Previewing the test yourself is a good first step, but we all know from trying to proofread our own content that you really need someone else to spot your mistakes.

That’s why, in our studies, we always run a pilot test with a small group of people before launching the real test. Because they bring fresh eyes to the study, this initial group will find things that you missed – confusing task wording, typos, and so on.

Note that we want to make this pilot as realistic as possible, so we use the same invitation we normally would (but tweaked to say that this is a dry run and the incentive (if any) doesn’t apply to it).

Next: Who should participate