usability-testing
Help users conduct effective usability testing. Use when someone is planning user tests, designing prototype validation, preparing usability studies, or trying to understand why users struggle with their product.
What this skill does
# Usability Testing Help the user conduct effective usability testing using frameworks and insights from 11 product leaders. ## How to Help When the user asks for help with usability testing: 1. **Clarify the goal** - Determine if they're validating a concept, finding friction points, or optimizing conversion 2. **Choose the right fidelity** - Help them select between Wizard of Oz tests, fake doors, prototypes, or production testing 3. **Design the test** - Guide them on recruiting users, creating scenarios, and what to observe 4. **Plan for iteration** - Discuss how findings will flow back into the product development process ## Core Principles ### Fake it before you build it Itamar Gilad: "Initially you fake it - fake door test, smoke test, Wizard of Oz tests. We showed the tabbed inbox working to people, but it wasn't really Gmail, it was just a facade." Validate core value propositions before writing production code using faked versions where humans perform the automated task behind the scenes. ### Small samples reveal big friction Melanie Perkins: "It's amazing how you can find 10 random people on the internet and they can give such astute feedback that's so representative for such a large number of people." Run tests with as few as 10 random people to identify core product issues. ### Watch users, don't just ask them Uri Levine: "Simply watch users and see what they're doing. If they're not doing what you expect, then ask them why." Direct observation reveals behaviors and needs that surveys miss. Ask 'why' when users deviate from the expected path. ### Test multiple options, not one Kristen Berman: "We never do a UX study where we're just showing people one thing. We always present multiple options and relatively look for which one drives the intended behavior." Single-design testing is ineffective for predicting behavior. ### Overcome creator bias Guillermo Rauch: "You tend to overrate how well your products work. It's very important to give your product to another person and watch them interact with it." Directly observing users helps overcome the tendency to think your product is more intuitive than it is. ### Micro-level testing drives millions Judd Antin: "We changed seven characters and made Airbnb millions of dollars because we found out the button felt scary." Don't dismiss usability testing as junior work; finding scary or confusing CTAs can massively impact conversion. ### Progress through testing stages Itamar Gilad: "Mid-level tests are about building a rough version - early adopter programs, alphas, longitudinal user studies, and fish food (testing on your own team)." Use a progression from fish fooding to dogfooding to alphas to increase confidence iteratively. ### Make testing a team sport Noah Weiss: "We had PMs, engineers, designers, and the user researcher all in one Slack thread live, responding and reacting to the usability session." Increase engagement by having cross-functional teams live-react to sessions in shared chat threads. ## Questions to Help Users - "What specific behavior are you trying to observe or validate?" - "Do you need to validate the concept (use fake doors) or optimize the execution (use the real product)?" - "How will you recruit users who have 'zero skin in the game' for honest feedback?" - "Are you testing one option or multiple options to compare?" - "What will you do with the findings - how will they flow back into development?" - "Who else on the team should observe these sessions?" ## Common Mistakes to Flag - **Testing only one design** - Present multiple options to measure relative performance - **Building before validating** - Use Wizard of Oz or fake door tests before writing production code - **Relying on internal intuition** - Employees are too familiar with the product to spot real user friction - **Ignoring micro-level issues** - Small copy changes and button labels can have massive business impact - **Testing in isolation** - Bring engineers and designers into sessions to build shared understanding ## Deep Dive For all 14 insights from 11 guests, see `references/guest-insights.md` ## Related Skills - Customer Research - Writing PRDs - Shipping Products - Designing Growth Loops
Related in Design
contribute
IncludedLocal-only OSS contribution command center. Auto-refreshes the user's in-flight PR and issue state on invoke so conversations start with full context — no need to brief Claude on what's in flight. Helps the user find issues to contribute to on GitHub, builds per-repo dossiers of what each upstream expects (CLA, DCO, branch convention, AI policy, draft-first, review bots, issue templates), runs deterministic gates before any external action so AI-assisted contributions don't reach maintainers as slop. State is markdown-only: candidate files at ~/.contribute-system/candidates/, repo dossiers at ~/.contribute-system/research/, append-only event log at ~/.contribute-system/log.jsonl. No database, no cloud calls. Use when the user asks about their PRs / issues / contributions, wants to find new work to take on, claim an issue, build/refresh a repo's dossier, or draft a Design Issue or PR. Trigger with "/contribute", "what's my PR status", "find a contribution", "claim issue X", "draft a Design Issue for Y", "refresh dossier for Z".
architectural-analysis
IncludedUser-triggered deep architectural analysis of a codebase or scoped subtree across eight modes — information architecture, data flow, integration points, UI surfaces, interaction patterns, data model, control flow, and failure modes. This skill should be used when the user asks to "diagram this codebase," "map the architecture," "show the data flow," "give me an ERD," "trace control flow," "find the integration points," "verify the layout pattern," "audit the UX architecture," or any similar request whose primary deliverable is mermaid diagrams plus cited reports under docs/architecture/. Dispatches haiku/sonnet sub-agents in parallel for per-mode exploration, then verifies every citation mechanically before any node lands in a diagram. Not for one-off prose explanations of code (use code-explanation) or for high-level system design from scratch (use system-design).
mcp
IncludedModel Context Protocol (MCP) server development and tool management. Languages: Python, TypeScript. Capabilities: build MCP servers, integrate external APIs, discover/execute MCP tools, manage multi-server configs, design agent-centric tools. Actions: create, build, integrate, discover, execute, configure MCP servers/tools. Keywords: MCP, Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP tool, stdio transport, SSE transport, tool discovery, resource provider, prompt template, external API integration, Gemini CLI MCP, Claude MCP, agent tools, tool execution, server config. Use when: building MCP servers, integrating external APIs as MCP tools, discovering available MCP tools, executing MCP capabilities, configuring multi-server setups, designing tools for AI agents.
react-native-skia
IncludedDesign, build, debug, and optimise high-polish animated graphics in React Native or Expo using @shopify/react-native-skia, Reanimated, and Gesture Handler. Use when the user wants canvas-driven UI, shaders, paths, rich text, image filters, sprite fields, Skottie, video frames, snapshots, web CanvasKit setup, or performance tuning for custom motion-heavy elements such as loaders, hero art, cards, charts, progress indicators, particle systems, or gesture-driven surfaces. Also use when the user asks for fluid, glow, glass, blob, parallax, 60fps/120fps, or GPU-friendly animated effects in React Native, even if they do not explicitly say "Skia". Do not use for ordinary form/layout work with standard views.
plaid
IncludedProduct Led AI Development — guides founders from idea to launched product. Six capabilities: Idea (discover a product idea), Validate (pressure-test the idea against fatal flaws, problem reality, competition, and 2-week MVP feasibility), Plan (vision intake + document generation), Design (translate image references into a design.md spec), Launch (go-to-market strategy), and Build (roadmap execution). Use when someone says "PLAID", "plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "product strategy", "plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "extract design tokens", "plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "launch playbook", "plaid build", "build the app", "start building", or "execute the roadmap".
nextjs-framer-motion-animations
IncludedAdds production-safe Motion for React or Framer Motion animations to Next.js apps, including reveal, hover and tap micro-interactions, whileInView, stagger, AnimatePresence, layout and layoutId transitions, reorder, scroll-linked UI, and lightweight route-content transitions. Use when the user asks to add, refactor, or debug Motion or Framer Motion in App Router or Pages Router codebases, especially around server/client boundaries, reduced motion, LazyMotion, bundle size, hydration, or route transitions. Avoid for GSAP-style timelines, WebGL or 3D scenes, heavy scroll storytelling, or CSS-only effects unless Motion is explicitly requested.