Why you should invest in User Testing now!

Roadmap in hands, product at an advanced stage, you’re almost ready to launch. Your product team did the hard work, marketing is ready to tell stories, internal tests have been performed …

But the question remain : will it delight your customers and eventually bring the ROI you expect?

Performing User Testing will tell you! Here’s why and how.

It’s an investment

Independently of how good are the code or the design of your product you can be sure that refactoring will be needed soon or later.

What matters here is to reduce back and forth and deliver a value-added  experience to your users.

User Testing is not (at all) only about finding bugs, rather about identifying pain points in the usage.

A few sessions with a panel of users will help you validate numerous choices you’ve made during the product development : navigation, options, wording, etc … . Some imperfection could remain, and by identifying them sooner, or at all, you’ll save wasted development time, customer support, have insights to build better interfaces and documentations for example, and this will have terrific impact on your conversion and retention rates.  

It’s profitable

Yes, User Testing has a cost.

Now think about it, what is the cost of developing this “killing feature” that nobody wants?

What is the cost of launching your product too late, ignoring that your MVP was market-ready since weeks already?

Think User Testing right from the beginning. Test the idea thanks to mockups and prototypes, the execution with an early-access or beta program, then launch and get feedbacks on a segment of users before a global announcement. With the help of your users, you will :

• Validate their needs, refine your solutions ;
• Find opportunities you never have thought about  ;
• Know when it’s time to release (product/feature is ready to launch)  ;
• Get a competitive advantage : knowing your differences and where you out-perform them.

Cherry on the cake, if you find the way to interest your core users in your product development, you’ll definitely create extra customer loyalty and advocacy!  

Where to Start?

User Experience and Research is a job.

If you don’t have a UX profile yet in your team, think about hiring one.

Alternatively, find a professional in your area to help you build your strategy and execute it. There are numerous ways you can conduct User Testing and grab feedbacks on your products. Some can be quickly implemented and use automation, such as online survey or behavioral tracking including screen recording.

Start by listing your options, implement what you can easily do, measure the results and then go deeper whenever you can.  

Conclusion

UX Testing is booming, with already over 55% of companies conducting User Research and planning to increase their budget.

As your team, product and customer database grow, User Testing will prove valuable and indispensable. Even though, we recommend every company to start User Testing at early stage even if it means with a limited scope.

Your product might not be mature, but most probably your competition and market are : finding out where stands your (and competitors) strength/weakness and opportunities will certainly lead to quicker gain market shares.

Also published on Medium.