This document provides an overview of primary market research techniques for testing ideas with target customers. It discusses qualitative methods like interviews and observation as well as quantitative methods like online experiments. It then focuses on two specific techniques: card sorting exercises to understand how users organize information, and landing page tests to assess interest in an idea by analyzing conversion metrics. The document provides tips for effectively conducting these techniques and interpreting the results to help decide next steps.

1. MIT Entrepreneurship and
Maker Skills Integrator
Primary Market Research Skills Clinic
May 2018
Elaine Chen

5. versus
Qualitative Quantitative
Primary Market Research:
A Bird’s Eye View

6. Some go-to PMR techniques
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Detailed Interviews Observation Immersion
Landing page experimentsCard sorting exercise Facebook ad experiments

7. CARD SORTING
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8. Card sorting exercise
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9. Simulation: Fast food
• Develop a persona based on your
group’s shared needs/wants
• Come up with a solution
• Brainstorm 10-15 features
• Write 1 feature per card
• Make the features as separate as
possible
• KEEP IT MOVING!

10. Sharing!
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11. Pro-tips
• Make the features as small as
possible
• Run the card sorting in 2 stages:
• Elimination
• Prioritization
• Ask the test subject to keep
talking while sorting – and take
notes along the way
• KEEP IT MOVING!
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12. LANDING PAGE TESTS
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13. A typical digital experiment
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Design landing
page(s) with a call
to action
State the
hypothesis
Design an
experiment
Send out landing
page to suspects
Wait for results to
come in
Analyze sales
funnel metrics
Persevere or pivot?

14. Example landing page
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15. Example landing page
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16. 4h to find out if there is interest
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30%
It’s a GO!

17. Unbounce.com

18. Exercise
• Goal: Design an experiment to gauge interest in
the food offering you just came up with
• Exercise:
• Design the landing page on paper
• Design the experiment including success criteria
• Decide how you are going to send it out to your target
persona
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19. Sharing!
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20. Pro tips
• Treat the landing page like an ad! It is a
marketing creative exercise.
• Collect “currency” in the call to action
• Email is meaningful
• Credit card is even more meaningful
• Pre-payment is the most meaningful
• Graph and interpret funnel metrics
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21. PRO TIPS

22. Points to ponder
• Defining research goals / questions to answer
• Cold calling / getting suspects
• Boiling the ocean versus tight subject recruitment
• Grouping and interpreting results
• When to go as a pack and when to divide and conquer
• …

23. AMA
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24. Learning more
• “Talking to Humans” E-book - Giff
Constable
• UX for Lean Startups: Faster,
Smarter User Experience Research
and Design – Laura Klein
• Resources section of ConceptSpring
website - Elaine Chen
• Templates and samples – Elaine
Chen
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