At a clinic, your product becomes the patient, as we go “under the skin” to test the product and given an accurate diagnosis. The core feature of our clinics is testing products or prototypes in comparison with the competition under standardized conditions.

Clinic participants are potential users who evaluate the products from different vantage points, also in comparison to the competition. If we considered the term “clinic” as analogous to a hospital, participants take on the role of the head physician who makes her rounds from patient to patient to give a diagnosis or determine the next steps.

Our job as researchers is to give a uniform evaluation of the different products within a standardized framework of conditions. Our goal is to be able to answer the various questions by applying the correct methods. While the participants take on the position of head physician, we see our role as the accompanying physician in any doctor’s visit: we lead the head physician from patient to patient, present the right examination tools, precisely document the diagnosis and then write up a final report.

Questions

A product clinic offers the opportunity to answer a wide range of questions on:

• Design and form
• Price acceptance level
• General acceptance
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Usability or user experience
• etc.

Continuous optimization of surveying methods 

The methods that we use are of course based on the question at hand. To guarantee a fast and smooth workflow at clinics with a large number of attendees, we directly move the participants from product to product on tablet computers. By using near-field communication technology, we are able to ensure that the matching survey elements appear on the tablets for each product. The institute’s own survey software on the tablets enables us to use the full range of quantitative and qualitative survey types: scale assessments, use of visual survey content, dynamic filter management, sorting tasks, or open-ended questions with audio recordings. In addition, it may be advantageous to carry out in-depth individual interviews with selected participants or focus groups within the scope of the clinics.

Car clinics

Car clinics are a special type of product clinic designed for the automotive sector. These clinics represent an established method for either a static (i.e., all products are evaluated while stationary) or dynamic context (e.g., assessment while driving). Learn more about our car clinics here.