How to find User Testers for a Design Sprint

At AJ&Smart we run Design Sprints every week with huge range of different companies on an ever changing list of topics and industries. Because we often don’t get much time to prepare for each sprint, we’ve had to come up with a system that’s just as simple as the approach presented in the book (Using Craigslist is the approach in Sprint), but can also target people who wouldn’t normally be hanging about on craigslist.

Use Facebook ads

That’s… pretty much it. We use targeted Facebook ads, posted on a Monday or Tuesday evening and usually have a nice selection of users to test with on a Thursday (we run a 4 day sprint rather than 5).

Here’s how one of those ads look:

They also show up on Instagram at no extra cost, which is really great! The ads can be targeted super specifically based on the interests and behaviours of the types of people you want to test with. Generally we spend a max of $30 and end up getting more than enough choice in terms of target users. We only need 5 quality tests, so it’s always good to be able to choose from more than 5.

Watch this video by noah kagan if you want a step-by-step tutorial on setting up the ads.

Scheduling the tests

We use Calendly to automate the scheduling of tests, this helps us avoid emailing back and forth and trying to find the right time with testers. The app itself kind of sucks, it’s hard to understand and definitely needs a usability overhaul — but it gets the job done. It also creates a nice, clear schedule which we can post to the clients so they can see clearly when each test begins.

The selected candidates simply get a link to Calendly and can choose whatever time suits them.

What about hard to reach testers?

There are times where the types of testers you need will just not be accessible through Facebook due to their specific nature. A surgeon, pilot, CEO or famous athlete for example, isn’t going to click a Facebook ad for a $30 reward for their precious time.

So you have to get creative. Here are some ways we gain access to these difficult to reach testers:

• Ask the client for contacts! This is a no-brainer and it’s sometimes the only way to gain access with some product tests.
• Use your network! Do you know people who might know some people in your target group? This has worked wonders for us in the past, especially if we need to test with users in sensitive age groups.
• Forums, Reddit and Facebook Groups! These are great when you want to find people in special groups. For example, we were recently working on an Electric Car project and needed to speak with people who already owned Teslas. Tesla owners are excited about the topic, but were very hard to target on Facebook, so we posted in some electric vehicle subreddits and forums: Boom!

evreddit is just one of dozens of electric vehicle-focussed subreddits

Want to know anything else?

I’ve literally run hundreds of user tests over the last 7 years in every imaginable industry for every possible company type. I’m pretty sure if you have a question about anything user test related I can answer it, so don’t hold back!

The End.

Yes, that’s me, sorry.

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