Defining the Lingo

Concierge is one type of pilot test we can do to test our solution by manually performing it as a service. While you won't be able to serve many people with a concierge test, it does allow us to work with the customer immediately (minimal building required). It will help us learn what labor inputs need to be automated to make it more scalable. Another benefit to the concierge MVP is how easy it is to adjust your solution, allowing us to iterate quickly! It may not work for all customer segments and problems, but it is an especially effective way to get feedback on our value proposition and product.

Will people want to do a concierge?

A concierge test can feel very unsexy. Will people even be interested in participating, much less paying for it? If you have identified the crux of the customer's problem, and you're offering a way to solve it for them, then an excellent early adopter should, by definition, be open to it. If they don't want to participate in your concierge, ask them why. They may not be your early adopter after all, but rather part of the early majority.

How to Implement a Concierge:

• Start with the value proposition and think about how you can deliver that value yourself (remember, it should be simple enough that you can actually do it in the next week).
• Select a few customers with whom to talk. Preferably these are people that you've already validated as early adopters in your customer discovery interviews and pitch tests. What if you've only found one or two early adopters in your customer interviews so far? That's okay, go ahead and do this concierge test with each of them and then do more concierge tests with additional early adopters as you find them.
• It's going to be a lot of work delivering manual, customized solutions, so keep your concierge test to a small group.
• See if you can charge them for the service. If not, that's okay.

<aside> 🙌 Concierge Test Tip: When doing a concierge test with enterprise customers, you may find that the word "consultant" resonates more than a "pilot test." Framing yourself as a consultant may be an easier way in with B2B customers. Just remember, you aren't trying to be a do-it-all consultant to get the biggest paycheck. Rather, you're focusing on delivering a single service that you can scale beyond yourself to multiple clients.

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Example Concierge Test:

• Our value proposition: We help young professional women in San Francisco find career coaches because these women are busy, and it can be challenging and time-consuming to find coaches that are licensed and match their individual needs. We provide customized career coach matches quickly.
• We decided that we wanted to do this concierge test with one to two people this week.
• We create a list of questions for our customers about their professional goals and criteria they are looking for in a coach.
• We email two women who we talked to during our customer interviews, and who we've validated are early adopters. In the email, we ask them if they will participate in this service.
• They agreed, and we scheduled a phone call with them to get responses to our list of questions.
• Based on their responses, we do online research and compile a list of ten career coaches who we think could be a good fit.
• We call each coach, and based on these calls, we send an email to each customer with a list of three recommended career coaches from which to select.
• A week later, we call our customers and ask for feedback on whether or not we solved their problem and what else we could do to solve it more effectively.