Test the idea before you build the thing.
Concept testing interviews are conversations that explore how people react to an idea, a message, or a product direction before anything is built or designed. They let you find out if a direction is worth pursuing, before you spend time designing or building it.
The hardest part of product development is not building. It is deciding what to build.
Concept testing interviews give you a way to stress-test an idea before you commit to it. Share a description, a value proposition, a pricing structure, or a new direction, and find out how people actually react.
Not in a survey. In a conversation where Robbie can ask “what do you mean by that?” and “what would make you feel differently?” and “walk me through what you were thinking.”
Robbie runs purely conversational interviews. You do not need a design, a prototype, or a mockup, just a clear description of what you want to test.
That makes it useful at the very beginning of a project, when the idea still exists only in a brief or a slide deck. You can test a message before your designer has touched it. You can test a pricing structure before engineering has seen it.
How it works
Brief Robbie
Describe the concept you want to test, the specific reactions you want to understand, and who you want to talk to.
Share one link
Participants respond in their own words, by text or voice, on their own schedule.
Read the synthesis
Robbie surfaces reactions ranked by confidence, the objections you did not anticipate, and the exact language participants used to describe the concept back to you.
12 concept tests
Reactions to a concept surface fast, so 20 minutes is usually enough, and 12 conversations is a solid round for a single concept. No annual commitment, no minimum. £10 per 30 minutes of interview time, invoiced the following month.
After each interview Robbie produces themes, ranked by how consistently they appeared, standout quotes in participants' own words, surprises that diverged from your hypothesis, and caveats about what the data does not tell you.
Robbie pulls everything together, so you can see whether a reaction was one person's opinion or a pattern across fifteen conversations.
Robbie cannot show images, designs, or prototypes. Every concept test happens in conversation.
If your test requires participants to interact with something visual, a prototype, a design, a video, a tool like Maze is better suited. Robbie is for testing ideas and messages that can be described in words.
FAQs
- Do I need a prototype or design to run a concept test?
- No. Robbie runs purely conversational concept tests. You describe the idea, message, or direction in your brief, and Robbie asks participants to react and explain their thinking in their own words. No visual assets required.
- What kinds of concepts can be tested?
- Product ideas, pricing structures, value propositions, messaging, positioning changes, and new feature directions. Anything that can be described in words can be tested. Robbie cannot test visual designs or prototypes.
- How is concept testing different from a survey?
- A survey captures a verdict. A concept test captures the reasoning behind it. Robbie follows up, asks “what do you mean by that?” and probes the thinking, so you understand not just whether people like an idea, but why.
- How many participants do I need?
- Most concept tests reach saturation at 8–12 participants. Robbie flags when themes are reinforcing (you have likely heard enough) or fragmenting (run more interviews).
- Can participants choose to speak rather than type?
- Yes. Participants choose text or voice at the start. Robbie adapts to whichever mode they pick. Audio is transcribed on the fly and immediately discarded, no recordings are stored.
Related use cases
Comparing tools? See how Robbie stacks up.