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I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

joshledgard.com

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Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#11

Post by MCompeau »

We tried this just yesterday at a couple Starbucks locations in Toronto for our new lines of 3D printed jewelry (http://www.hotpopfactory.com/). It was great, because we could hone in on specific demographics that interested us based on the location and time of day.

For the most part we found people weren't actually interested in taking any money for coffee (we didn't go the gift card route, we just approached people in line directly). When we offered to pay some people actually found it a bit off-putting. That said though, when you approach people candidly looking for feedback on a project you're personally invested in, people seemed pretty generous with their time.

We ended up getting great feedback on everything from the usability of our website, to the desirability of our product and pricing. We even ended up finding a couple new customers along the way. I'd highly recommend this experiment for any consumer facing product, it can be a bit daunting at first, but when used strategically it can be far more productive then having your head down coding in isolation all day.

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#12

Post by weisser »

aashaykumar92 wrote: post #10

Along the same lines: I launched a social calendar app with my roommate for students at UMichigan and to initially gain users, we bought $55 worth of pizzas and to get a slice, all students had to do was download our app and register as a user--we setup in one of the busiest halls on campus and needless to say, the pizza ran out pretty quickly. Looking back, it was great for the numbers and a was a good marketing str…

Some guys with an app paid for all food orders during a 4 hour block (10pm-2am) at a popular foodtruck at SXSW. All you had to do to get a free ~$7 burrito (some people got a bunch of stuff) was to download their app and create a photo album.

While this boosted downloads during that time period I have not looked at the app (I don't even remember what it was called) since. It would have been more memorable if they had discussed the app with me for the free burrito.

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#13

Post by shardling »

simonholroyd wrote: post #9

My team has done similar user testing in Starbucks quite a few times. Here's my $0.02: If you're willing to be bold, walk right up to people and ask, you don't need to offer free coffee or gift cards. We've found this is a better strategy for a few reasons: 1. It's cheaper. 2. It does not dramatically change the number of test users you can get in a given afternoon. And 3. You're more likely to get critical negative…

> If you're willing to be bold, walk right up to people and ask, you don't need to offer free coffee or gift cards.

If many people did this, it would quickly become an incredible annoyance. Have some respect for the commons!

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#14

Post by DanBC »

simonholroyd wrote: post #9

My team has done similar user testing in Starbucks quite a few times. Here's my $0.02: If you're willing to be bold, walk right up to people and ask, you don't need to offer free coffee or gift cards. We've found this is a better strategy for a few reasons: 1. It's cheaper. 2. It does not dramatically change the number of test users you can get in a given afternoon. And 3. You're more likely to get critical negative…

> 3. You're more likely to get critical negative feedback if you dont put the users in the position of owing you for the coffee.

I'd be interested to see if there's any research on this.

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#15

Post by [deleted] »

simonholroyd wrote: post #9

My team has done similar user testing in Starbucks quite a few times. Here's my $0.02: If you're willing to be bold, walk right up to people and ask, you don't need to offer free coffee or gift cards. We've found this is a better strategy for a few reasons: 1. It's cheaper. 2. It does not dramatically change the number of test users you can get in a given afternoon. And 3. You're more likely to get critical negative…

[deleted]

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#16

Post by larrys »

DanBC wrote: post #14
simonholroyd wrote: post #9

My team has done similar user testing in Starbucks quite a few times. Here's my $0.02: If you're willing to be bold, walk right up to people and ask, you don't need to offer free coffee or gift cards. We've found this is a better strategy for a few reasons: 1. It's cheaper. 2. It does not dramatically change the number of test users you can get in a given afternoon. And 3. You're more likely to get critical negative…

> 3. You're more likely to get critical negative feedback if you dont put the users in the position of owing you for the coffee. I'd be interested to see if there's any research on this.

"I'd be interested to see if there's any research on this."

Not on that specifically but the concept in general is "reciprocity"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini

In any case offering someone something in advance will make them feel obligated in some way and for that matter even put them in a better frame of mind in general.

My feeling is that if you want honest feedback what I've always done is say "tell me what you don't like about this" rather than "what do you think". That way the person is freed to be critical.

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#17

Post by mcintyre1994 »

unreal37 wrote: post #5

Interesting that sitting in a cafe offering people $5 cash for their opinion would be a terrible idea, but offering them a free coffee is brilliant. To @vishl, I don't take food from people on the street. I don't trust it. "What if it's poisoned?" What you're thinking does happen - some people offer me free candies, Reese Peanut Butter cups etc as an incentive to talk to me on the street. I avoid them. The coffee com…

I think psychologically the voucher is worth more because it's something they were already going to spend, it's a tangible saving. I'm not a social scientist or whatever, but logically I think that's how people may look at this offer.

I definitely agree that if you're not producing the consumable that's a benefit too (although of course they'd probably use $5 cash to buy a coffee).

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#18

Post by nostromo »

If possible, say that you're doing it as research for an agency.

People are nice and don't want to hurt your feelings. ("Yeah, I'd totally buy that! Oh, I didn't bring my credit card, sorry...")

Also, if you have competitors, try getting feedback on their apps as well. It can give you hints about what they are doing right and wrong, and how you can differentiate.

Re: I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks

#20

Post by munificent »

MCompeau wrote: post #11

We tried this just yesterday at a couple Starbucks locations in Toronto for our new lines of 3D printed jewelry ( http://www.hotpopfactory.com/ ). It was great, because we could hone in on specific demographics that interested us based on the location and time of day. For the most part we found people weren't actually interested in taking any money for coffee (we didn't go the gift card route, we just approached peop…

I love the bacon necklaces: http://www.hotpopfactory.com/product_boreal-necklace.html

;)

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