UX testing is a vital part of creating products that meet user needs and expectations. But how do you use the insights and feedback from UX testing to inform your product roadmap? In this article, we'll explore some practical ways to use UX testing to influence your product strategy and prioritize your features and improvements.
UX testing is the process of evaluating how users interact with your product, whether it's a website, app, software, or service. UX testing helps you understand how users perceive your product, what problems they encounter, how they feel about it, and what they want from it. UX testing is important because it helps you validate your assumptions, identify user pain points, measure user satisfaction, and improve your product based on user feedback.
I'll add this paragraph from the NNg article here. It's so important to know what we want to measure when we do the UX testing. "Usability is defined by 5 quality components: Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks? Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency? Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors? Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?"
Before you start UX testing, you need to have a clear goal and a test plan. You need to define what you want to learn from your users, what questions you want to ask, what tasks you want them to perform, and what metrics you want to track. You also need to decide who your target users are, how many of them you need, and how you will recruit them. Then, you need to choose the best method and tool for your UX testing, such as usability testing, user interviews, surveys, A/B testing, or analytics. You also need to prepare your test materials, such as prototypes, scripts, scenarios, and consent forms.
When designing a UX test, it's critical to start with a Hypothesis. For example: "A single page sign-up form will generate more sign-ups than a multi-page wizard-like sign-up flow". Your Hypothesis what you think will happen and in essence what you're trying to prove. Having a clear Hypothesis helps you focus questions to ask and metrics to track. On the other hand, be careful not to bias towards questions and metrics that will confirm your Hypothesis. Keep an open mind to feedback and results and that your initial idea might be wrong.
After you conduct UX testing, you need to analyze and communicate the results effectively. You need to collect and organize the data, look for patterns and insights, and prioritize the findings based on their impact and urgency. You also need to create and share reports, presentations, or dashboards that summarize the key findings, recommendations, and next steps. You need to communicate the results to your stakeholders, such as your product team, developers, designers, and managers, and get their feedback and buy-in.
UX testing can help you influence your product roadmap in several ways. First, it can help you validate or invalidate your product vision, value proposition, and user personas. You can use UX testing to check if your product solves a real user problem, if it delivers the benefits that users want, and if it appeals to your target audience. Second, it can help you prioritize your features and improvements based on user needs and feedback. You can use UX testing to rank your features and improvements based on their importance, feasibility, and desirability. Third, it can help you measure your product performance and user satisfaction. You can use UX testing to track your key performance indicators, such as user retention, conversion, engagement, and loyalty.
UX testing is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process of learning and improving. You need to iterate and improve your product based on UX testing results and user feedback. You need to implement the changes and enhancements that you identified from UX testing, test them again with users, and evaluate the results. You also need to monitor and measure the impact of the changes and enhancements on your product performance and user satisfaction. You need to repeat this cycle of testing, learning, and improving until you achieve your product goals and meet your user expectations.
The most important voice is the USERS voice when it comes to B2B SaaS. This comes with a few flavors of feedback. - Analytics and usage of features. Who are the power users and how can you speak to them? - Beta customers on new workflows. What is missing that would make their lives even better? - Customer interviews. How does their day-to-day look when they are not using your software? If you can understand behavioral patterns, you'll be able to solve their problems over time.
UX testing can be difficult and complex, and it's important to be aware of common pitfalls and challenges. You should test your product early and often, involving users throughout the product development process. Otherwise, you risk wasting time, money, and resources, as well as a poor user experience. Additionally, make sure to test your product with the right users and methods that match your product goals and questions. Otherwise, you may get biased or irrelevant results with misleading conclusions. It's also important to analyze and communicate the results accurately and objectively, taking action on them accordingly. Otherwise, you may miss opportunities, have unresolved issues, and disappoint users.