Best Methods For Testing Customer-Centric Innovations

Rapid testing is your secret weapon for making data-driven decisions fast. Unlike A/B testing, which can take weeks, rapid tests can deliver actionable insights in hours. This lean approach helps teams validate ideas, designs, and features quickly and iteratively. It's not about replacing A/B testing. It's about understanding if you're moving in the right direction before committing resources. Rapid testing speeds up results, limits politics in decision-making, and helps narrow down ideas efficiently. It's also budget-friendly and great for identifying potential issues early. But how do you choose the right rapid testing method? Task completion analysis measures success rates and time-on-task for specific user actions. First-click tests evaluate the intuitiveness of primary actions or information on a page. Tree testing focuses on how well users can navigate your site's structure. Sentiment analysis gauges user emotions and opinions about a product or experience. 5-second tests assess immediate impressions of designs or messages. Design surveys collect qualitative feedback on wireframes or mockups. The key is selecting the method that best aligns with your specific goals and questions. By leveraging rapid testing, you can de-risk decisions and innovate faster. It's not about replacing thorough research. It's about getting quick, directional data to inform your next steps. So before you invest heavily in that new feature or redesign, consider running a rapid test. It might just save you from a costly misstep and point you towards a more successful solution.

Have you tried Reverse demo? After years of leading sales at multiple startups, I've discovered that traditional product demos often mask the true user experience issues. Especially for new hires, their pitch becomes more of a "Feature Fxxk" That's why I developed what I call the "reverse demo" approach. Here is what my flow look like. 1. I asked the prospect to fill out a 1 min pre-call survey to understand their needs and use case. 2. On the call, dive deep into their needs and understand the whole picture. 3. Pick one of the use case the customers cares most about. 4. Ask them to share their screen and guide them to set up their account and create their first project. Every time they get stuck or don't know where to click, it reveals a genuine product problem. The beauty of this method is that it removes all filters between customer feedback and product teams. There's no sales interpretation or sanitized feedback - product managers and founders can directly observe where users struggle. Yes, it can be uncomfortable. Product teams often squirm watching customers get lost in what they consider an obvious interface. But that discomfort drives faster improvements than any second-hand feedback ever could. I've tested this approach at multiple companies and it consistently outperforms traditional demos. Not only does it surface real usability issues, but it also builds trust with prospects by showing you genuinely care about their experience. The best part? When customers struggle, you can't dismiss it as "user error" or "they just need training." The evidence is right there on the screen. Either your product is intuitive, or it isn't. If you truly want to build a customer-centric product, put your ego aside and let your customers take the wheel. Their confusion will illuminate your path to a better user experience. #customercentric sales #Product demo

We ran 2 A/B tests with our homepage interactive demo. One test was inconclusive, but one showed a 33 - 50% higher CTR. The goal was to prove if demos segmented by persona perform better than a generic overview demo. For some background, last year we experimented with a persona homepage demo and saw: • +45% lift in folks who submitted our book a demo form • 6.3x improvement in number of MQLs • Roughly 2x lift in demo completion This year, we wanted to repeat but with our new native A/B testing. Below is a breakdown of the two tests we ran. Test #1: Segmented demos format (select persona upfront) → List of roles (sales, marketing, product) → Buttons to choose your role Test #2: Overview demos format → A short 13-step demo → A demo with a short opening that goes into a longer checklist Each test ran for 1.5 weeks. Each demo received between 850–1,130 visitors Success was measured by in-demo CTR (“Book a Demo” or “Start Free” CTA) Results: ▪︎ Segmented demos had an average CTR of 25% (format didn't matter) ▪︎ Short overview demo had an average CTR of 18% ▪︎ Long checklist demo had an average CTR of 15% According to our 2025 State of the Interactive Product Demo, a 25% CTR is almost in the top 10% of Navattic demos (the top 10% had a 28% CTR) Takeaways: ▪︎ What didn’t matter: the layout of the segmentation ▪︎ What did matter: letting users self-select their role before starting a demo If your product works for multiple personas, try testing a demo segmented by role, use case, or industry. Tomorrow I'll share more about how you can run similar tests with our new native A/B testing.