Just For Testing

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I really enjoyed reading your article, Dana. But I must admit, I personally couldn’t relate to the scenario because I’ve always been fiercely protective of the entire usability testing process, the participants and the effort put into orchestrating the event. In other words, I would have had great difficulty accommodating schedule changes because of the peanut gallery’s requests.

I think I would have said it would be best for the execs to wait for the movie (highlight video) to come out ; that viewing the highlights would be a far more efficient use of the exec’s valuable time. (I can be good at BS’ing when the occasion calls for it. :)

On the tip about the screener, I’ve done something a little different. I’ve never felt I could rely solely on the recruiters to fully understand the type of participants needed because they’ve not had the chance to understand the context. On the other hand, educating recruiters about how to tease out exactly what I’m looking for could potentially take up too much of my time.

So I usually do secondary or followup interviews/screenings, especially when the user profile is highly specialized. During that process I do open-ended questions and casual chat, so I can get a better feel for the participants’ experiences, expectations, capabilities, etc. If they pass my screening, that session will also have allowed the participant the chance to gain a little familiarity with me – which reduces some of their stress when we meet for the session(s).

“We talked on the phone a few days ago. I remember you mentioned yada yada yada…” kinda thing.