A national online retailer was preparing to expand its private-label pregnancy test line. Before moving forward, the product team needed more than confirmation that the tests worked under controlled conditions.
They wanted to understand how real women would experience each product at home, during a moment when unclear instructions or a difficult-to-read result could carry significant emotional weight.
Drive Research designed an in-home usage test (IHUT) to compare four pregnancy tests: two digital options and two analog options.
The study evaluated potential supplier products alongside established national brands, giving the client a realistic benchmark for product performance and customer experience.
Pregnancy tests are not ordinary consumer products. People may use them while feeling hopeful, anxious, scared, or uncertain. Even a small source of friction can affect whether someone trusts the result.
In general, the research needed to explore…
The client had previously encountered issues with pregnancy tests that were difficult to read which created frustration around usability. Those problems affected confidence in the product and made the overall experience feel unreliable during an already emotional moment.
For the new line, leadership wanted stronger evidence that the tests would be accurate, easy to use, and clear enough for customers to trust before launch.
Drive Research recruited more than 100 women across the United States.
Participants represented several relevant situations, including those:
This mix allowed our research team to examine product use across different circumstances without treating every participant’s experience as identical.
| Study detail | Why it mattered |
| Removed visible brand identifiers | Each test was labeled with a color rather than a brand name. This helped participants focus on the actual product experience instead of being influenced by brand reputation. |
| Balanced the order of use | Each brand of pregnancy test had an equal opportunity to be used earlier or later in the testing period, reducing the risk that familiarity or fatigue would favor one option. |
| Compared products in matched pairs | Digital tests were compared with digital tests, while analog tests were compared with analog tests. This created a more relevant benchmark for each supplier product. |
The project required more coordination than simply mailing samples and sending one follow-up survey. Our IHUT company managed participant qualification, kitting, shipping, survey programming, ongoing communication, and data collection.
This full-service approach is part of our typical IHUT process, but the logistics were adapted to the sensitive nature of this particular study.
Participants completed a brief survey after using each pregnancy test. Asking for feedback shortly after use helped capture details that might have been forgotten in a single survey at the end of the study.
Each mini questionnaire examined the following:
The “Why” Behind the Ratings
Open-ended questions asked participants what they liked and what could be improved. These comments helped explain whether lower scores were tied to issues such as difficult packaging, unclear instructions, or uncertainty during use.
When and How Results Were Read
Participants reported when they used each test and how long they waited before checking the result. This helped the research team separate potential product issues from timing, instruction, or user-related factors.
The Emotional Experience
The survey also measured how participants felt after taking each test. For a product this personal, feelings such as reassurance, anxiety, or confusion were important indicators of whether the experience inspired trust.
The research showed which pregnancy tests of the retailer were most competitive with national brands and where technical performance translated into a better customer experience.
Not every weakness meant a product feature should be rejected. The analysis helped distinguish between more serious performance concerns and issues that could be addressed before launch, such as packaging, instructions, or interface design.
Small design choices had a noticeable impact on trust. Clear displays and visible progress indicators helped reduce uncertainty, while hard-to-read lines and awkward packaging created hesitation.
The findings gave the retailer clearer direction for supplier conversations, product refinements, and positioning. For a private-label pregnancy test, price alone would not be enough. The product experience and packaging also needed to communicate reliability quickly.
Lab testing can confirm whether a pregnancy test performs under controlled conditions. It cannot fully show how customers will experience the product at home.
For product and quality managers, that gap matters. Real users may struggle to open the packaging, misinterpret instructions, check results too early or too late, or question a faint line.
These issues may not appear in a lab, but they can still lead to poor reviews, customer complaints, and lost confidence after launch.
The IHUT placed each product in the hands of intended users and captured feedback immediately after use. This gave the client a clearer view of both technical performance and real-world usability.
The Key Takeaway: Rather than relying on lab results alone, the team could identify which issues required product changes before launch and which were tied to packaging, instructions, or the overall user experience.
Drive Research helps product and quality teams evaluate how products perform outside controlled lab settings. We manage the full IHUT process, from participant recruitment and product shipping to data collection and reporting, so teams can identify usability issues and make more confident launch decisions.
