Testing New Product Ideas - The MBR Way

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In Silicon Valley, the product development approach of releasing the most basic version of the product (Minimum Viable Product or MVP) to some users who would find it valuable compared to available options and then iterating the product based on user-feedback, is well understood. In the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) world, the approach of testing a new product idea before any development work is done is practiced regularly. It might be hard to develop an MVP for a new soap but we, in the technology product development, can test new product ideas before we start building an MVP. Performing this test also helps with positioning the product in the market. Following is the three step MBR (Mental model, Benefit, Reason to believe) approach of testing new product ideas: 


Testing new product ideas 


Start with writing down the singular product idea and then follow the three step MBR process in writing. 

1. Mental model: How do users think about the product category your product belongs to? Understand people's perceptions and the reasons why they exist. For example, if you are creating a home security camera then you might find the mental model people have about the home security is that it is complicated and expensive. You get deeper into what exactly is complicated and why the products in this category are considered expensive. Let's say that you find out that the monthly subscription required to store and access the security camera footage is one reason why people find the products expensive. 


2. Benefit: How is your product solving the perceived user-problems in the product category? The benefit of your product has to resonate with the users in accordance with their mental model. In our example of home security camera, offering the users a product with no subscription fee access to camera footage might be the benefit that works with the users mental model. 

3. Reason to believe: Why would the users believe that your product can deliver the stated benefit? The product has to offer the reasons. In our example, the reason could be that the camera has built-in storage of xGB so nothing needs to be stored in the cloud. Hence, no monthly subscription payment is required to access the footage. 

It has to be one idea, one benefit, and one reason. You can create multiple combinations of benefits and reasons and do A/B testing to understand which benefit reason combination resonates better with users. It is so much easier and cheaper now a days to do these types of tests with social media compared to 20 years ago when these tests were done with focus groups. 

This simple MBR approach (Mental model, Benefit, Reason) can give a pretty good idea of user interest in a new product really fast. 

Thanks to Andrew Sherrard for sharing the approach with me in 2003. 


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