 The reason why it's called a hero product is because that's the best version of any of the beta product that you have tested in the past. So if you already selected the ones that you like, you already went through the 10 characteristics to make sure that they're fitting to it and you know their flaws, then now it is time to test it. It also allows you to actually find the most ideal and to finalize on that final product. And the reason why you would want to be able to do this right now is because if you continue to prolong the whole process and not really commit to a product, you would never ever be able to create that food business of your dreams. You need to be able to take micro steps, actions in order for you to be one step closer into creating the food brand of your dreams. And in this whole point and in this whole lesson, you don't need to focus on packaging because moving forward in the next few lessons and modules, we're going to be focusing on packaging in this specific lesson. All you have to do is to finalize the taste and the presentation of your product. That is the key essence of this lesson. Now the three reasons why it's important for us to even conduct product tasting is to get feedback. A lot of times we get feedback from our friends or family about different versions of our beta product and we lose track of which version is the best. And that's the reason why we need structured methods of collecting feedback. So for example, if you're changing up the recipe, you need to be able to know which one you change and how that feedback really resonates with your customers. Next up is to test your product with your client avatar. Why is that the case? It is because you want to see the people that really loves the idea of what your food concept is. Do they like the taste of it because the idea might sound good. However, the execution might be lacking and need some catching up. And that's the reason why product tasting with your client avatar is so, so important because these are your core fans. You need to be able to serve them really, really, really well in the very beginning so then that way you can grow your business. Next up, it allows you to see potential improvements. The whole point of this exercise is for you to actually know your flaws and know what to improve. Is it too sweet? Is it too sour? Is it too bitter? Or is the customer experience just really poor? Understanding that allows you to take it one step better and one step closer to your final product before you hit the market. That's actually key. Something that I forgot to mention is you need to be able to understand all the changes that you need to make before finalizing on packaging, before going to the marketplace. That's the reason why product tasting is so, so important. Now, how do you do this? First of all, create a list of people to product taste test your hero product. Use the same people that you have already interviewed from the previous lesson. If you haven't already interviewed people, make sure you go back to the previous lesson to actually complete that because it's important and it's actually imperative for you to complete that before you move on to the next step and the next stages. And even if the people you interviewed ended up not being your ideal customer avatar, it is okay because we need more feedback. General feedback is okay as well. Now, at the same time, you must have at least a few people that are your client avatar. That would be loving your brand because these people are going to be your biggest fans that spreads the word for you. Super important to have people that love your product taste tested because if they give you a mark of seven out of 10 instead of like a nine out of 10, then you know there are room for improvement for your product. If you don't have people to help you with the interview or the taste testing, you can easily set up an event on Facebook groups and reach out to people within that demographic or people within where you live or even Reddit groups, whatever the groups may be, you can also reach out to them even to people you don't know. So it is okay to conduct a product tasting event with people you don't know because once again, the more feedback, the better and it allows you to have a better idea of what is going on and how your product really stands out in the marketplace. Second is to create a game plan. How will you execute this whole food tasting event? For example, you need to identify the location. It could be as simple as your own home or it could be in a coffee shop. It doesn't really matter what it is, but you need to identify it. Next up, you need to be super professional because you don't want the customer experience to affect how people tasted their food. And so, for example, if I get people to come to my house and it takes me another two hours to prepare the food, your customers or your friends or your client avatar might already be thrown off by waiting for two hours before they have that cookie of yours. Much rather, you would want to prepare the cookie. They come in and they taste your cookie. They give you the feedback and they're out. So that becomes a better experience. So make sure you have to be professional. Have all the tools. Everything already made. So then that way, when your client avatar comes, they're truly just doing the taste testing with you. Agenda of the day. Set the right expectation with your guests. Once again, it's all about setting the right expectation. So when they come in, tell them the agenda of the day. Hey, you know what? Within five minutes, we're going to start. You first of all, you're going to taste three batches of cookies, right? And each time you taste a batch of cookies, I want you to keep it to yourself. You get five minutes to actually fill in a survey. And after you're done that, you can send it, you can give it back to me. Everything is going to be anonymous. And this is how we're going to set up the whole day. This whole process will take around 45 minutes. That itself is setting the agenda of the day. So then that way, it sets the right expectations for your guests. Now there are two tips that I want to share with you. First of all, ignore your operations. And what I mean by that is you don't need to fine tune your operation of making a product yet, okay? Because that's going to be done in the final stages. We don't need to work on the workflow. We just want to perfect our food item first. Once you perfect the food item, then we focus on the operations, right? So that's why you can ignore all your operations. Don't think about, Hey, you know what? How can I shorten the timeframe? How can I make this more smooth? Forget about all those operations. You can always come back to it and fix it later on for the taste testing specifically. You just need to make sure that the product itself is presentable. Next up, be prepared for criticisms guys, because we as cooks and we as people that have so much passion, we're looking into this business day in day out. And we have so much passion that's thrown into it. It's hard to receive criticisms and people telling us that our food sucks or that, Hey, you know what? It's not really as good as you think. Those are very, very valuable feedback for you. And you need to be able to take it in a very constructive manner and don't fight back because at the end of the day, the whole reason we're doing product tasting is to make sure we fine tune on the product, a perfect product. So if the product is no good, if someone doesn't like it, then that means something is wrong. So don't take it as your identity. Don't take it as an attack to your ego. Make sure you're humble and that you're ready to take on criticisms and honest feedback. Encourage them to critique your product and be an open minded person. And when you encourage the people to give you constructive criticisms, that's how we can all improve and to create that perfect food business of yours. Now third and final piece is to create a product feedback survey. And what does that mean? It means it's a simple, quick survey that organizes all the thoughts and feedbacks from your product tasters. Names can be anonymous, completely anonymous because some people are not comfortable giving out criticisms out because they don't want to be judged, which is completely okay. Names are always optional when it comes to writing in the surveys. Last tip for you, the most important question you need to ask is would they recommend this product to their friends? Circle from zero to 10. This is key because if they don't recommend this to their friends, then you know what's going on. They don't want their status and their reputation to be harmed. That's the reason why this question is so, so crucial. And nine means that your product is really good and it's ready to go to market. And this is a really good gauge for us especially when we were doing our ice cream and our different flavor profile is whenever we hit a nine, we know that flavor will do well. But if we hit a seven and eight or even a six, then we know we need to improve that flavor or even scratch it out. Many times we created different flavors for ice cream and we have to scratch it out because people just don't really like it. Our customer, our client avatar just doesn't really like it. To give you an example, we created a flavor that is like a orange creamsicle. So just imagine an orange crush pop mixed with milk vanilla milk ice cream. Okay, so that seems like a really good combo. I personally really like it. But as we go to market with it as we do these taste testings, our client avatar doesn't really like it. They feel like that the math, the flavor profile don't match. It's really contradicting to each other. And they just don't like it. Just because I like it doesn't mean that my customer avatar, the people that is paying me would like it. And that's the reason why for that flavor, we decided to trash it and shelf it. This is really, really important and gives you a lot of insight into how you run your food business. As an example, once again, we did one with Bulbasaur, which is a case study we've done for you guys. And as you can see here, some of the results here, this is a survey product feedback. And you can actually copy the exact same thing. Now, or even use this as a reference to build your own survey and your own agenda. So now it is your turn. This stage is once again, very, very crucial to your business success. Because if you don't have a good product, no one will buy from you. No marketing tactics and strategy that I share with you will get you up on your feet. If the product is no good, you can lie to your customers once or twice, but after they buy it once or twice, they'll never buy your items back again. And for you to run a successful business that has longevity that you can actually make money month over month, you need a product by far that is really, really good. That stands out in the marketplace. If you don't have this product finalized yet, then there's no reason for you to have a business. Okay. So once again, it is crucial. You can continue to refine your product until you have a hero product that's going to work. We recommend an average score of to eight out of 10 for the surveys that you complete, follow the game plan and the feedback template and to get your taste testing event started.