Test

Once you have your prototypes, you will test your ideas with users and other key stakeholders, such as payers, so that you can refine your ideas based on the feedback you receive. At this stage your prototypes are helping you to uncover deeper insights about your user and stakeholder’s needs, which may help you to refine your POV.

Remember this is an iterative process. It is expected that you will refine your ideas as you learn more information and loop back to early steps in the process as needed. This is the purpose of a user-centered design with prototyping and testing.

Sample technique to test your solution...

Sample technique to test your business model...

Challenge Business Assumptions

In the Impact Business Model Canvas, identify the two or three elements of your business model that are the riskiest, or about which you are the least certain. Develop a way to test these elements to get the information you need to make necessary changes and/or reduce uncertainty.

For example, TeachFX provides teachers with intelligent classroom data to help them hone their practice and improve student learning. Their initial IBMC indicated that revenue would come in-part from teachers paying out-of-pocket because the teachers they interviewed had expressed a strong willingness to pay. TeachFX tested this model with school principals and learned that schools could be a more attractive payer because they have large budgets for professional development, and the school’s ROI for the TeachFX solution had the potential to be very attractive compared to alternatives. With additional research, TeachFX found that the cost of acquiring school-level customers (sales cost) could be extremely high; however, this cost was greatly reduced when teachers already used the product and were sales advocates. Ultimately, as a result of prototyping and testing, TeachFX changed their business model from “teachers and schools pay” to a freemium model in which teachers receive the product for free, and the school pays for an upgraded, premium version.

Sample technique to test your impact model...

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