Toluna is a self-service market research platform that enables businesses to conduct surveys, run automated concept tests, and gather real-time consumer feedback. Known for its speed and user-friendly design, Toluna is especially popular among brands looking to increase efficiency without compromising on data quality. It combines research automation with access to a large global consumer panel, making it a great fit for both small tests and large-scale, multi-market studies.

In the context of concept testing, Toluna allows you to evaluate new product or marketing ideas before launch. You can upload visual stimuli, define test metrics, and receive quantitative responses in a matter of days – sometimes hours. This accelerates decision-making and reduces the risk of launching underperforming ideas.

Why use Toluna specifically for concept testing?

• Speed and scale: You can quickly test multiple ideas and get feedback from consumers fast, which is ideal for high-volume testing needs.
• Built-in templates: Toluna offers pre-built concept testing templates with commonly used performance metrics like appeal, purchase intent, uniqueness, and relevance.
• Multi-market capabilities: Their global panel allows for comparative testing across regions.
• Ease of use: With DIY research interfaces, you don’t need to be a research expert to get started.

For many companies, especially those experimenting with streamlined insights operations, Toluna represents a powerful step forward. By giving internal teams more ownership over testing, it supports agile product development and empowers business units to make data-backed decisions faster.

However, like any DIY research platform, Toluna works best when paired with thoughtful design and clear research goals. Jumping in without a strategy – especially when dealing with dozens or hundreds of concepts – can lead to confusing results, misaligned KPIs, or missed insights. That’s where expert involvement becomes essential.

Whether you have internal insights capability or bring in On Demand Talent to manage the process, aligning on a strong testing framework can turn Toluna from a helpful tool into a growth-driving engine.

When you’re testing a handful of new ideas, running a few basic surveys on a platform like Toluna may be enough. But what happens when you need to evaluate 30, 50, or even 100 different concepts? That’s where a well-structured concept pipeline becomes critical. Without a thoughtful approach, high-volume testing can lead to inconsistent formatting, messy data, and insights that are hard to compare – and therefore, hard to act on.

Start with a clear testing framework

Begin by defining your research objectives. Are you trying to identify top-performing product ideas, validate a new positioning strategy, or prioritize messaging? Your goals will shape how you format your stimuli, what metrics you collect, and how many waves of testing you need.

Group concepts into manageable waves

Testing fifty concepts in one survey isn’t realistic – it creates respondent fatigue and data noise. Instead, group your concepts into smaller waves (e.g., 5–10 per test) based on category, theme, audience, or development stage. Running multiple waves with consistent design allows you to maintain quality and reduce test bias.

Align stimulus formatting and diagnostic rules

Consistency is key. Each concept should follow the same structure, visual aesthetic, and response metrics. Whether it’s showing a product name, benefit line, and pack image, or a three-frame ad storyboard, standardizing your stimuli ensures fair comparisons. Diagnostic rules – such as thresholds for success or inclusion in the next wave – should be agreed upon ahead of time.

Automate where it makes sense – but keep human oversight

One of Toluna’s strengths is the ability to automate portions of the testing process. This includes templated surveys, pre-scripted analysis tables, and built-in logic. However, automation should support – not replace – thoughtful interpretation and quality control. That’s where expert human input matters.

Use On Demand Talent to enhance execution

If your internal team is spinning too many plates, bringing in experienced professionals as On Demand Talent can unlock efficiency, expertise, and peace of mind. These experts:

• Help organize and structure concept waves strategically
• Ensure stimulus designs are valid, consistent, and unbiased
• Build comparisons across waves so you can analyze performance over time
• Interpret results with context – not just data points

This model allows your core team to stay focused on big picture decisions, while professionals manage the heavy lift of testing logistics and ensure research quality doesn’t suffer under speed or volume pressure.

Setting up a concept pipeline properly on platforms like Toluna doesn’t just streamline testing – it creates a foundation for smarter, more confident innovation. The key is balancing automation with human insight, and speed with rigor.

One of the trickiest parts of running high-volume concept testing using DIY platforms like Toluna is maintaining consistency across multiple waves of stimuli. It’s easy to overlook small details – tone of voice, visual layout, or even the order of attributes – but these inconsistencies can skew results and make it difficult to compare performance across different concepts.

Why consistency matters in stimulus design

In concept testing, the aim is to isolate what makes an idea strong or weak from the consumer’s perspective. If each concept is presented differently – say, one has a bold headline and full-color image, another has just bullet points – that variation becomes part of what the consumer is reacting to. That’s why consistent stimulus formatting is critical when conducting high-volume concept testing on the Toluna platform.

Areas to standardize across concept waves

As you build out a concept pipeline, whether it’s for product features, package design, or advertising claims, ensure the following elements remain consistent:

• Layout: Use the same format for image placement, text spacing, font size, and color schemes.
• Tone and voice: Keep messaging tone uniform – whether formal, playful, or informative – throughout all concepts.
• Length and structure: Ensure each concept description includes the same types of information in the same order (e.g., benefit – how it works – expected outcome).
• Timing and exposure: Make sure each concept is shown for the same amount of time and in a similar environment when possible.

Building templates within Toluna

Toluna's DIY research platform allows for the creation of reusable templates. Leverage this by building a base concept template that locks in formatting elements – such as image ratio, copy fields, and layout structure – to minimize drift across test waves. This helps automate execution and reduces the human error factor.

For example, a fictional beverage brand testing 20 new flavor concepts could create a stimulus shell that includes a product photo frame, headline, three supporting statements, and a tagline. Whenever new concepts are introduced, they slot into this same framework, making results easier to compare cleanly.

Final tip: Document your stimulus guidelines

If multiple team members or cross-functional partners are adding concepts, create a short internal document that outlines stimulus formatting rules. This can help maintain consistency even as the pace of testing increases.

With clear formatting standards and thoughtful planning, you can build a scalable, efficient process for concept testing on Toluna that generates clean, reliable insights across every wave.

As your concept pipeline grows, manually sifting through results to evaluate what’s working can be time-consuming and subject to bias. This is where automated diagnostics – or "diagnostic rules" – come into play. Platforms like Toluna allow you to pre-define success metrics, enabling automated classification and faster decision-making.

What are diagnostic rules in concept testing?

Diagnostic rules are predefined criteria that evaluate each concept based on specific variables. They help automate the sorting of top-performers, underperformers, and promising ideas that may need further refinement. These rules align with your test objectives, such as purchase likelihood, uniqueness, relevance, or believability.

How to set up diagnostic rules in Toluna

When designing a concept testing study on Toluna, consider applying rules like:

• Pass/fail thresholds: Automatically classify a concept as a “winner” if 70% or more of participants say they'd definitely buy it.
• Diagnostic flagging: Alert the team if a concept scores high in intrigue but low in believability – this could highlight an idea worth improving further.
• Rank logic: Easily filter the top 3 or bottom 3 concepts from each wave for closer review or follow-up testing.

Automated diagnostic sorting enables a consistent, scalable way to assess multiple ideas quickly without compromising on quality or depth. This is essential for high-volume testing environments.

Example: Fictional tech accessories brand

A fictional brand testing 15 headphone features used Toluna's automation rules to flag any concept where purchase intent dropped below 30%, or where the net promoter score fell into negative territory. These guardrails made end-of-wave analysis fast and objective, freeing their insights team to focus on storytelling and next steps.

Benefits of automated evaluations

Using diagnostic rules doesn’t just save time – it also improves the quality of your analysis by ensuring every concept is measured against the same yardstick. This means quicker alignment with stakeholders, stronger research integrity, and clearer consumer insights.

In fast-paced environments where speed-to-insight matters, building these evaluation rules into your DIY research platform setup can transform your pipeline from a series of isolated tests into a connected decision-making system.

While DIY market research tools like Toluna give brands more control and speed, they also bring new challenges – especially for teams juggling high-volume pipelines without enough internal capacity or expertise. That’s where tapping into On Demand Talent can make a powerful difference.

Why DIY research might need expert reinforcement

DIY platforms simplify data collection, but they still require strategic thinking to ensure studies are well-designed, insights are meaningful, and decisions are data-driven. If your team is scaling fast or running back-to-back concept testing waves, you may start to feel some of these pressure points:

• Lack of time to format and QA every concept consistently
• Difficulty interpreting automated test results into business impact
• Limited internal expertise in optimizing diagnostic rules or methodology
• Bottlenecks when multiple teams are submitting concepts simultaneously

What On Demand Talent brings to the table

SIVO’s On Demand Talent solution connects you with experienced consumer insights professionals who can step in quickly and flexibly to support your team – without the long timelines of traditional hiring or the risk of offloading to junior freelancers. These experts hit the ground running to:

• Structure your testing frameworks for growth
• Create stimulus templates and consistency guidelines
• Set up automated evaluation scorecards
• Guide your team on when and how to use DIY features effectively

Unlike temporary hires or outside consultants disconnected from your business, On Demand Talent becomes a true partner – closing immediate skill gaps while also building in-house capability for the long term.

When’s the right time to call in support?

Some common inflection points include:

1. Scaling from batch tests to ongoing pipelines: As one-time studies evolve into continuous waves of testing, frameworks and process design become mission-critical.

2. Limited in-house research staffing: You have a strong ideas pipeline, but struggle to run tests efficiently without burning out your team.

3. Leadership asks for faster insights: Your stakeholders want quick feedback, but you need help ensuring research stays high-quality and actionable.

Ultimately, On Demand Talent helps you get more value from your concept testing tools without compromising on rigor or insight. It’s not about outsourcing – it’s about unlocking the full potential of your team's investments in DIY research platforms.