Drunk people: best focus group ever? | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

If you’re an app developer, you may want to stop wasting your time with focus groups and get wasted in a bar instead. 

Dave Lieb, the founder of file-sharing app Bump, recently told Fast Company that one of the most effective testing methods the company used to hone its product was to introduce it to drunk people in bars. Lieb argues that in a society that breeds distraction and multitasking, there’s no better demographic to test a product on than those who are mentally impaired. 

“Drunk people are maybe a good approximation of distracted people,” Lieb told Fast Company.

By inviting revelers to use Bump, Lieb and his team gained valuable insights into how to make Bump, which enables users to transfer data by bumping their phones, more user-friendly and attractive. For example, Lieb realized that having the app require users to be on certain pages on their phones to transfer information made it too challenging to use for intoxicated people. As a result, the company made all pages “bumpable.” 

The company also learned that brand awareness doesn’t necessarily translate into usage when a bachelorette party cheered after learning that a Bump employee worked at Bump only to reveal that none of them actually had Bump. After that experience, Bump decided to expand its product to allow users to transfer all manner of data, not just phone contacts.