A bit of planning up front will save you time, effort, and frustration later.
You can use tree testing to get a baseline score for an existing website, test revisions to an existing structure, or make new structures compete against each other and the original site.
You should plan to test your entire structure unless it’s large (> 500 items), in which case you can test a pruned version of it.
Early on, you’ll need to determine which audiences to target, how you will reach them, and what incentive (if any) you’ll offer them.
You should start testing as soon as you have a structure written down.
Will you only test online, or will you need to supplement your results with some in-person sessions?
To run a good study, there are several roles to fill. Will you do them all yourself, or do you need to involve other people?
If something goes wrong during testing, you need to plan how you will handle it.
Documenting your plan makes everything easier, especially if you have a template to start from.
Next: Chapter 5 - Creating trees