When Chili Ground came to us, their aim was to sell chili crisp through an online store, establish a brand, and eventually distribute their product wholesale. The creators of Chili Ground's product received positive feedback from friends and family who encouraged them to turn it into a business. Moreover, considering the growing popularity of chili oil in Canada, as evident from Google Trends, it appeared to be a promising business opportunity worth investing in. Also, wouldn’t it make sense to think that a lot of foodies in Quebec would like to buy a product made in Montreal?
Chili Ground's initial hypothesis was that at least 2% of Quebecers will be willing to pay $12.99 for a 250 ml jar of chili oil made in Montreal. To test this hypothesis with a prototype, we decided to start with a small, easy-to-reach and manageable initial test market. With this in mind, the hypothesis was adjusted to state that at least 2% of the views from members of a Montreal Subreddit would indicate interest in purchasing a jar of chili crisp by filling out a form on a website. To test this statement, we used a combination of Smoke Test and Fake Door with a clickable prototype. The website consisted of two pages. The home page included two products with their description, the chili crisp and Xian la fen, a Szechuan spice. Under each product a button was saying "I'm interested". A click on any of the buttons would bring the visitor to a form asking for their name, email, phone, desired product and a text box for comments.
Less than three hours after the link to the website was posted on Reddit, the post received just under 6000 views. When we looked closely at the data, we noticed that only one person filled up the form and showed interest for buying a jar of chili oil. Sixteen people commented on the publication expressing interest in the products, but were not willing to pay $12.99. However, they were interested in a free sample. No one mentioned anything about the Xian la fen forcing Chili Ground to rethink their strategy and withhold this product until the chili crisp is better established.
The prototype allowed Chili Ground to invalidate their adjusted hypothesis. The level of interest indicated by the test was insufficient to justify investing in branding and an online store at the moment. Instead, they decided to organize a tasting event in order to get more detailed feedback.
In conclusion, this no-code-based experiment enabled Chili Ground to begin gaining insights on how to better market a new and underutilized product in Quebec, establish the foundation of a website that could be upgraded later on, and test their hypothesis.
