A national online retailer was preparing to expand its private-label pregnancy test line with new analog and digital options.
On paper, the products were viable. But pregnancy tests are used in a very different environment than where they are manufactured or technically evaluated. A customer may be alone, anxious, and looking for an answer that needs to feel unmistakably clear.
The retailer wanted to know what would happen in that moment.
Would customers find the tests easy to use? Would they trust the materials? Could they confidently interpret the result?
And most importantly, were the products ready to carry the retailer’s brand?
Drive Research designed an in-home usage test (IHUT) to evaluate potential supplier products alongside established national brands, giving the client a realistic benchmark for product performance and customer experience.
Research outcome | What it meant for the retailer |
|---|---|
Analog product did not launch | Concerns around product quality, readability, and the overall user experience led the retailer to stop the analog version from moving forward. |
~3X higher anxiety | Participants experienced substantially more anxiety with the supplier analog test than with the national-brand benchmark. |
~22% lower purchase intent | The analog product also underperformed the benchmark on willingness to purchase. |
More conservative digital inventory | Findings from the digital test led the retailer to take a more cautious initial inventory position. |
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 | What it meant for the retailer |
|---|---|
Removed visible brand identifiers | Tests were labeled by color rather than brand name so participants could focus on the product experience itself. |
Balanced the order of use | Each product had an equal opportunity to be used earlier or later in the testing period, helping reduce order effects. |
Created relevant benchmarks | Analog tests were compared with analog alternatives, while digital tests were benchmarked against similar digital products. |
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 IHUT gave the retailer evidence of what customers could experience if the analog pregnancy test reached the market.
Instead of discovering concerns through negative reviews, returns, or customer complaints after launch, the team was able to make the decision beforehand.
Based on the combination of material concerns, poor result readability, elevated anxiety, and weaker purchase intent, the retailer decided not to launch the supplier’s analog pregnancy test.
The IHUT effectively identified a customer-experience problem before it became a marketplace problem.
The digital product did not lead to the same no-launch decision, but the research still influenced how the retailer approached it.
Rather than committing as aggressively to inventory, the team took a more conservative initial position.
That distinction is important.
Product research does not always result in a simple “launch” or “do not launch” answer. Sometimes it changes the level of confidence behind the launch and how much financial exposure a company is willing to take on.
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.
