planning a CPSS study

You may be considering doing a pilot study to see how the CPSS will work for you.  If so, read on to get some practical tips for managing a study in your organization.  You may also wish to get a copy of Creating Products in the Age of Design, since it has a whole chapter on this subject.

You can rate any kind of product with the CPSS.

Let’s consider who’ll be involved, what might take place, where you’ll do your study, the timing, and most importantly, why you should go through this pilot process.   Since the “why” is such an important question, we’ll start with that.

Why?

Doing a pilot study will allow you to see how the CPSS works, and see how it fits your needs.  There are always new insights to be gained in doing such a study, even with a familiar, iconic product from your company.  You’ll get some idea about the costs involved in doing a study, in terms of time, personnel, expenses, and technology.  (Just to give an idea of the financial costs, a study done with the CPSS is about the same cost as running a focus group or consumer panel.  And the insights will be new ones to those achieved by standard questionnaires and focus groups.)

Who?

You’ll be highly involved in the pilot, as may be others on your team.  There are two entry portals for the CPSS, one for single raters, and a second for a group of raters.  For the pilot, you may wish to have your team members rate an iconic existing product, an actual concept that you are working on, or a competitor’s product.  The secure login insures that only your team can participate.

If you want to involve consumers in the study, you’ll use the other portal.  We recommend sixty participants for the best reliability, but some clients have used fewer with good results.  In a consumer study, even a pilot, we recommend that raters rate two products or concepts.  This way, you can better see the differences in scores of the competing designs.

What?

To elaborate a bit on what will take place in your study, you’ll select a product concept (or two) and identify your participant pool that will do the rating.  You may be using in-house raters, or you may use a database of consumers that you use for marketing or usability studies.  The next step is for you to establish some kind of “target values” for the nine facets of the CPAM.

If you’ve taken a test drive of the CPSS, you may have some ideas as to your target value.  If not, this may seem impossible when you have not used the CPSS before, and are unfamiliar with the facets.  It is still of value, however, to establish some starting point for your analysis.  You may select those target values by rating a competitor’s product and trying to match the scores. Another approach is to select target values based on the brand identity of the company or the line. A third approach is to simply arbitrarily establish the values you are hoping to achieve on each of the nine facets.  This is a pilot, after all.  These values can be changed as you learn more.

Where?

Although it is possible to run a study remotely, it is much preferable to set up testing room (perhaps part of your training facility) where you can do your study.  In this way you can control for the variables that can impact on the choices that are made.  When the study is performed remotely, interruptions, room temperature, and the time of day that participants rate can affect the ratings.  If you are doing a study using team members, they can all rate the same product or concept from their offices, but try to structure the study so that the conditions are the same for everyone.

When?

There is no best time in the new product development cycle to do the CPSS study.  You can do it at any stage.  It is often used at the concept stage, where you can best apply the insights gleaned to strengthening and developing the concept. But you can also do a study using prototypes of all types, and after launch to benchmark the design creativity of your products.

Doing a study requires a couple weeks of thinking and planning ahead of time, the rating can be done over the course of a week, and the next week your results, complete with product profiles and analysis of the results including recommendations will be ready.  A debrief of the results in person is important for the first study; subsequent debriefs can be by conference call.

How?

If this sounds a bit complex, don’t worry.  We have had a good bit of experience guiding clients through the process.  A pilot study can be a good way to learn how the CPSS can help your organization achieve that secret weapon — your ability to analyze consumers’ perceptions of a product’s aesthetics.  Just call or write to discuss your ideas for your pilot study.

Another first step could be to take a test drive of the CPSS to see how it works.  You can do Test Drive in from 10 to 15 minutes, but be sure to set aside half an hour for a complementary debrief in order to make the results more meaningful to you.