All Blacks assistant coach Leon MacDonald said that improving each week applied regardless of who the side was playing.
"We respect Fiji immensely. You only have to look at the World Cup, how they beat Australia and how close they took England.
"They get up for games against the All Blacks or any big nation – that's what they thrive on. And, it will be a dry ball and fast track, and we've got to be right on.
"If we drop our guard a little, they're going to hurt us and we don't want that to happen. We want a really good performance, one we can be proud of."
MacDonald said lock Patrick Tuipulotu had been left in Auckland to work on his body before the Rugby Championship. Apart from the knee injury he suffered ahead of the Super Rugby Pacific final, he also rolled his ankle during the final, so it was seen as a chance for him to take advantage of a rest to recover.
Blues lock Sam Darry, who was with the squad as locking cover, joined the San Diego side.
MacDonald said the game was a chance to keep growing their game and embedding features they want developed.
Some new faces would be introduced, and that reflected the hunger of newer players to be involved after not being used, apart from halfback Cortez Ratima, in the series against England.
Those players had been energised and put plenty of pressure on the selected 23 in training during the series.
Fiji would be a different challenge to England, but they were a side with which the All Blacks would need to be on point.
"Given the travel factor and limited training time, we've got to ensure we get the performance we are looking for.
"There are areas we need to tidy up, that's obvious."
Starts of play was one area, and the inside phases were narrow at times.
"England posed quite a unique challenge around how they shut you off, and at times we did well to beat that. Today, we reviewed the missed opportunities.
"So this week's about us getting better. Any good defence is hard to breach and England was physical at the breakdown and put a lot of pressure on us there.
"We clear on what we need to do to be better and we've got this week to continue growing our understanding of our game and skill sets."