Prototype Testing
Crowdfunding Test
Crowdfunding is a testing method where you present your solution publicly and invite people to financially support it before it fully exists or scales. By asking users to back your idea at different contribution levels, you learn whether your solution resonates strongly enough for people to commit money, attention, and trust, not just opinions.
Why Use this tool?
Validate desirability and viability at the same time.
Crowdfunding helps you understand if people believe in your solution enough to support it early. Beyond funding, it allows you to test your story, value proposition, pricing logic, and rewards, while building a first community of highly engaged users.
what you should know
Start With: A well-defined solution that can be clearly explained and motivated
End With: Evidence of desirability, viability, and user engagement — plus funding
Time Needed:
• Preparation: Medium
• Execution: 5 days to several weeks
• Analysis: Medium
Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ ☆ (4 out of 5 – requires planning and communication)
People:
• Participants depend on your funding goal
• 2–4 coordinators (campaign design, promotion, follow-up)
A quickguide to start
2. Identify your audience. Decide who you are asking to support you (customers, employees, stakeholders, early adopters).
3. Create the campaign. Explain the problem, your solution, why it matters, and how funds will be used.
4. Design contribution options. Offer clear levels or rewards that make participation meaningful.
5.Launch and promote. Share the campaign through relevant channels and invite people to participate.
6.Review results and learn. Analyze contributions, comments, and engagement to refine your solution or decide next steps.
helpful tips
- Be clear and honest about what exists today vs. what is still in development.
- Communication matters as much as the idea, keep contributors informed throughout the campaign.
- Treat contributors as partners: their questions, doubts, and suggestions are valuable learning signals.
RACU meets AI
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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.
