Customer Tests - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Aug 2018
Blog Post

Following My Dream: Launching a Venture

product (MVP) one could imagine, and I’m very grateful for the advice. Our extensive MVP testing at corporate offices allowed us to validate key assumptions of our business model and value proposition, e.g. more than 70% of our users... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

21 Feb 2014
News

The First Five Years: Evelyne White (MBA 2010)

core theme behind Bookalokal events." Where's the company today? "We've done really well in our first test city of Brussels. It turns out travelers are not the only ones interested in our site. Local people love it—particularly people... View Details

Keywords: Glocal; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

Web

Research in Black and White | Baker Library

Research in Black and White Photo: Meroe Morse, test photograph, August 1959. Polaroid Corporation Records Related to Meroe Morse, b. VII.83, f. 15. In 1948, only a few years after starting at Polaroid, Meroë Morse became the laboratory... View Details

07 Nov 2007
Op-Ed

How Marketing Hype Hurt Boeing and Apple

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge. Last month, Boeing stock went wobbly on news that View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Aerospace; Consumer Products

30 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2013

Christensen. It's time for companies to look at products the way customers do: as a way to get a job done. Is Your iPhone Turning You Into a Wimp? The body posture inherent in operating everyday gadgets affects not only your back, but... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Student-Faculty-Profile

Michelle Shell & Ryan Buell

we’re beginning in the laboratory to deeply understand how anxiety in service contexts influences customer decision-making, and which operational designs work best to reduce anxiety. Then, we’ll take our insights to the field,... View Details

01 Sep 2007
News

Riding It Out

development, much like the move into dog food and supplements. Non-nutritional products are growing at a very high rate and now account for roughly half of SmartPak’s revenues. A retail location in Natick, Massachusetts, doubles as a kind of View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; dog food; pets; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

02 Oct 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Leadership an Increasingly Difficult Balancing Act?

advantage in a world of impatient investors, restive employees, and demanding customers? Do they require leaders who have fewer answers, more questions, and a bias for testing and quick action? Are investors, employees, and View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Paid Search Ads Pay Off for Lesser-Known Restaurants

businesses—like eBay or Gap—should be running experiments to test their own ads. If you’re a small business with a good reputation, getting that information out to people is an important thing to do. “Having an online presence isn’t... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

Joseph M. Segel

A prolific entrepreneur, Segel has founded many successful companies including The Franklin Mint and National Software testing Laboratories. His biggest success was the formation of QVC, which stands for quality, value and convenience.... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment & Broadcast Media

01 Dec 2011
News

Research With Impact: Changing Global Health Practices

public policy, and social challenges. In health care, for example, the dominant policy model assumes that access and affordability are the keys to improving care for the poor. In Ashraf’s view, “We can’t solve the challenges of global health without deeply... View Details

Keywords: birth control; Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development; Government

01 Dec 2015
News

Launch Codes

“Too often, they’ll design something for what they think their customers’ needs are, and they haven’t developed plans to test these assumptions.” #2 Aiming for perfection: “You want to go to market with a minimally viable product and get... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

01 Jun 1999
News

A Random Sampling of HBS Graduates in the News

who spend a lot of time in their cars. Recently, Chen and Searle began market tests for *CD ("Star CD"), their new cellular-phone service that identifies songs and artists for listeners who call wanting to know more about the music... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

24 Sep 2018
Blog Post

Working to Keep Pirates At-Bay: My Summer in Cyber Security

ten weeks in the company, I was able to design an online marketing strategy and create acquisition funnel metrics to test different campaigns and selling pitches to brokers. I was also able to work closely with the product team to review... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

07 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Online Retailers Should Hide Their Best Discounts

adding a number of different frictions to the website, including eliminating the link to the outlet catalog on the store’s landing page, removing the ability for customers to search by discount, and taking away markers that automatically... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

Profile

Joseph Blair

It’s difficult to imagine Joe Blair standing still. A triathlete, currently training for a “half-Ironman” in the summer of 2013, Joe runs self-timed marathons. In his former life as an engineer, he took a great deal of pleasure tooling around the View Details

13 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

5 Weight Loss Tips From Behavioral Economists

week in advance of delivery. Looking to determine how personal decisions made for tomorrow differ from decisions made for several days from now, researchers from Harvard Business School and the Analyst Institute evaluated a year's worth of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

16 Feb 2016
First Look

February 16, 2016

tools can be applied. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50595 in press Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Cognitive Fatigue Influences Students' Performance on Standardized View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 28

under its belt, Classtivity is finally generating revenue and enthusiasm among customers. But cofounder and CEO Payal Kadakia has some doubts. There are signs that customers love the offering, but studios are less enthusiastic. Efforts to... View Details