Concept Testing with New Product Blueprinting

Can we use New Product Blueprinting to Test Product Concepts? YES.
New Product Blueprinting normally assumes we don’t have a product idea yet.

However, Blueprinting can also be leveraged to evaluate the viability of a product concept through a structured, needs-based assessment. This article explores a five-step process for using New Product Blueprinting to validate and refine product concepts.

Step 1: Determine Objectives

Before testing a product concept, aligning stakeholders around clear objectives is essential. This includes meeting with company leadership, product managers, engineers, and key decision-makers to establish what is being evaluated and why. Key questions to address at this stage include:

• What are the primary goals of this product concept?
• What problem does it aim to solve for customers?
• How will success be measured in this evaluation?

By defining these parameters early, the process maintains focus and ensures alignment across teams. Also, leaders need to understand the limitations of concept testing as opposed to a solution-free approach.

Step 2: Determine Customer Needs

In a traditional New Product Blueprinting approach, determining customer needs would involve extensive external interviews. However, when testing a product concept, this process can be done with a combination of internal methods:

1. Reverse-Engineering the Product Concept

Instead of starting with broad customer interviews, the concept itself can be analyzed for the needs it intends to fulfill. This involves breaking down its features and benefits into a list of customer needs (outcomes). For example, if a company is developing an ultralight outdoor fabric, the underlying needs might include “higher tear strength,” “greater abrasion resistance,” and “greater waterproofness.” Of course, we will write these as outcome statements like:

• Minimize the likelihood of fabric tears.
• Minimize the likelihood that the fabric is degraded due to abrasion.
• Minimize the likelihood that water penetrates the fabric.

2. Reverse-Engineering the Competition

Studying existing competitors can provide insight into the needs they serve effectively and where gaps may exist. By analyzing competitor offerings, marketing messages, and customer reviews, product teams can extract a list of needs. It doesn’t actually matter if these product address those needs. We can reverse-engineer a list of needs based on the stated claims and even from their specification sheets.

3. Internal Stakeholder Interviews

Internal experts such as sales representatives, customer support teams, and account managers have valuable insights into customer pain points and unmet needs. Conducting structured interviews with these internal stakeholders can help refine and validate the list of customer needs associated with the product concept and the market it serves.

4. AI Exploration

Using the AI tools within Blueprinter® software, we can explore the needs of a market in mere minutes. The success with AI depends on the degree that the information is known to the world. However, in our testing, it uncovers from 60% – 80% from most markets.

 

Step 3: Prioritize Customer Needs

Once a comprehensive list of customer needs has been identified, the next step is to determine their relative importance and level of satisfaction. This prioritization can be achieved through:

1. External Surveys

A structured survey can be distributed to key customers, asking them to rate each need based on two criteria:

• Importance: How important is it to minimize the likelihood of fabric tears?
• Satisfaction: How satisfied are you with your ability to minimize the likelihood of fabric tears?

The resulting data provides a clear view of which needs are most critical and where gaps exist.

2. External Preference Interviews (If the Schedule Allows)

For more robust validation, conducting direct customer Preference Interviews—similar to traditional New Product Blueprinting—can yield deeper insights. Customers can be asked to score each need using the same importance and satisfaction criteria, helping to ensure that internal assumptions align with actual market demand.

Step 4: Evaluate Results

With prioritized customer needs in hand, the next step is to evaluate how well the product concept addresses the highest-ranked needs. Key evaluation criteria include:

• Alignment with Top Priorities: Does the concept effectively address the most important unmet needs?
• Competitive Differentiation: Does it offer significant advantages over existing solutions for other needs?
• Other Opportunities: Did we discover other opportunities that the concept should also address?

A concept that strongly aligns with high-importance, low-satisfaction needs is likely to have strong market potential. Conversely, if the concept primarily addresses low-importance needs or competes in an already well-served market, adjustments may be necessary.

Optional Step 5: Evaluate the Concept with Customers

For further validation, the concept can be directly tested with potential customers. The level of fidelity in this step can vary:

• Low-Fidelity Testing: Concept sketches, wireframes, or mockups can be presented to customers for feedback.
• Medium-Fidelity Testing: A more refined digital prototype or storyboard can be used to simulate user interactions.
• High-Fidelity Testing: A functional prototype or beta version can be tested in real-world conditions to gauge customer interest and usability.

By collecting feedback on usability, perceived value, and willingness to adopt, teams can refine the concept before committing to full-scale development. This Optional Step is generally recommended. And when done after Steps 1-4 above, we have a list of unmet needs, which become the criteria by which we will evaluate the concept with customers. These previous steps provide structure to the concept test. (Otherwise, we fall into the trap of showing a concept to a customer and saying, “Do you like it?” which is not a good process.)

Conclusion

New Product Blueprinting is not only a process for understanding and prioritizing needs when we don’t have a product idea. It also offers a rigorous, structured approach to concept testing by focusing on customer needs as the foundation for decision-making. By systematically determining objectives, identifying and prioritizing needs, and evaluating alignment with a product concept, teams can make data-driven decisions about whether to pursue an idea and how to modify it before development. Incorporating direct customer feedback through an optional validation phase further strengthens confidence in the concept’s market potential.

By the way, consider including emotional needs as part of this effort. They may not fit, but also, they could be a difference-maker. Learn more in the article What Can Product Managers Learn from Silly Movies?
In a competitive B2B landscape, leveraging this disciplined approach to concept testing can significantly reduce risk, accelerate go-to-market timelines, and increase the likelihood of delivering truly valuable innovations to customers.

Blueprinting pros can use their training and Blueprinter® software as the basis for concept testing. Further, if you’d like some help, AIM also features this as a service. Learn more at www.DiscoverySprint.us.