What are guerilla tests?
A guerilla test is a user-testing approach where you go out to meet potential users in their own environment, get them to try your product or service, and gather their reactions. At Akiani, it’s a method we often turn to on low-budget projects, and on projects with very tight deadlines too. We’d rather run a test with a small panel than skip a method that brings so much to a project. Jakob Nielsen (opens in new window) and Steve Krug (opens in new window), two leading voices on the subject, both reckon that talking to 5 people is enough to catch the most critical problems with a product or service. So don’t hold back: run some guerilla tests!
7 tips for running guerilla tests well
To get the most out of this kind of user testing, here are a few ground rules:
- Gauge how long the test takes. If it runs past 5 to 10 minutes, plan to pay participants, or give them a gift worth roughly the time they put in: a snack, some of the client’s swag, a gift card, and so on. People will only give up their time for free up to a point, and they’ll be far less willing to stick around if they get nothing back.
- Pick the spot, or spots, where you’re most likely to run into the service’s potential users. It might be out on the street, in a café, anywhere they gather.
- The day before, write and rehearse a short pitch explaining why you’re there and what you’re doing, in three sentences at most. Those sentences decide whether people stop and take part. So make them count, especially somewhere a passer-by can walk off at any moment.
A few more:
- Build a test protocol: prepare the scenarios and tasks you’ll hand to participants. Print them and keep them in front of you, so you don’t skew the results by rewording your instructions on the fly. And bear in mind that you’ll sometimes need to adapt your wording, or the order of the scenarios, to the person in front of you.
- List the gear you mustn’t forget, and check that everything works before you head out, on-site connections included.
- Bring someone along to take notes on how participants behave and what they feel. If you’re running the session solo, set up a recording, so you keep a trace of each test and can watch it back later with fresh eyes. It often surfaces things you missed in the heat of the moment.
- Sift through your results with the biases in mind: the contextual ones (a noisy spot, for instance) as well as the behavioural ones (people feeling intimidated, rushing to finish, getting distracted, and so on).
Why call on a professional?
Do guerilla tests look like something anyone can do? Wondering whether it’s really worth bringing in a professional? It’s actually a tricky exercise that takes plenty of experience. There’s no such thing as a perfect test, and you have to handle whatever comes up: a participant who’s struggling, awkward behaviour, technical glitches, a disruptive setting, and the rest. And don’t count on clear, tidy feedback either. You have to draw it out so people can actually put their feelings and reactions into words. All of which is craft that comes from experience, and that the Akiani team is always glad to put to work for its clients.
If, on the other hand, you’re running tests with recruited participants, here are our tips.
