Prototype Testing
Presale
A Presale is a testing method where customers are invited to pre-order a solution that is not yet publicly available. Rather than relying on opinions or hypothetical answers, you look at what people actually do when the offer is presented clearly, whether they choose to move forward, at a given price. This helps you assess desirability and viability through real behavior, while you still have room to refine the solution
Why Use this tool?
Validate demand with real commitment
This test helps you uncover usability issues, missing moments, and unexpected behaviors that are hard to spot on paper. It’s especially useful when you want to explore physical interactions, flows, or usage frequency, and when building a working prototype would be slow or expensive
what you should know
Start With: A well-defined solution or concept that is close to launch (or MVP-ready)
End With: Evidence of market demand, pricing sensitivity, and early customer feedback
Time Needed:
• Preparation: Medium
• Execution: 5 days to several weeks
• Analysis: Medium
Difficulty: ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5 – requires coordination and delivery readiness)
People:
• Participants depend on how many presales you can realistically fulfill
• 1-2 facilitators
A quickguide to start
1. Set up the presale space. Create a simple landing page or choose a platform where customers can pre-order.
2.Present the offer clearly. Show images, a short description, and clear price options for your solution.
3. Be transparent. Clearly state that the product is not yet publicly available and that payment will only be charged when it ships.
4. Enable tracking. Add analytics to capture visits, clicks, pre-orders, and drop-offs.
5. Launch and promote. Drive traffic through your existing channels or a small, targeted campaign.
6.Review results and decide. Analyze presales data to assess demand, price acceptance, and whether to refine, proceed, or stop.
helpful tips
- Presales create real expectations. Use them when you’re prepared to respond responsibly to what people commit to..
- Support your offer with clear value messaging (renders, mockups, videos, or testimonials).
- Pay attention to where people drop off in the flow, this often reveals pricing or clarity issues.
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.
