** Making BBQ better **
GE's FirstBuild is taking innovation to new heights with their new indoor smoker - check it out!
[ ](/blog/making-bbq-better) [ ](/blog/making-bbq-better)
Spotted in the wild:
** FirstBuild’s Arden Indoor Pellet Smoker and Indiegogo **
** Thanks toDavid Brand, the brilliant author of Testing Business Ideas , for spotting this and sharing it on Twitter. **
[ ](/blog/making-bbq-better)
[ FirstBuild ](/blog/making-bbq-better) , owned by GE Appliances (a Haier company), is testing demand for an indoor BBQ smoker using [ I ](/blog/making-bbq-better) [ ndiegogo ](/blog/making-bbq-better) . It is a YouTube pretotype, best used for products that are complex or a big investment to bring to market. In this case, they have built something, but I suspect the video and results are simulated to test product demand, a perfectly valid strategy.
* Want your in the wildfeatured next month (and an Amazon gift card to boot)? *[* Hop on over to our Slack channel! *](/blog/making-bbq-better)* *
** What’s working well? What could be better? **
The branding on this is not prominent, and I like that. Too often, we believe that branding is our competitive advantage when testing products. It’s not, it just helps you scale. What they’re testing here is problem-solution fit, asking: a) does anyone care? And b) are we solving a problem well enough for anyone to show interestin our product?
** What are the takeaways? **-
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If you have a complex product or service idea, the [ YouTube pretotype ](/blog/making-bbq-better) is an effective way to simulate the end product and test demand from customers. -
Start small: you probably don’t have a GE sized budget, so place the pretotype in a channel that makes sense. Ask yourself: where would your potential early adopters be looking for a solution to the problem you’re solving? Go there. -
Don’t ask for money immediately. You’ll notice in this pretotype they don’t give an indication of price. For starters, get emails. -
** ** In the field ** Want to start experimenting in your business,but you’re not sure where to start? Then let’s find out... ** [ ](/blog/making-bbq-better) ** ** One thing Lastly, here's a great quote from [ James Clear ](/blog/making-bbq-better) to take you into the week ahead. [ ](/blog/making-bbq-better) [ ](/blog/making-bbq-better)