Concept testing is an early-stage market research method of gathering feedback directly from the target audience about the concept of a product or service before launching it.

Testing is critical at the early stage of a start-up as it serves as a tool for:

• Analysing the product’s or service’s acceptance by the target audience.
• Gathering insights in order to perfect the business concept by redefining and improving the product/service before entering the market.
• Getting to know your customers better and make modifications to your product or service to increase the likelihood of people purchasing it

Recognizing the significance of concept testing, the second interactive seminar of the IDEA factory course, powered by ARIS, entitled” Test your concept in practice”, was held on Tuesday, February 14th.

Maria Yianni, Senior Manager at Deloitte’s restructuring services of the Financial Advisory department, and a co-founder of startups herself, delivered a seminar on Concept testing explaining the different ways in which a good survey can be implemented. The workshop that followed, involved mentoring of 10 student teams by a team of mentors consisting of:

• Eliza Loucaidou, Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, Deloitte
• Maria Yianni, Senior Manager, Restructuring Services, Deloitte
• Dr. Elias Hadjielias, Cyprus University of Technology
• Rena Filippou, Senior Consultant, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, Deloitte
• Monika Tsartsali, Consultant, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, Deloitte