Five Homes. One Fault. Zero Drop-Off.
In-home product testing for a leading consumer electronics brand
The Challenge
A leading consumer electronics brand needed real households to trial a prototype cordless vacuum ahead of launch, not a one-off reaction, but genuine two-week, in-home use. That meant placing five prototype units with the right households across London and visiting each one in person, all within a single tightly-packed day.
The criteria went well beyond the usual demographic mix. Participants had to already own a cordless vacuum and be genuinely willing to spend £200-£300 on a new one, clean at least twice a week, have a real mix of carpet and hard flooring, and include three pet owners and two existing owners of specific older models. On top of that, every home had to sit within 30 minutes of the clients office and no more than 30 minutes from each other, a geography puzzle as demanding as the demographic one.
The Audience and Methodology
Five back-to-back 45-minute sessions ran from 10am to 3.15pm, with two members of the client team visiting each home in turn. Zest arranged a car and driver to keep them moving smoothly between locations all day.
After the interview, each prototype stayed in-home for two weeks of genuine everyday use, closing with a survey that captured the lived-with verdict, giving the client both an instant first reaction and a considered, longer-term one.
Methodology:
In-home-use test: 45-minute in-person interviews across London, followed by a two-week in-home product trial with online surveys
Respondents:
5 households: cordless vacuum owners, mixed gender, 3 pet owners, 2 existing brand customers
Duration:
IHOS: 24 February 2026; product trial ran for two weeks, closing with a follow-up survey
Services:
Recruitment, screening, IHOS scheduling and logistics, moderator travel, trial product management, mid-trial technical support, survey management and product collection
How Zest Delivered
Zest recruited five tightly-clustered London households that matched every criterion, ownership, spend, pets, flooring and specific vacuum models, while keeping every home within the tight geographic radius the day demanded. Each prototype unit also had to be coordinated to arrive in the right home ahead of that household’s 45-minute session, so every interview could begin with the product already in place.
Midway through the trial, one respondent’s unit developed a charging fault. Zest gathered diagnostic photos and video of both batteries, coordinated a replacement, and kept the respondent and the client updated at every step until the issue was resolved.
Once resolved, Zest arranged courier collection of the trial unit. Throughout the two-week trial, Zest also got every respondent signed up to the client’s feedback platform and tracked survey completion closely, chasing the final responses through to the client’s reporting deadline, keeping the whole trial on track without losing a single respondent.
Five homes recruited. One battery fault fixed mid-trial. Every respondent seen through to the end.
What This Says About Zest
In-home product testing doesn’t stop at recruitment. A trial that runs for two weeks in someone’s actual house will hit real-world snags, and how those snags are handled says as much about the research as the findings themselves.
Zest combined precise recruitment, tight day-of logistics and hands-on troubleshooting to keep the trial running smoothly from first interview to final collection, giving the client a complete, reliable picture of real-world use, with every hiccup managed quietly behind the scenes.
