Stealth Mode vs User Testing

On occassion I see startup afraid of publishing their brand name, or product offering into market. Although that may be the case for truly scientific proprietary products, there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to digital.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Oscar Wilde / George Bernard Shaw

We are standing on the shoulders of giants. Those who’ve come before us have paved the way for our thinking and behavior. To think we are capable of a truly original thought is quite egotistic and narcissist. We must learn to keep our ego in check and only prioritize stealth mode when we’re truly working on a patent that is a scientific breakthrough. More often than not, we’re not. This is where user testing comes in.

I’ve heard many a times that “we can’t test because we’re in stealth mode.” But this is not a good argument. In many cases they weren’t scientific patentable breakthroughs, they were a rendition of existing hybridization of product software that to which one is predisposed. Ever heard of the “all-in-one” fallacy? Yeah, cramming two or more softwares into one doesn’t necessarily win any scieitnific achievement awards. What will? Actually user testing.

Now, user testing is quite the umbrella term. There are many methods housed in research for conducting some sort of user testing. Personally, I prefer the Guerrilla Usability Test that is moderated because it gets us the raw data ASAP. For an experience professional this can be done in a week, and the data can be somewhat reliable and actually pretty damn good for showing the value to business.

Much like it’s friend Guerrilla marketing, I would say at least 50% of the time someone asks me to do their website, or asks “is this real?” when I conducted Guerrilla Usability Testing out in the field. Like Paul Graham says,

“We must do what does not scale first. Founders have to recruit users manually to start.” — Paul Graham

Stealth mode misses this opportunity or at least delays its inevitability. This poses a real problem, when the end user doesn’t adopt the expensive stealth mode product because there’s no “product-market-fit.” That’s why I always recommend to entrepreneurs.

Overcome your fear of being copied by others. Understand we’re standing on the shoulders of giants. Use user testing as a way to build brand and product at the same time. People enjoy being heard and experiencing new things. Evolving early prevents catastrophic market launches to crickets later on. Be proactive rather than reactive. Unveil thyself from stealth mode to champion of the people. As Derek Sivers said in his TedX talk,

“To start a movement you have to risk looking like a clown. Then you have to treat your first follower as equal.” — Derek Sivers

Treat your customers as equals rather than keeping your idea hidden amongst the clouds of ivory towers where your ego is left unbruised, but your product is missing its users.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *