- A flow or prototype exists and you need to know if people can finish a task
- You are choosing between two versions of the same path
- Stakeholders keep arguing from opinion and you need session evidence
- You do not know who the user is or what job they are doing. Run a study first
- You only have a week and no prototype. That is a sprint, or it is too early
- You need numbers from hundreds of people. Use a survey or an A/B test
Steps
Plan and script sit together. Recruit, run, cluster, then share. Five to eight sessions is enough.
Plan and script
Write the tasks around the decision you need, then the moderator script. Practice it once. Open questions, not a tour of the prototype.
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Usability Test Plan
Create a comprehensive usability test plan with scenarios, tasks, and success metrics.
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Usability Test Script & Moderator Guide
Create detailed test scripts and moderator guides for running usability test sessions with specific tasks, questions, and facilitation tips.
usability-testingtest-scriptmoderator-guide
Recruit
Find people who do this work, not coworkers. Screen for the task, not for enthusiasm.
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User Research Recruitment Plan
Create participant criteria and recruitment materials for user research studies.
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Participant Screener Survey Builder
Draft a recruitment screener with intro copy, behavioral and qualifying items, explicit disqualifiers, routing notes, and recruiter guidance. Goes deeper than a high-level recruitment plan.
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Participant Consent & Session Comms
Plain-language consent and logistics: recording, data use, how to stop, incentive, and calendar copy. Variants for interviews, usability tests, surveys, and diaries.
research-opsconsentrecruitment
Run sessions
Sit with them. After each session, turn the recording into a debrief so synthesis is clustering, not reconstructing.
Record with permission. Do not help unless they are stuck and the task is over.
Cluster findings
Theme across sessions with coverage counts. Rank issues by how many people hit them and how badly the task broke.
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Affinity Mapping Assistant
Synthesize raw qual data (interviews, usability, diaries) using an affinity-style flow: clean, code, cluster into themes with evidence counts, outliers, severity-weighted ranking, and surprises.
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Research Insight Statement Writer
Turn themes and observations into decision-ready insight statements (Observation, Pattern, Implication, Recommendation) plus a short exec "So What" summary. Use after synthesis or affinity output.
insightssynthesisstakeholder-communication
Share results
Open with what to change. Clips beat slides. Method belongs in the appendix.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from a user research study?
A study forms the problem from interviews. This workflow tests a flow you already have. Same recruit and synthesis prompts. Different middle: a task script, not a discussion guide.
The prototype is ugly. Should we wait?
No. You need the path to work, not the polish. If people cannot tell what to tap, that is the finding. Wait only if the happy path is missing screens.
Can we just send an unmoderated test?
Use unmoderated to add volume after you have watched a few sessions. Do not skip the first five live. You will miss why they stalled.