Overview

Consumer Usability Analysis is a consulting engagement that provides companies with quick expert advice on how to improve their product’s performance.

This engagement is completed over 1–2 days by a single ConsumerEase senior consultant who has past experience with large-scale consumer data analysis and usability testing.

The Consumer Usability Analysis is best suited for products in Phase I of the Consumer Adoption S-Curve, displayed here, as it looks for common consumer barriers that typically prevent a product from moving into the rapid adoption phase. An inexpensive and quick engagement, it provides the third-party expert opinion many companies need in this phase.

To perform this analysis, ConsumerEase’s consultant will spend 4–6 hours the first day reviewing the product with the product marketing team (and possibly others in the company). The focus is on any consumer touch-points for the product, which include the features of the product and also its marketing, branding, usability, performance, value, etc.

ConsumerEase performs the following steps in a Consumer Usability Analysis:

• A consumer expert is sent to the corporation requesting the analysis
• The expert interviews the marketing department
• The expert interacts with the product
• The expert quickly prepares a recommendations presentation
• The expert presents the results to the employees and executives

Results

There are many reasons to perform this quick, low-cost analysis on products or services. If the analysis is done on working prototypes, then the finishing work can focus on the areas that most benefit the consumers. If a new product is experiencing slow consumer adoption, this analysis can help explain what needs to be changed. Sometimes this engagement is required because the team responsible for building the product has become too familiar with their product and has lost sight of how real consumers might interact with the product. Finally, it is common for different people with different backgrounds (marketing, engineering, management) to have different and strong opinions on what constitutes a good decision for the consumer. This causes unproductive feature battles that can more easily be resolved through a non-biased, expert opinion.

The results are always eye-opening. At a minimum, employees learn new ways to look at their product and where they might do additional research or feature development to improve the performance. Often the results lead to strong consumer acceptance—a key to transitioning to the next phase of the Consumer Adoption S-Curve. ConsumerEase provides the catalyst recommendations; the real success comes from the company evaluating the recommendations and making any future decisions to improve or change their product.

Beneficiaries

The key beneficiaries of Consumer Usability Analysis are the product marketing and engineering teams focused on the day-to-day decisions surrounding their product. ConsumerEase works to understand the marketing aspects and consumer experience so that the best recommendations can be made for these groups to act on. In most cases the final recommendations will improve the product’s performance and increase employee understanding of consumer behavior.

Timeline

Consumer Usability Analysis typically takes only 1–2 days and only about 4–5 hours of employee time. The ConsumerEase consultant will meet for 3–4 hours in the morning of the first day to evaluate the product and then work off-site to prepare the presentation of recommendations. Complex products or services require more research time off-site and the results are presented on the second day. Simpler products usually can be turned around quickly on the same day with a presentation in the late afternoon or early evening.

Pricing

The pricing of the service is fixed at US$7,000 per day, which includes travel to a site in North America. The cost is US$10,000 per day for customers in Europe or Asia. Companies located in other countries should ask for specific availability and pricing.

Example results

Consumer Usability Analysis produces very private recommendations for corporations, and therefore the results cannot be shared. However, most of the processes and details of how these analyses are conducted can be found in the book Five Myths of Consumer Behavior, by Paul Allen Smethers and Alastair France, who have performed many of these analyses in the past.

Scheduling

Consumer Usability Analysis usually requires 30 days’ advance notice to arrange. Scheduling is done on a first-come, first-served basis timed at the signing of the proposal for the work (the appointment and travel will not be reserved for unsigned proposals).

Interested?

If you are interested in scheduling a project, please contact ConsumerEase with information about your product or service. We will work with you to define a project suited to your budget and needs.