs international markets

Are you planning to enter a new domestic market, or take your products overseas to sell in a foreign country? The approach for each of these will be very different.

Domestic markets

Typically, this will be much easier than entering an overseas market. The culture will be the same, everything will probably be geographically closer, and things will likely be very similar to your existing markets.

International markets

This is where things become more complicated. You'll have to factor in a number of differences compared to how you currently run your business. These include:

Cultural differences

Administrative differences

Economic differences

Logistical challenges involved in transporting goods abroad

Things to consider

Before you enter any new market, it's crucial to take some time to confirm whether you can afford the move. Can you afford the costs of exporting, working with intermediaries, tax, and all the other expenses involved? And what proportion of the market can you realistically expect to be able to serve?

You also need to consider if the product or service will work in your intended market. Market research (both online and offline) plays an important role here - make sure there is a demand for your product that justifies the export cost.

Risks of entering new markets

There are also numerous risks involved in entering a new market, including:

Country risks, like the possibility of political unrest, sudden changes, or financial issues that could impact your business

Foreign exchange, such as the possibility of currency exchange rates changing drastically which could seriously affect your bottom line

Cultural risk, which essentially means the possibility of your new business venture running into challenges due to major differences in culture and customs

Weather unpredictability. Are you moving into a market where natural disasters and weather conditions could cause damage to your facilities and cost money?

Once you have carefully researched your new market and weighed up the potential risks, you may decide that it's worth entering. If so, there are a number of different strategies you can employ, each with its own pros and cons.

Different market entry strategies

Direct exporting

This is where you export your products into the new market directly. You'll have to handle all the aspects of the process independently, from transport to payments to operations in the new market.

This method requires more resources and time compared to working with an intermediary. You'll need to create an exporting infrastructure, train employees, and make and receive international payments among many other challenging tasks.

On the plus side, this approach maximizes your profits as you don't need to pay any third parties. You'll also have complete control over your sales and marketing processes.

Indirect exporting

Indirectly exporting involves working with an intermediary. It has a number of advantages, such as:

Much lower risk. An experienced third party will take care of the exportation process which minimizes the risk of failure.

You're able to focus on your own business and domestic markets without being occupied by your new ones

Fewer resources are required on your part

On the other hand...

Profits are lower since you have to pay your intermediary

You'll be disconnected from your customer base, so you'll miss out on important insights and lessons

You'll lose full control over sales and marketing abroad

There are a number of different options when it comes to indirect exporting. Here are some of the most common ones.

Indirect exporting with buying agents

Buying agents are representatives of foreign companies that want to buy your products. You'll work through them when selling your products to your new market.

They're usually paid by commission and will try to negotiate the lowest possible price. Sometimes, buying agents are government agencies.

Indirect exporting using distributors

You can sell your product directly to distributors or wholesalers, who will then take care of distributing the product to retailers.

Indirect exporting through management and trading companies

Export Management Companies (EMCs) exist to take care of all your export and sales processes in your new market.

It's worth taking some time to research and find the right EMC, as most specialize in a particular market and region. They'll help you identify markets, find customers, handle all shipping and logistics, and much more.

Indirect exporting through piggybacking

Piggybacking is where you allow another, non-competing, company to sell your product. This can work extremely well if they already have an existing customer base and distribution infrastructure in your target market.

You'll get immediate access to your new market but for a fee.

Producing products in the target market

Another option is to manufacture your products in the target market. This saves you the cost of transport and the many logistical challenges involved in exporting your product abroad.

However, you'll also need to consider the many challenges involved in manufacturing your product abroad, any legal issues, costs, possible risks, and more. Depending on your situation, this could be a good option.

(For more information on the most effective strategies for entering a new market, check out our top four marketing strategies article).

Entering a new market can be extremely rewarding and can allow your business to move to the next level and achieve new growth. It's important to take time to research all the possible options and ensure the export strategy you deploy is the safest and most effective for you. You'll also need to thoroughly research the market to understand its potential and position your product for success, something we cover in our Ultimate Guide To Market Entry.

Kadence can help you do that. We have extensive experience helping businesses carry out research and create effective strategies for market entry. To find out more, learn about our market entry services or get in touch.

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Kadence International How do you enter a new potential market? Expanding your business to new markets allows you to reach potentially vast numbers of new customers and grow your revenue massively. However, the process can be difficult and filled with complications.

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Market entry strategy is a planned distribution and delivery method of goods or services to a new target market. In the import and export of services, it refers to the creation, establishment, and management of contracts in a foreign country

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Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said that focus on customers is the key to a successful business because, in the end, they purchase the company's product. And when the brand is presenting a new product or service to the market, test marketing allows generating positive and negative feedback to minimize the risk of failure at the initial launch.

What is test marketing?

Test marketing is defined as a strategy used by businesses to check the vitality of their new product, service or a marketing campaign before it is launched on a large scale. This strategy is widely used by businesses worldwide to determine the consumer's needs and if the business's product meets the demand.

The experimental campaign can be performed in a selected test market, such as real stores, online stores and social media platforms. In most cases, the experiment is conducted without the customers' knowledge of their participation to gather non-bias feedback on the product or service.

After collecting the feedback from the test market, the data is then analyzed and the data-backed insights are used to improve the product, service or marketing strategy. For data collection, aggregation and analysis, businesses often use reporting tools, which automate the data processes and present the results in an easy-to-understand visual report.

Types of test marketing

There are three types of test marketing - consumer goods test marketing, industrial testing and marketing-effectiveness testing. All three types are used in different test markets with different audiences to gather the most accurate feedback data.

Consumer goods test marketing - all the goods used by consumers directly. The test is conducted to know the consumer's behavior towards the product. The businesses aim customers to go through the entire testing flow: Trial → Repeat → Adoption → Purchase. To generate the feedback, there are four types of CG (consumer goods) test marketing:

Sales wave research. This type of test marketing is performed to determine the product's potential to be consumed every time it is offered to the consumer. The product's samples are often distributed for free to analyze the consumer's positivity about the product. A great example would be a perfume sample. When the existing customers purchase the products and receive the sample of the product.

Simulated market tests are conducted to determine the preference of the customer's choices. For example, a selected group of people are invited to the store and are given exclusive discounts for specific product categories. The new product is placed together with the old competitor's products, and customers are observed closely to know if the new product has been picked up when offered jointly with the alternatives.

After the store testing, the tested product is distributed to the group to collect their feedback through an enterprise feedback management software. The market test can also be performed without any selected testing group. Retail stores accept to place the products together with the alternatives and monitor the sales rate.

A controlled market test is often conducted in the chain stores with the initial launch of the new product. The brand's new products are often introduced with a testing presentation, sales pitch or an advertising banner to attract potential customers. The controlled market test is different from simulated testing as the product is not distributed for free. The controlled market test allows the brand to advertise the product without giving it away for free, cutting testing costs while at the same time increasing the product's sales.

Test markets. Usually, every brand running a test marketing campaign knows the demographics and geographics of their potential customers. A test market is a set of particularly selected areas or segments of the audience used for a small-scale product launch. The feedback collected from the test markets is later analyzed and being used company-wise for product improvement.

Industrial goods are usually used by manufacturers or advanced users. There are two types of testings that help businesses to collect feedback about their product or service:

Alpha testing is a cost-effective way to gather initial thoughts about the product. The product's manufacturers distribute their testing prototypes inside the company and ask for feedback from the employees.

Most big-name technology companies use alpha testing before running a beta test. Companies like Apple and Samsung allow employees to test the latest products or software to gather in-house feedback and improve the product before its initial release.

Beta testing is performed outside the firm with real customers. The beta testing is often conducted in events and exhibitions where the potential product's users are gathering. It allows the company to collect the thoughts about the product or service with the lowest testing cost.

The marketing-effectiveness test, also known as A/B testing, is commonly used in digital marketing to determine the effectiveness of particular marketing efforts. Marketers run similar campaigns on Google Ads, Facebook Ads or other advertising tools, with different CTA (call to action), visuals or audience targeting to see which advertisements work the best and bring the most value at the lowest ROI (return on investment). A/B tests do not involve consumers directly. They are exposed to only one advertisement. The feedback analysis can be done by collecting the testing data, including click-through, engagement and purchase rates.

The advantages of test marketing

The product or service testing could require an initial investment. However, the data collected will allow businesses to improve and stay on top of the competition. Here are some of the key advantages which companies can benefit from running test marketing:

It allows getting real insights into how the product would perform in a natural marketing environment. Many things cannot be predicted or anticipated. However, test marketing can highlight the potential issues with a real test in a real-life setting.

The brand can get an idea of how well the product will be received in the market. Test marketing allows to make more accurate predictions of the wider market, build more realistic advertising budgets and make any improvements needed.

Determining the most effective marketing channels. A small-scale test can provide an insight on which marketing channels a business's target customers interact most, helping to set the resources and marketing efforts more wisely when the product initially launches.

Identifying the best distribution channels and building a data-backed distribution strategy for when the product launches.

Any weaknesses in the product or service will be exposed without any disastrous outcomes as it was a test-run. The product or service can be improved so that it can be well-received in the market.

Lastly, the business will get a heads-up if the product or service is going to fail at the initial launch. If the product fails in the test, for example - not well-received by the testing group or lacks interest in it, it is likely that the market will receive the product the same. Sometimes it needs some time to get polished, or the product is simply not powerful enough to compete with the competitors' alternatives.

Test marketing disadvantages

Although test marketing is one of the most accurate ways to see how well the market will receive the product before launching it publicly, some major disadvantages need to be considered:

Expensive. Testing is a large-scale project, at the same time measuring different aspects of the business and product. It requires a dedicated budget, which small and average companies might not have.

Time-consuming. It takes time to set up the campaign and run it to get the feedback.

The results can be misleading. Even after collecting the results, they can be biased or inaccurate. If the testing group is too small or narrow, the business ends up with a one-dimensional view of the market, which doesn't reflect reality.

Bottom line

A marketing test allows businesses to see whether the product or service will be well-received in the market and avoid any potential risks the brand may face. Many methods of testing can be implemented in the business strategy. However, what matters the most, are the insights made from the collected feedback.

Using the right reporting tools allows businesses to make data-backed decisions easier and cut time on routine data collection and visualization tasks. The reporting tool can provide the test run data for marketers in an easy-to-digest, visual report, so they can determine what marketing efforts work best.

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What Is Test Marketing & How It Can Help Your Business | Blog | Whatagraph

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Test marketing became an essential part of every successful business. According to Oracle, the average attention span of the consumer is 8 seconds and it's forecasted to shorten over coming years. These days, one of the biggest marketers' struggles is to create something eye-catching and engaging.

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A test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale roll-out.

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What is Product Design? Product design is the process designers use to blend user needs with business goals to help brands make consistently successful products. Product designers work...

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Product Design is to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad coefficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major aspect of new product development.

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What Is a Feasibility Study?

A feasibility study is a detailed analysis that considers all of the critical aspects of a proposed project in order to determine the likelihood of it succeeding.

Success in business may be defined primarily by return on investment, meaning that the project will generate enough profit to justify the investment. However, many other important factors may be identified on the plus or minus side, such as community reaction and environmental impact.

Although feasibility studies can help project managers determine the risk and return of pursuing a plan of action, several steps should be considered before moving forward.

Understanding a Feasibility Study

A feasibility study is an assessment of the practicality of a proposed plan or project. A feasibility study analyzes the viability of a project to determine whether the project or venture is likely to succeed. The study is also designed to identify potential issues and problems that could arise while pursuing the project.

As part of the feasibility study, project managers must determine whether they have enough of the right people, financial resources, and technology. The study must also determine the return on investment, whether this is measured as a financial gain or a benefit to society, as in the case of a nonprofit project.

The feasibility study might include a cash flow analysis, measuring the level of cash generated from revenue versus the project's operating costs. A risk assessment must also be completed to determine whether the return is enough to offset the risk of undergoing the venture.

Benefits of a Feasibility Study

There are several benefits to feasibility studies, including helping project managers discern the pros and cons of undertaking a project before investing a significant amount of time and capital into it.

Feasibility studies can also provide a company's management team with crucial information that could prevent them from entering into a risky business venture.

Such studies help companies determine how they will grow. They will know more about how they will operate, what the potential obstacles are, who the competition is, and what the market is.

Feasibility studies also help convince investors and bankers that investing in a particular project or business is a wise choice.

How to Conduct a Feasibility Study

The exact format of a feasibility study will depend on the type of organization that requires it. However, the same factors will be involved even if their weighting varies.

Preliminary Analysis

Although each project can have unique goals and needs, there are some best practices for conducting any feasibility study:

Conduct a preliminary analysis, which involves getting feedback about the new concept from the appropriate stakeholders

Analyze and ask questions about the data obtained in the early phase of the study to make sure that it's solid

Conduct a market survey or market research to identify the market demand and opportunity for pursuing the project or business

Write an organizational, operational, or business plan, including identifying the amount of labor needed, at what cost, and for how long

Prepare a projected income statement, which includes revenue, operating costs, and profit

Prepare an opening day balance sheet

Identify obstacles and any potential vulnerabilities, as well as how to deal with them

Make an initial "go" or "no-go" decision about moving ahead with the plan

Suggested Components

Once the initial due diligence has been completed, the real work begins. Components that are typically found in a feasibility study include the following:

Executive summary: Formulate a narrative describing details of the project, product, service, plan, or business.

Technological considerations: Ask what will it take. Do you have it? If not, can you get it? What will it cost?

Existing marketplace: Examine the local and broader markets for the product, service, plan, or business.

Marketing strategy: Describe it in detail.

Required staffing: What are the human capital needs for this project? Draw up an organizational chart.

Schedule and timeline: Include significant interim markers for the project's completion date.

Project financials.

Findings and recommendations: Break down into subsets of technology, marketing, organization, and financials.

Examples of a Feasibility Study

Below are two examples of a feasibility study. The first involves expansion plans for a university. The second is a real-world example conducted by the Washington State Department of Transportation with private contributions from Microsoft Inc.

A University Science Building

Officials at a university were concerned that the science building-built in the 1970s-was outdated. Considering the technological and scientific advances of the last 20 years, they wanted to explore the cost and benefits of upgrading and expanding the building. A feasibility study was conducted.

In the preliminary analysis, school officials explored several options, weighing the benefits and costs of expanding and updating the science building. Some school officials had concerns about the project, including the cost and possible community opposition. The new science building would be much larger, and the community board had earlier rejected similar proposals. The feasibility study would need to address these concerns and any potential legal or zoning issues.

The feasibility study also explored the technological needs of the new science facility, the benefits to the students, and the long-term viability of the college. A modernized science facility would expand the school's scientific research capabilities, improve its curriculum, and attract new students.

Financial projections showed the cost and scope of the project and how the school planned to raise the needed funds, which included issuing a bond to investors and tapping into the school's endowment. The projections also showed how the expanded facility would allow more students to be enrolled in the science programs, increasing revenue from tuition and fees.

The feasibility study demonstrated that the project was viable, paving the way to enacting the modernization and expansion plans of the science building.

Without conducting a feasibility study, the school administrators would never have known whether its expansion plans were viable.

A High-Speed Rail Project

The Washington State Department of Transportation decided to conduct a feasibility study on a proposal to construct a high-speed rail that would connect Vancouver, British Colombia, Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The goal was to create an environmentally responsible transportation system to enhance the competitiveness and future prosperity of the Pacific Northwest.

The preliminary analysis outlined a governance framework for future decision-making. The study involved researching the most effective governance framework by interviewing experts and stakeholders, reviewing governance structures, and learning from existing high-speed rail projects in North America. As a result, governing and coordinating entities were developed to oversee and follow the project if it was approved by the state legislature.

A strategic engagement plan involved an equitable approach with the public, elected officials, federal agencies, business leaders, advocacy groups, and indigenous communities. The engagement plan was designed to be flexible, considering the size and scope of the project and how many cities and towns would be involved. A team of the executive committee members was formed and met to discuss strategies, lessons learned from previous projects and met with experts to create an outreach framework.

The financial component of the feasibility study outlined the strategy for securing the project's funding, which explored obtaining funds from federal, state, and private investments. The project's cost was estimated to be between $24 billion to $42 billion. The revenue generated from the high-speed rail system was estimated to be between $160 million and $250 million.

The report bifurcated the money sources between funding and financing. Funding referred to grants, appropriations from the local or state government, and revenue. Financing referred to bonds issued by the government, loans from financial institutions, and equity investments, which are essentially loans against future revenue that needs to be paid back with interest.

The sources for the capital needed were to vary as the project moved forward. In the early stages, most of the funding would come from the government, and as the project developed, funding would come from private contributions and financing measures. Private contributors included Microsoft Inc., which donated more than $570,000 to the project.

The benefits outlined in the feasibility report show that the region would experience enhanced interconnectivity, allowing for better management of the population and increasing regional economic growth by $355 billion. The new transportation system would provide people with access to better jobs and more affordable housing. The high-speed rail system would also relieve congested areas from automobile traffic.

The timeline for the study began in 2016 when an agreement was reached with British Columbia to work together on a new technology corridor that included high-speed rail transportation. The feasibility report was submitted to the Washington State land Legislature in December 2020.

What Is the Main Objective of a Feasibility Study?

What Are the Steps in a Feasibility Study?

Who Conducts a Feasibility Study?

What Are the 4 Types of Feasibility?

The Bottom Line

Feasibility studies help project managers determine the viability of a project or business venture by identifying the factors that can lead to its success. The study also shows the potential return on investment and any risks to the success of the venture.

A feasibility study contains a detailed analysis of what's needed to complete the proposed project. The report may include a description of the new product or venture, a market analysis, the technology and labor needed, as well as the sources of financing and capital. The report will also include financial projections, the likelihood of success, and ultimately, a go-or-no-go decision.

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A feasibility study is a detailed analysis that considers all of the critical aspects of a proposed project in order to determine the likelihood of it succeeding. Success in business may be defined primarily by return on investment, meaning that the project will generate enough profit to justify the investment.

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How to Conduct a Feasibility Study - Project Management Training

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A feasibility study is the initial design stage to any project or plan. As the name implies, a feasibility study is an analysis into the viability of an idea.

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The five marketing concepts explained|Marketing strategies|Increase your sales

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The Essential Guide to Marketing Strategy

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Without a marketing strategy in place a business lacks focus, and will fail to reach their goals and objectives. Hurree's essential guide is here to help.

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Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

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Product Concept Design - Past and Future

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Concept development guide | SurveyMonkey

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Concept development helps you evaluate your customers' reactions before launching a product. Use our guide to understand the different stages.

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Concept development is a process of developing ideas to solve specific design problems. The concepts are developed in stages, from formless idea to precise message in an appropriate form with supportive visuals and content.

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Every product, service, or solution starts with the same, simple process: idea generation (or concept development), but just as important is the process that follows: idea screening.

For every business, idea screening ensures that the product development process meets business objectives and customer expectations.

Without idea screening, new product concepts will often miss the mark, fail to gain traction, or even penetrate the market effectively. But by evaluating ideas before they go to market, you can reduce the risks associated with the new product development process and maximize your chances of achieving a positive ROI.

In this article, we're going to explore idea screening, including what it is, how it works, its benefits, examples of screening, and more.

What is idea screening?

Idea screening is a core part of any new product development process. It helps you to vet and evaluate potential ideas using set criteria, data (such as market research) or scoring models.

For example, with new ideas you may want to assess them against relevance, constraints, budgets, value, risks, and/or feasibility. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should provide you with some context of how to approach idea screening.

As well as the above, you can use existing market research or customer data/feedback to ascertain the validity and value of a new idea. For instance, how receptive are your customers to new products, services, and/or solutions? Is there a gap in the market for your product ideas? How do your current buyers feel about your current offerings?

Lastly, is the idea abstract or complex? One of the most prevalent challenges for product developers and marketing teams is making sense of new product ideas that the C-Suite comes up with.

Idea screening steps

Now that you know what idea screening is, where do you start? Here are the most important steps to take to you sort the good ideas from the bad.

1) Brainstorm ideas

It all starts with your ideas. The best product ideas incorporate perspectives from multiple stakeholders and teams, as well as market and customer research (where possible).

Focus on customer problems that you can potentially resolve through a new product, service, and/or solution. After, think about how urgent their needs are (is your solution highly demanded by your target market?) and whether those needs are underserved (are there no available products to address their concerns?). Finally, is the idea unavoidable? Do you have to create it regardless of what's happening in the market?

It's also worth reviewing customer complaint records. If your past customers have provided negative feedback - in any form - regarding your other products (if you have them), assess those complaints against your new product idea. Does it address any of those complaints? Does it meet new needs?

Come up with as many ideas as possible and then work to eliminate product concepts that don't align with your overall business objectives using idea screening criteria.

2) Evaluate ideas against specific criteria

For your product, service, or solution to be successful, it needs to be graded against a list of needs specific to your company and target audience. For each of these needs, you should develop questions to ask about your products to see if they meet your standards. Some common criteria are:

Product benefits/value: How many ways can your customer benefit from this product and what are those benefits? If the benefits are minimal or non-existent, it's less likely that your new product idea will be successful.

Audience: What is the growth potential of your target audience and will developing new offerings bring you new audiences? What are the needs and expectations of your audience(s) and does your offering meet them?

Simplicity/complexity: Will it be easy to manufacture/develop the product, service, or solution? Can it be reasonably priced or will it be too expensive for the average customer due to manufacturing costs?

Profitability: How much money needs to be invested to successfully develop the product, solution, or service? How much profit can you make once it hits the market?

Market saturation: Is there an abundance of similar products, services, or solutions? Is there a clear need for your idea or a gap in the market? How many competitors will you have?

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but by looking at a few of these criteria, you can quickly ascertain your priority ideas and create a shortlist. You can also look to your competitors and customers to see what's working well or could work well.

For example, both Slack and Zoom are communication and collaboration tools, but one is geared more to team-wide collaboration and file sharing, whereas the other is more for video conferencing, webinars, and other forms of online events. In this case, both ideas are competitive as they address needs in the market that were (until their arrival) unfulfilled or not fulfilled entirely.

Another good example would be Uber. Uber didn't revolutionize ride-sharing, but they did come into existence at the right time: when people wanted a seamless way to book a taxi without waiting 30 minutes.

As well as doing the above, you'll want to:

One of the easiest ways to get stakeholder buy-in is to create a comparison chart between existing competitor products (and potentially your own, should your new idea be an add-on feature) and customer pain points. Tick the pain points the solutions solve. Ideally, your new idea should address the existing pain points and any new ones that you might have uncovered thanks to market research.

For an existing product, service, or solution that you have an idea for, consider a repositioning or rebranding strategy to demonstrate how that idea can help with specific issues. It could be that customers are exhibiting an appetite for a new feature, or that your offering is better tailored to a specific need or market.

Getting your product idea (or product ideas) past stakeholders and management is one thing; but what about your experts and other business partners?

Any new development idea needs to be put on the table for internal review, i.e. your experts and specialists (those creating and implementing the idea) should have a chance to input. This is, in essence, a proof of concept (POC).

The point here is that it's completely pointless to invest heavily in an idea that's not technically feasible. But as you've come to your development team with a shortlist, it should be far easier for them to strike off ideas (or for you to revise them).

3) Carry out qualitative and quantitative research

Having criteria to contrast your product concept against is a great way to successfully conduct idea screening. However, you may not have the necessary data to answer the questions posed by each type of criteria.

This is where qualitative and quantitative research comes in. A qualitative research study (such as a focus group or survey) could reveal how your target market feels about your new product idea. Quantitative research, on the other hand, will give you the statistics and hard facts to support any conclusions you come to.

You can find out more about qualitative and quantitative research here .

4) Concept Development & Testing

Having compiled your ideas and researched the market, the next step is to refine your ideas into actual concepts that can be scrutinized and tested by your target buyers. This stage is different from detailed design engineering as it's more about outlining the technical aspects and marketing considerations for your product, service, or solution.

Here you'll want to visualize your concepts so that they can be understood by your stakeholders and teams. Consider using CAD, photorealistic rendering, simulations, animation, sketches, and drawings. If possible, try to produce physical mock-ups so people can get a better feel for your product.

After putting together your concept, set up sessions with stakeholders and participating teams to test it. Also, it's worth using focus groups from your target market, or a small selection of loyal customers to get rounded feedback and possibly new product ideas.

Related: Check out our concept testing tool and validate your best product ideas before you squander valuable R&D efforts.

These sessions should include a thorough evaluation, along with questions about every aspect of the new concept. You should appoint a facilitator to manage the process and document the discussion. Alternatively, you can use customer surveys and one-to-one interviews to gauge opinions.

Finally, include some sort of approval process to ensure the project progresses to the next stage.

Transform your idea screening

With the tips outlined in this guide, you can take your idea generation and screening process to the next level and come up with ideas that truly resonate with your audience.

But to help you further, why not use our Idea Screening (XM) solution?

With our Idea Screening (XM) solution, you can evaluate ideas and discover which ones resonate most with your respondents. This solution targets early-stage innovation efforts to help you identify. the product lines with the most potential before investing in their development.

The idea screening setup asks for a high-level description to provide context around your set of ideas, then asks for a simple text description of each idea. You can then create idea screening surveys from within the platform.

Once you have created your survey and put together a contact list, you can easily distribute it to the channels most important to your audiences:

The solution also has a special dashboard with built-in pages to give you an overview of your results:

With our Idea Screening (XM) Solution, you have everything you need to assess your ideas: sophisticated surveys, distribution methods, results in dashboards, and much more.
Find out how to use the Qualtrics Idea Screening (XM) solution to create amazing products.

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Every product, service, or solution starts with the same, simple process: idea generation (or concept development), but just as important is the process that follows: idea screening. For every business, idea screening ensures that the product development process meets business objectives and customer expectations.

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Idea screening is another step in a new product development process which follows an idea or concept generation. In the process it It often involves use of scoring models, checklists, or personal judgments and is based on information from experience and market research.

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Ideation is the process where you generate ideas and solutions through sessions such as Sketching, Prototyping, Brainstorming, Brainwriting, Worst Possible Idea, and a wealth of other ideation techniques. Ideation is also the third stage in the Design Thinking process. Although many people might have experienced a "brainstorming" session before, it is not easy to facilitate a truly fruitful ideation session. In this article, we'll teach you some processes and guidelines which will help you facilitate and prepare for productive, effective, innovative and fun ideation sessions.

Ideation is often the most exciting stage in a Design Thinking project, because during Ideation, the aim is to generate a large quantity of ideas that the team can then filter and cut down into the best, most practical or most innovative ones in order to inspire new and better design solutions and products.

"Ideation is the mode of the design process in which you concentrate on idea generation. Mentally it represents a process of 'going wide' in terms of concepts and outcomes. Ideation provides both the fuel and also the source material for building prototypes and getting innovative solutions into the hands of your users."
- d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

Ideation Will Help You:

Ask the right questions and innovate with a strong focus on your users, their needs, and your insights about them.

Step beyond the obvious solutions and therefore increase the innovation potential of your solution.

Bring together perspectives and strengths of your team members.

Uncover unexpected areas of innovation.

Create volume and variety in your innovation options.

Get obvious solutions out of your heads, and drive your team beyond them.

Why do We Need Ideation in Design Thinking?

We'll let Grand Old Man of User Experience, Don Norman, answer this important question in a down-to-earth and very relevant way. Don Norman helps us take one step back and reflect upon why we need to challenge assumptions, ask stupid questions and provoke our current understanding, which is-in fact-what Ideation methods such as Challenge Assumptions, SCAMPER, and Provocations help us do:

"One of my concerns has been design education, where the focus has been centered too much upon craft skills and too little on gaining a deeper understanding of design principles, of human psychology, technology and society. As a result, designers often attempt to solve problems about which they know nothing. I have also come to believe that in such ignorance lies great power: The ability to ask stupid questions. What is a stupid question? It is one which questions the obvious. 'Duh,' thinks the audience, 'this person is clueless.' Well, guess what, the obvious is often not so obvious. Usually it refers to some common belief or practice that has been around for so long that it has not been questioned. Once questioned, people stammer to explain: sometimes they fail. It is by questioning the obvious that we make great progress. This is where breakthroughs come from. We need to question the obvious, to reformulate our beliefs, and to redefine existing solutions, approaches, and beliefs. That is design thinking. Ask the stupid question. People who know a lot about a field seldom think to question the fundamentals of their knowledge. People from outside the discipline do question it. Many times their questions simply reveal a lack of knowledge, but that is OK, that is how to acquire the knowledge. And every so often, the question sparks a basic and important reconsideration. Hurrah for Design Thinking."
- Don Norman, in Rethinking Design Thinking

According to Don Norman, asking stupid questions is not stupid at all. However, Ideation and Design Thinking is not only about challenging assumptions and asking so-called stupid questions. It's also about going from researching and defining your users and their needs in the Empathise and Define phases and moving on into starting to come up with the right solutions for the users via Ideation methods:

"You ideate in order to transition from identifying problems to creating solutions for your users. Ideation is your chance to combine the understanding you have of the problem space and people you are designing for with your imagination to generate solution concepts. Particularly early in a design project, ideation is about pushing for a widest possible range of ideas from which you can select, not simply finding a single, best solution."
- d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

The d.school celebrates Design Thinking, and d.school provides one of the most - if not the most - celebrated and recognised resources on Design Thinking and ideation techniques. D-school is a design school based at Stanford University in cooperation with the German Hasso Plattner Institute of the University of Potsdam. Here, we'll introduce you to how you can prepare for Ideation Sessions based on d.school and the international design and consulting firm IDEO's best practices.

Get Started in Applying Ideation Methods

Ideation facilitation is a challenging and complex task. It requires experience in understanding and managing teams, people dynamics, adaptability and flexibility and a range of other soft skills, which in reality are really hard to master. Having said that, there's nothing like experience to help you learn the ropes of any field. The best way to learn is to take the theory and techniques you learn from the experts, and then apply and test them in your own context and adapt them to your own needs.

Preparation before the Storm

When we're about to venture into stormy territory, we know we need to prepare for a bumpy ride and take extra provisions so that we come out on the other side and arrive at our destination unscathed. An ideation process such as Brainstorming or Challenging Assumptions is no different. Wandering into a Brainstorm without preparation is asking for trouble. You may inadvertently damage your team's perception of ideation and scar them for future creative activities. You could also damage team cohesion by going into a situation like this and causing team members to fall out with each other due to a brainstorming session gone wrong.

How to Prepare Before You Start Ideating

Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Even though Design Thinking is not a linear process, it is crucial to take into account the first two stages or modes in Design Thinking before you start ideating. If you neglect to take these two modes and their guidelines into account before an Ideation session, you risk becoming lost. The Empathise and Define guidelines will help you develop the sufficient background knowledge and set a clear goal for your ideation sessions.

1st Mode: Empathise

Design Thinking's first two modes or stages - as presented by the d-school and us here at the Interaction Design Foundation - can help us prepare for the Ideation session. The first part of the preparation is the Empathise mode, which is all about researching and observing in field studies - and watching, engaging with and listening to your users:

"Empathy is the centerpiece of a human-centered design process. The Empathize mode is the work you do to understand people, within the context of your design challenge. It is your effort to understand the way they do things and why, their physical and emotional needs, how they think about the world, and what is meaningful to them."
- d-school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

The Empathy mode will help you conduct relevant research and become an instant-expert on the subject and gain invaluable empathy for the person you are designing for.

2nd Mode: Define

The next stage, which you should to take into account when preparing an ideation session, is the Define mode, which is all about making sense of the widespread information you have gathered in the first mode:

"The Define mode of the design process is all about bringing clarity and focus to the design space. It is your chance, and responsibility, as a design thinker to define the challenge you are taking on, based on what you have learned about your user and about the context."
- d-school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

Defining involves synthesising and making sense of all the available information you gathered during the Empathise mode, by discovering connections and patterns. You will often want to use methods such as Affinity Diagrams, and Sharing Inspiring User Stories and Personas. By the end of the Define mode, your goal is to construct a meaningful and actionable problem statement, also known as a Point Of View (POV).

A good problem statement or POV will allow you to ideate in a goal-oriented manner. Your POV defines the RIGHT challenge to address in the ideation sessions. It may seem counterintuitive, but d-school recommends that you construct a more narrowly-focussed problem statement as this will result in both a greater quantity and higher quality solutions when you and your team start generating ideas. In the ideation process, POV should be your guiding statement that focusses on your insights about your users and their needs.

How do you define your Point Of View?

Step 1

You define the type of person you are designing for - your user. For instance, you can develop one or more personas, use affinity diagrams, empathy maps and other methods, which help you understand and crystallise your research results - observations, interviews, fieldwork, etc.

You extract and synthesise your users' most essential needs, which are the most important to fulfill. Remember that needs should be verbs.

You work to express insights you developed through the synthesis of information that you gathered during your initial Empathise mode. The insight should typically not simply be a reason for the need, but rather a synthesised statement that you can leverage in your design solution.

Step 2

Write your definitions into a Point Of View template like this one:

Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Your Point Of View template:

Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Step 3 - POV Madlib

You can articulate a POV by combining these three elements - user, need, and insight - as an actionable problem statement that will drive the rest of your design work. It's surprisingly easy when you insert your findings in the POV Madlib below. You can articulate your POV by inserting your information about your user, the needs and your insights in the following sentence:

[ User . . . (descriptive)] needs [ Need . . . (verb)] because [ Insight . . . (compelling)]

Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Condense your Point Of View by using this POV Madlib.

Example: An adult person who lives in the city... needs access to a shared car 1-4 times for 10-60 minutes per week ... because he would rather share a car with more people as this is cheaper, more environmentally friendly, however it should still be easy for more people to share.

Step 4 - Make Sure That Your Point Of View is One That:

Provides a narrow focus.

Frames the problem as a problem statement.

Inspires your team.

Guides your innovation efforts.

Informs criteria for evaluating competing ideas.

Is sexy and captures people's attention.

Is valid, insightful, actionable, unique, narrow, meaningful, and exciting.

Yay! You're now well-equipped to create a POV and it's time understand how to start using your POV in a way which crystallises all of your previous work from the Empathise and Define modes.

Do you want to learn how you can get started creating your own Point Of View/problem statement for your next design project and ideation session? Then you can download our Point Of View template:

3rd mode: Ideate

When you've developed your POV it's time to start ideating. Begin with your Point Of View or problem statement. Break that larger challenge up into smaller actionable pieces. Look for aspects of the statement to complete the sentence, "How might we...?"

"How Might We?" Questions Frame and Open Up Your Design Challenge

You start using your POV by reframing the POV into a question: Instead of saying, we need to design X or Y, Design Thinking explores new ideas and solutions to a specific design challenge. It's time to start using the Ideation method that involves asking, "How Might We...?"

Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Examples of How to Generate HMW Questions Which Fuel your Ideation Sessions

When you've defined your design challenge in a POV, you can start opening up for ideas to solve your design challenge. You can start using your POV by asking a specific question starting with, "How Might We?" or "in-what-ways-might-we?". For example: How might we... design a driverless car, which is environmental friendly, cheap and easy for more people to share?

You then break the POV into smaller and actionable pieces as follows:

1. You might start coming up with too narrow questions, such as: "HMW create a taxi which does not need a chauffeur".

2. Or you questions might become too broad: "HMW redesign transportation".

3. You should strive to ask an inspiring and specific question which can be the main question which you use as your guide in your ideation sessions: "HMW design a driverless car, which is environmental friendly, cheap and easy to share for more people."

4. After you've asked the foundational question you start breaking the POV into several smaller and actionable sub-questions which you can center your different ideation sessions around: "HMW design an electric car?" and "HMW design a car which has a digital code as a key which is safe to share among a lot of varying users."

These are simple examples, all with their own subtle nuances that may influence slightly different approaches in the ideation phases. Your HMW questions will ensure that your upcoming creative ideation and design activities are informed with one or more HMW questions, which spark your imagination and aligns well with the core insights and user needs that you've uncovered.

"We use the How Might We format because it suggests that a solution is possible and because they offer you the chance to answer them in a variety of ways. A properly framed How Might We doesn't suggest a particular solution, but gives you the perfect frame for innovative thinking."
- Ideo.org

How Might We (HMW) questions are the best way to open up Brainstorm and other Ideation sessions. HMW opens up to Ideation sessions where you explore ideas that can help you solve your design challenge. By framing your challenge as a How Might We question, you'll prepare yourself for an innovative solution in the third Design Thinking phase, the Ideation phase. The How Might We method is constructed in such a way that it opens up the field for new ideas, admits that we do not currently know the answer, and encourages a collaborative approach to solving it.

Best Practice Guide to Asking How Might We

1. Begin with your Point of View (POV) or problem statement. Start by rephrasing and framing your Point Of View as several questions by adding "How might we?" at the beginning.

2. Break that larger POV challenge up into smaller actionable and meaningful questions. Five to ten How Might We questions for one POV is a good starting point.

3. It is often helpful to brainstorm the HMW questions before the solutions brainstorm.

4. Look at your How Might We questions and ask yourself if they allow for a variety of solutions. If they don't, broaden them. Your How Might We questions should generate a number of possible answers and will become a launch pad for your Ideation Sessions, such as Brainstorms.

5. If your How Might We questions are too broad, narrow them down. You should aim for a narrow enough frame to let you know where to start your Brainstorm, but at the same time you should also aim for enough breadth to give you room to explore wild ideas.

You can download and print out our How Might We template which you and your team can use as a guide:

Characteristics Required for Successful Ideation

Ideation requires purposefully adopting certain characteristics, whether they are natural or whether they need to be encouraged and learnt. Regardless of one's personality or way of thinking, we all fall into the trap of sticking to patterns and familiar ground, and tend to use the same recipes for solving problems, as this reduces the cognitive load required. Experts and novices alike need to be constantly self-aware and purposely intend to adopt some of the following characteristics, which create an open mind and fertile ground for sparking unconventional ideas.

Adapting: Be able to switch how you see, understand, and extend thinking as new input gets generated.

Connecting: Be able to connect seemingly unrelated concepts, attributes or themes in order to create new possibilities.

Disrupting: Be able to overturn commonly held beliefs, assumptions or norms in order to re-think conventional approaches.

Flipping: Turn dead-ends or deadlocks into opportunities by flipping them over or rapidly changing direction towards greater viability.

Dreaming and Imagining: Be able to visualise a new picture of reality by turning abstract needs into tangible pictures or stories, thereby allowing the space required for inventing bridges to that reality.

Experimental: Be open and curious enough to explore possibilities and take risks; be willing and eager to test out ideas and eager to venture into the unknown.

Recognise Patterns: Seek to spot common threads of meaning, and ways of seeing, doing and behaving; be able to recognise attributes or shared values across a spectrum of influence and input; and finally be able to utilize these commonalities to build solutions.

Curiosity: Be willing to ask uncomfortable, silly or even crazy questions. Be willing to explore and experience, in order to understand and learn something new and different.

Please always remember that:

"It's not about coming up with the 'right' idea, it's about generating the broadest range of possibilities."
- d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

The Take Away - Design Thinking's Ideation Compass

Unlike the all too familiar designer's nightmare of staring at a blank page unable to conjure up ideas from the creative ether, Design Thinking's first two modes, Empathise and Define, gives you a solid base to launch relevant and well-informed ideas, which hit the mark in surprising and delightful ways, no voodoo required. Sometimes it will make sense to visibly display personas, stories, scenarios and other maps from which you have derived insights and the Point Of View to keep the ship steering in the appropriate direction during your ideation session. Most of all, your Point Of View should be centre stage.

When you've got your Point Of View, you'll start asking "How Might We?" questions and you might feel as if you've already walked a long hard road to get there. Keep calm and ideate! Everything you've been doing up until this point is really about to come to life. Shake up the ranks and make some space for unleashing your ideas, all of them, however weird and wonderful they may be. Be prepared to throw it all out there.

Wait, did I hear you say you're shy? Are you worried others may poke fun at your ideas? Are you concerned your manager may shoot down your ideas? Have no fear; you can learn to create that happy place where you and your team members can really unleash that inner, clever child. The first point of comfort should be that the steps you have completed leads up to your Point Of View and "How Might We?" questions, have already sufficiently set the boundaries within which you can freely explore. True creativity really thrives within constraints, not on absolutely limitless possibilities. Your "How Might We?" questions provide a clear guide to keep the exploration in the ideation sessions meaningful and relevant.

References & Where to Learn More

d-school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE, 2010:
https://dschool.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAMP2010L.pdf

d-school, Bootcamp Bootleg, 2010:
http://dschool.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BootcampBootleg2010v2SLIM.pdf

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, Change by Design, 2009

Don Norman. Rethinking Design Thinking, 2013:
https://jnd.org/rehtinking_design_thnking/

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What is Ideation - and How to Prepare for Ideation Sessions

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Ideation is the process where you generate ideas and solutions through sessions such as Sketching, Prototyping, Brainstorming, Brainwriting, Worst Possible Idea, and a wealth of other ideation techniques. Ideation is also the third stage in the Design Thinking process. Although many people might have experienced a "brainstorming" session before, it is not easy to facilitate a truly fruitful ideation session.

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Idea generation also known as Ideation is the process of producing, developing, and transmitting new ideas, with an idea being defined as a fundamental part of mind that might be visual, physical, or abstract. Ideation encompasses all stages of the cognitive process, from conception to implementation.