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Product Management vocabulary · Discovery & User Research

Usability testing

Meaning in product management, with examples

nounCommon term

In product management, usability testing means: A research method in which real users try to complete tasks with a product or prototype while the team watches where they succeed, hesitate or fail.

In Turkish: kullanılabilirlik testi

How it is used

Run by designers, researchers or PMs, in person or remotely. Five users are often enough to find the biggest problems. During usability testing, participants are asked to think aloud, and the team avoids helping them.

Example sentences

  1. Usability testing showed that four of five users couldn't find the cancel button.

  2. We do a round of usability testing before every major release.

Common collocations

  • run usability testing
  • remote usability testing
  • usability testing session
  • moderated usability testing
  • prototypeAn early, simplified model of a product or feature, from paper sketches to clickable designs, built to test an idea with users before real development.
  • user researchThe study of how real users behave, what they need and what problems they have, through methods such as interviews, surveys and usability tests.
  • validateTo check with evidence, such as user tests, data or experiments, that an idea, assumption or solution is actually right before investing more in it.
  • customer journeyAll the steps and experiences a customer goes through with a product or company, from first hearing about it to buying, using, getting help and perhaps leaving.
  • pain pointA specific problem, frustration or difficulty that users experience, which a product can solve or reduce.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Discovery & User Research

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