Recruit five people that match your target persona. You want actionable feedback to your idea to people who are potential users. Don’t settle for stakeholder or internal feedback. This is the key moment of this stage – real users need to see and use your product so that you can validate the demand for such a product.

The user testing interviews are somewhat focused on usability (check: moderated usability testing chapter). Still, your main focus is to test the concept – i.e., does it resonate with the target users?

Your user testing session should have the following three segments:

• Warm-up and checking if they fit the target audience: Start by asking people about similar problems/situations that you’re trying to address with your product. Make sure they feel comfortable talking to you and check if they actually match your target audience. It might be that they’re not a match, or they just might be a different segment. Make sure to note all of that.
• Using the prototype: Send them the prototype and ask them to open it on a native device, be it mobile or desktop. Ensure they share their screen with you and that they think out loud as they’re solving tasks. You and other workshop participants should keep notes in a rose-thorn-bud fashion.
• Follow-up questions: get their impressions while they’re fresh. Ask them if such a product would be useful to them in the past two or three weeks. If yes, then dig deeper, and understand if that situation fits your vision of the target audience. Also, ask them to compare your product to other products and services they’re using to solve a similar problem.

After five to six interviews, you’ll clearly understand whether or not people find your product appealing. The potential decision is to persist, pivot or perish. Don’t sugarcoat it to clients, be open and honest. They don’t want to invest money in something that won’t work and bring them back profits or savings.