Prototype Testing
Pop-Up Store
A Pop-Up Store Test lets you place your solution in a temporary, physical space and observe how people interact with it in real life. Instead of simulated feedback, you expose your MVP to a real context and learn from what people actually do: whether they stop, explore, ask questions, and buy
Why Use this tool?
See if your solution works when it meets reality.
This test helps you move beyond intention and into action. By observing real interactions and purchases, you can understand demand, pricing sensitivity, messaging clarity, and experience flow, all in a short, controlled window before committing to a permanent launch.
what you should know
Start With: An MVP or near-ready solution that can be experienced in person
End With: Evidence from real interactions, sales, and user behavior
Time Needed:
• Preparation: High
• Execution: A few hours to a few days
• Analysis: High
Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5 – complex setup, rich learning)
People:
• 8-20 users interacting with the experience
• 2-5 coordinators running and observing the test
A quickguide to start
2. Design the experience. Plan how people will encounter, explore, and purchase your solution.
3. Promote the opening. Invite potential users so traffic is intentional, not random.
4. Run the pop-up. Observe behavior, conversations, and decisions in real time.
5. Capture evidence. Track visits, questions, reactions, and sales (or lack of them).
6. Review and iterate. Analyze what worked, what confused users, and what to improve before the next step.
helpful tips
- Focus on behavior first, not explanations — what people do matters more than what they say.
- Keep the setup simple; you’re testing the solution, not perfecting the store.
- If B2B, adapt the format (e.g., a booth, demo space, or invitation-only session).
RACU meets AI
Pop-Up Store
How Can AI Make RACU Easier ?
AI can be your creative partner and research assistant, ready to help you move faster and think deeper at every step of the RACU process.
For each RACU tool, we’ll share a ready-to-use AI prompt. Just copy the prompt into your favorite AI tool (like ChatGPT or Copilot) and it will guide you through the method step by step.
The AI becomes your facilitator, asking the right questions so you can build your thinking as you go. No need to fill out a blank form, the prompt starts the conversation and adapts to your answers in real time.
PROMPT – COPILOT, CHAT GPT
You are a facilitator helping me complete a Research & Discovery Card for a design thinking challenge.
Guide me step-by-step by asking the following questions one at a time, and wait for my answer before moving on. You can ask follow-up questions if needed to clarify or improve my responses.
Start with general context:
1. What is the challenge, project, or topic you’re working on? (Briefly describe the scope or goal.)
Then go into Research (existing data):
2. What existing information do we need to gather to better understand this challenge?
3. Where can we get that information? (e.g., internal reports, dashboards, previous research, public sources)
4. What specific questions will this data help us answer?
5. Who on the team will be responsible for gathering this information?
Then move to Discovery (new research):
6. Who should we learn from? (e.g., users, clients, collaborators, stakeholders)
7. Where can we find or reach them?
8. What topics, needs, or behaviors should we explore in the research?
9. What discovery methods could work best for this challenge? (Examples: interviews, shadowing, observation, journaling, immersing yourself in the experience, etc.)
10. How many people should we involve or study?
11. When will this research happen?
12. Who on the team will lead or coordinate this discovery work?
At the end, summarize my answers as a Research & Discovery Plan with two sections:
- Research (existing data)
- Discovery (new fieldwork)
Use bullet points and keep it simple enough to copy into a worksheet.
