Concept Testing Questions: A Complete Survey Example

Concept testing questions measure what people understand about an offer, how relevant it is and whether they would consider buying it. For a collection service, a positive answer is little help if someone thinks the collection fee includes a repair the business has never promised.

The eight questions below separate that misunderstanding from weak need or an unattractive offer. They include response options and a reporting plan you can adapt. Our concept-testing guide covers the wider choice of audience, design and next investment.

Put a complete offer in front of the right person

This is a proposed questionnaire for MendRoute, the hypothetical appliance-collection service in our concept-testing examples. No responses have been collected for this instrument.

The proposed audience is adults in the feasible service area who help decide what happens to an eligible broken household appliance and are still considering a repair or replacement. Check those conditions before exposure. Showing the concept to people whose repair decision is already finished would answer a different question.

Replace the appliance list and service area with the actual feasible scope before using this card:

MendRoute collects one eligible small appliance from your home in the listed service area, takes it to a repair partner for assessment and returns it. Collection and return cost $12. Repair is quoted separately. You can decline that repair quote. The service does not guarantee a repair outcome or completion date.

Keep the card version, appliance eligibility, service area, fee and terms with every answer. If you change the fee or add a guaranteed turnaround, you have changed the offer and need to identify the new version.

Eight concept-testing questions you can adapt

Record the first answer before offering explanations. Pew Research Center’s questionnaire guidance explains how wording, response options and earlier questions can affect later answers. A corrected answer after a probe should remain separate from what the card communicated by itself.

1. What does the fee cover?

In your own words, what would the $12 pay for?

Use an open response. Do not put “collection and return” in the question or supply an answer list. Save the original wording before coding fee understanding.

2. What other payment does the person expect?

What, if anything, would you expect to pay in addition to the $12?

Use an open response. This is a prompted diagnostic after the first question. It can reveal whether someone recognizes the separate repair quote, but it should not be combined with the first answer as though both were unaided.

3. Does the service fit the current problem?

How relevant is this service to the appliance problem you are currently deciding what to do about?

Offer: extremely relevant; very relevant; moderately relevant; slightly relevant; not at all relevant. Provide a separate “this situation no longer applies to me” option and review it against the eligibility check.

4. What explains that relevance?

What is the main reason for your answer?

Use an open response linked to Question 3. A person who can drop the appliance off nearby may understand the service perfectly and have little reason to pay for collection. That calls for a different response from a misunderstood fee.

5. What is the stated purchase intention?

If this service were available in your area under the terms shown, how likely would you be to request collection within the next four weeks?

Offer: definitely would; probably would; might or might not; probably would not; definitely would not. Keep “the situation does not apply to me” separate from the ordered scale. Adapt the buying window to the decision rather than carrying four weeks into every study.

This is an intention under a shown offer. It is not a booking, a payment or proof that the service can fulfill its promise. Our purchase-intent guide explains how the full answer distribution changes the interpretation of a positive score.

6. What would the service have to displace?

If MendRoute were not available, what would you most likely do about this appliance?

Use an open response, then code the actual alternatives described. Retain waiting or taking no action when that is the person’s answer. Do not force everyone to choose another paid repair service.

7. Which missing information affects the decision?

What else would you need to know before deciding whether to request collection?

Use an open response. Distinguish an omitted fact, such as appliance eligibility, from a requested improvement, such as a guaranteed completion date. Supplying an existing fact and creating a new promise are different changes.

8. What could stop the next step?

What, if anything, would stop you from requesting collection under these terms?

Use an open response. Keep the barrier connected to the relevance and intent answers. Do not assume every objection can be solved with more persuasive copy: a working drop-off alternative or an unaffordable separate repair may change the offer’s value.

Keep understanding and appeal separate in the report

Agree the coding rule before reading the results. For the first question, a fee-understanding code might distinguish a complete account of collection/return and the separate repair quote, a partial account, an explicit misunderstanding and an answer that cannot be classified. These are proposed reporting categories, not observed results.

Save the verbatim answer alongside its code. An answer that mentions transport but says nothing about repair is different from one that explicitly says the $12 includes fixing the appliance. Silence about repair leaves that point unknown. Have a reviewer check ambiguous cases and retain the disagreement until it is resolved.

If you compare two concepts, keep the wording and response options consistent where the measure is intended to be comparable. Decide whether different people see each concept or the same people see several. Our monadic-testing guide explains why earlier concept exposure changes what a later rating means.

Let the answer determine the next version

If people think $12 buys a completed repair, revise the fee explanation and retest understanding. If they understand the terms but already have an easy drop-off route, investigate whether another audience has a stronger collection need. If interest depends on a repair guarantee, check operational feasibility before adding it to the card.

Those branches should be agreed before collection. A useful decision rule names the misunderstanding, offer condition or audience difference that would change the next step. It does not need a universal “pass” percentage borrowed from an unrelated category.

For a Sapien study, these questions can structure a comparison of simulated audiences’ reactions to the complete offer. Keep the response source visible and inspect the relevant validation comparisons. A simulated answer about requesting collection leaves actual booking and service delivery for a real-world test.

Discuss a concept study focused on the offer people misunderstand and the next version your team needs to choose.