How to run smooth user testing sessions
Some key learnings from how we have developed and improved our user testing process
For background purposes — I’m currently the sole product designer at Thriva. We’re an early stage health-tech startup. Our vision is to be the world’s first personalised healthcare service. At Thriva we strongly believe in customer-centred design — that means speaking to customers early and often. So much so, that customer insight is one of our four core business functions.
Part of my role has involved defining and developing our user testing process. For the past year or so we’ve been running user testing sessions with our customers. The greater understanding we have of our client’s motivations, needs, and frustrations — the more useful products we can build. I’ve learnt a lot by being hands-on through this process.
Hopefully, these tips can be of use to people in a similar situation. Or perhaps you’ve run some sessions before, but don’t feel you’re getting the most from them. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to focus on in-person sessions as I’ve found they work the best for Thriva. But, I realise this isn’t always possible — so some of these points can also be applied to video chat or phone sessions.
