User Testing On A Budget

🔬 UX Concept Testing. How to test your UX design without spending too much time and effort polishing mock-ups and prototypes ↓ ✅ Concept testing is an early real-world check of design ideas. ✅ It happens before a new product/feature is designed and built. ✅ It helps you find an idea that will meet user and business needs. ✅ Always low-fidelity, always pre-launch, always involves real users. 🚫 Testing, not validation: ideas are not confirmed, but evaluated. ✅ What people think, do, say and feel are often very different things. ✅ You’ll need 5 users per feature or a group of features. ✅ You will discover 85% of usability problems with 5 users. ✅ You will discover 100% of UX problems with 20–40 users. 🚫 Poor surveys are a dangerous, unreliable tool to assess design. 🚫 Never ask users if they prefer one design over the other. ✅ Ask what adjectives or qualities they connect with a design. ✅ Tree testing: ask users to find content in your navigation tree. ✅ Kano model survey: get user’s sentiment about new features. ✅ First impression test: ask to rate a concept against your keywords. ✅ Preference test: ask to pick a concept that better conveys keywords. ✅ Competitive testing: like preference test, but with competitor’s design. ✅ 5-sec test: show for 5 secs, then ask questions to answer from memory. ✅ Monadic testing: segment users, test concepts in-depth per segment. ✅ Concept testing isn’t one-off, but a continuous part of the UX process. In design process, we often speak about “validation” of the new design. Yet as Kara Pernice rightfully noted, the word is confusing and introduces bias. It suggests that we know it works, and are looking for data to prove that. Instead, test, study, watch how people use it, see where the design succeeds and fails. We don’t need polished mock-ups or advanced prototypes to test UX concepts. The earlier you bring your work to actual users, the less time you’ll spend on designing and building a solution that doesn’t meet user needs and doesn’t have a market fit. And that’s where concept testing can be extremely valuable. Useful resources: Concept Testing 101, by Jenny L. https://lnkd.in/egAiKreK A Guide To Concept Testing in UX, by Maze https://lnkd.in/eawUR-AM Concept Testing In Product Design, by Victor Yocco, PhD https://lnkd.in/egs-cyap How To Test A Design Concept For Effectiveness, by Paul Boag https://lnkd.in/e7wre6E4 The Perfect UX Research Midway Method, by Gabriella Campagna Lanning https://lnkd.in/e-iA3Wkn Don’t “Validate” Designs; Test Them, by Kara Pernice https://lnkd.in/eeHhG77j UX Research Methods Cheat Sheet, by Allison Grayce Marshall https://lnkd.in/eyKW8nSu #ux #testing

I have been meeting a lot of new founders every day. So I figured I would share my 2 cents in short content for a couple of days. Here goes the first one. How to Validate Your Startup Idea — Without Building an MVP Most founders make one mistake that costs them months of effort and thousands of dollars: They built first. And validate later. That’s exactly why so many early-stage startups burn money, time, and confidence before understanding whether anyone even wants their product. After working with /talking to 400+ founders across Bangladesh, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, here’s the exact validation framework I learned —a method that has helped teams test ideas for less than $50. 🔹 Step 1: Talk to 20 Real Users Not your friends. Not your investors. Not people who will “support you no matter what.” Talk to people who feel the pain TODAY. Real conversations reveal real problems — not assumptions. 🔹 Step 2: Ask Only 3 High-Impact Questions These are the only questions you need to find product–market fit signals early: What are you doing to solve this problem right now? What frustrates you the most in that process? What would a perfect solution look like to you? These three questions alone have shaped solutions for 400+ startups we’ve worked with in the past decade. 🔹 Step 3: Build a “Mock Solution” — Not an MVP Founders often think validation requires a full product. It doesn’t. Your mock solution can be as simple as: A one-page Google Doc A Figma screen A WhatsApp flow A clickable prototype If users don’t understand your mock solution, they won’t understand your MVP either. 🔹 Step 4: Pre-Sell the Idea This is where real validation happens. 👉 If nobody is willing to commit in advance → the idea is weak. 👉 If 5–10 people say “Yes, I want this” → you have a winner. Pre-selling is the clearest signal of demand because people don’t lie with their wallets. This is exactly how we validated multiple products across Asia without writing a single line of code — or spending more than $50. Build later. Validate first. Your future self (and your bank account) will thank you. Do you validate before building — or build before validating?

If there’s one thing this product management journey has taught me, it’s this: People fear the big PM terms… even when the actual work is simple. Earlier this week, a mentee asked me: “Blessing, how do I validate an idea?” But before I could respond, she listed a whole paragraph of complicated steps she thought she had to follow. I smiled and told her: “You already know what to do…you’re just letting the terminology intimidate you.” Because idea validation isn’t hard. It only sounds hard. Here’s the simplest way to validate an idea: 1. Talk to the people you want to build for Ask real, human questions: → What problem are you facing right now? → How are you currently solving it? → What frustrates you about existing solutions? → Would you pay for something better? 2. Check if the problem is big enough If only 2 out of 20 people feel the pain… it may not be worth building yet. 3. Test interest quickly Create something small: → a landing page → a waitlist → a prototype If no one clicks, signs up, or cares… that’s still data. 4. Validate willingness to pay Most people stop before this part…but it’s the most important. Ask directly: “If I built this, would you pay for it?” The truth is in their wallet, not their words. 5. Don’t overthink the terminology You don’t need a 20-page document. You need clarity: → Is there a real problem? → Is it painful enough? → Do people want a solution? → Will they pay for it? That’s validation. Not the big terms. Just the truth. P.S. Which part of validation do you find hardest, talking to users, testing interest, or asking about payment? © #TheGlobalPM💟

I saw a fintech startup spend $300K over eight months building a feature none of their enterprise clients asked for. When I asked their product owner why they skipped validation, the answer was honest "we were sure we knew what users needed." We've seen this pattern dozens of times at Halo Lab. The fix is almost always the same sequence: 1. Talk to 5 customers before writing a single line of code. Five conversations surface the assumptions that would otherwise blow up 6 months in. 2. Build a fake door. Landing page, waitlist button. If no one clicks, you just saved yourself months of development. 3. Run a manual MVP. Deliver the experience with spreadsheets before automating it. If users won't pay for the manual version, they won't pay for the automated one. 4. Ask your own sales team. They talk to customers every day. One extra question in discovery calls can generate weeks of product insight. The whole sequence costs practically nothing. The startup that skipped it lost $$$. If you’re planning a new product, validation is the fastest way to protect both time and budget. 👉 Validate ideas before development starts: https://lnkd.in/ddYGdmUR What’s the simplest product test you’ve ever run? 🔔 Follow Valentine Boyev for more updates!

Expensive usability testing is a waste of money. There. I said it. "We don't have the budget." "We don't have the time." "We'll test in the next sprint." I know, But here's what nobody tells you. The cheapest usability test costs nothing. The fastest one takes 15 minutes. I'm not talking about fancy research labs. I'm not talking about paid user panels. I'm not talking about six-week studies. I'm talking about showing your screen to a real person And getting the quickest and cheapest usability test done. Here are the only 4 methods you need: — Hallway testing. Zero cost. Today. — 5-second test. Free tools. 24 hours. — Think-aloud session. One user. Thirty minutes. — Guerrilla survey. Three questions. Real answers. Start today. Not next sprint, but today. Because you're not too busy to test. You're too busy not to. PS: Made this for UX designers doing real work without big resources. If it helps, share it. Someone on your feed needs to see this today.

If you work in a product team on new features, innovation, or manage a website with low traffic, relying only on A/B testing isn't sufficient. You still need to validate your ideas. And there are plenty of great ways to do that. Here are some of my favorite non-A/B validation methods: 🔍 5-second testing Test the first impression. How quickly do users understand your message? Is the key value immediately clear? 🧪 (Prototype) Usability testing Validate new features, user flows, and design changes. 🗂️ Card sorting Improve the information architecture of your site or app. 📋 Design surveys Check your assumptions about user preferences, understanding, and pain points. 📢 Google or social ads Test which headlines, value props, or USPs drive interest. You can find more methods and examples in: 📘 The great book Testing Business Ideas 📥 My free 'CRO for Low-Traffic Websites' guide (sent to all CRO Tips subscribers) Some tools I like for this kind of work: Lyssna, Optimal Workshop, Mouseflow, Contentsquare. A/B testing is just one (very important) part of the experimentation toolkit. But validation should never depend on sample size alone. Sometimes you need faster methods, or you simply don't have the traffic to test. --- 🤩 More CRO tips or questions? 🤝 Connect or reach out anytime. ✉️ Or join 1,900+ subscribers to my CRO Tips newsletter. #Experimentation #Conversionrateoptimization #CRO #ABtesting #Userresearch

Don't guess. Test. Every assumption needs to be validated. It’s tempting to trust our intuition as designers. But intuition without data is just a guess in a pretty font. Even experienced UX/UI designers fall into the trap of: ❌Designing from personal preference ❌Skipping validation “just this once” ❌Assuming users will behave logically Instead:  ✔️ Run quick usability tests (Maze, Lookback, PlaybookUX)  ✔️ Conduct interviews or short surveys  ✔️ Use A/B testing for live products  ✔️ Gather insights from heatmaps or session recordings (Hotjar, FullStory) Even 3 real users can save you from 3 months of wrong assumptions. Design isn’t about being right — it’s about getting it right. Learn more on how to validate fast: ➜The Nielsen Norman Group – When to Use Which UX Research Method ➜Lookback – Live interviews & usability testing ➜PlaybookUX – Unmoderated and moderated tests ➜Hotjar – Heatmaps & session recordings ➜UX Research Field Guide – Free resource #UXResearch #TestDontGuess #ValidateDesign #UXDesign #ProductDesign #UserExperience #UXTips #DesignMindset #DesignProcess

Stop spending hours polishing ...a prototype before getting feedback. The fastest validation tool isn’t perfection, it’s roughness. The goal is to separate the idea from the aesthetics. Here are two quick, low-effort testing hacks 👇 👉 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘇𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 (Flow Logic) Use basic grayscale boxes in Figma (or even hand-drawn squares). Task for the user: ➡️ Complete the core flow using only structure. Why it works: ❌ If the flow fails here, no amount of color or micro-interactions will save it. ✔️ You test logic before UI. 👉 𝗧𝗵𝗲 “𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴?” 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 (Content & Context) Remove all images and icons. Show the screen text-only. Ask: ❓ “Based on the text alone, what is this screen about?” Why it works: 🧠 It validates whether your copy + hierarchy can carry the experience on their own. Low-fidelity = high clarity. You’ll: ✔️ Save time ✔️ Detach emotionally from bad ideas ✔️ Reach a profitable solution faster 👇What’s the fastest way you get early design ideas... in front of real users?

Most CEOs don’t use the cheapest product test, which costs $0. I saw a fintech startup spend $300,000 over eight months to develop a feature that none of their enterprise clients asked for. The smartest teams start by doing something simpler. They talk to just five customers first before they write a single line of code. Once they have these five customer conversations, they'll be able to identify significant assumptions that could cause them to fail six months into the project. Next, they will create something even more straightforward. In this case, they build a fake door. Create a landing page with a button for a waiting list. If no one clicks on the button, you know that you won't develop the product. It’s easier to learn this fact sooner rather than later after working on it for six months. Afterwards, then run an MVP. Deliver the experience manually before automating it. Spreadsheet instead of software. If users won’t pay for the manual version, they won’t pay for the automated one either. And one more source of validation most companies ignore: Your own sales team. They already talk to customers every day. One extra question in discovery calls can generate weeks of product insight. If you’re planning a new product, validation is the fastest way to protect both time and budget. 👉 Validate ideas before development starts: https://lnkd.in/ddYGdmUR What’s the simplest product test you’ve ever run? 🔔 Follow Artem Borysenkofor more updates!

Want Better UX? Here’s How to Test Your Website Without Breaking the Bank! You don’t need a huge budget to improve usability—you just need the right approach. Here’s how to test your website on a budget and fix UX issues before they kill conversions. → Run Guerrilla Usability Testing You don’t need a fancy lab—just test with real people. ✔ Ask friends, family, or colleagues to complete key tasks on your site. ✔ Observe where they struggle and note common pain points. → Use Free or Low-Cost Testing Tools Great UX doesn’t have to cost a fortune. ✔ Try Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps & session recordings. ✔ Use Google Analytics to spot drop-off points in your user journey. → Conduct Simple 5-Second Tests Can users understand your page in 5 seconds? ✔ Show your homepage or landing page to a new user. ✔ Ask them what they think the site is about—if they’re confused, your messaging needs work. → Leverage A/B Testing Small changes can lead to big improvements. ✔ Test different headlines, CTAs, or layouts using Google Optimize or VWO. ✔ Track what gets higher engagement and conversions. → Ask Your Users Directly Your best insights come from actual visitors. ✔ Use exit-intent surveys to ask, “What stopped you from signing up?” ✔ Send quick polls to get real feedback on pain points. ✨ Why This Matters? A user-friendly website means higher engagement and more conversions. Testing doesn’t have to be expensive—it just has to be smart. 👉 Need help making your website more user-friendly? Let’s work together! Drop a message, and let’s chat. 🚀