---
title: "usability testing | Skills We Assign For | Azendo"
description: "Usability testing on an ongoing roadmap — task design, cadence and the Azendo roles assigned for research."
url: "https://azendo.co/skills/usability-testing/"
---

[Skills](https://azendo.co/skills/) Design and research 

# usability testing.

Usability testing puts real people in front of a product with real tasks and observes where they struggle. It is the only method that reliably distinguishes what a team believes is obvious from what actually is.

## Where usability testing fits on a long engagement.

The finding is almost never the one expected. Teams know their product too well to see the assumptions built into it, and five sessions with people who do not will surface problems that months of internal review did not. The cost is low and the main obstacle is scheduling rather than money.

Task design decides whether it is worth anything. A leading task confirms what you hoped, a vague one produces confusion about the instructions rather than the product. Running it continuously rather than before a launch is what turns it from an event into a habit.

## What an assigned team does with usability testing.

Teams know their own product too well to see its assumptions, and that blindness returns within weeks of any research round. Testing once tells you about one release; testing on a cadence changes how the team makes decisions.

The findings are worth little unless someone is assigned to act on them, which is why research and design capacity sit together under an [outsourced design team](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/) rather than being separately procured.

## What we use usability testing for.

* Testing before committing to a build Finding the problem at prototype stage, when changing it costs a day rather than a sprint.
* A regular cadence rather than a launch ritual Sessions running continuously, so findings arrive while decisions are still open.
* Settling an internal disagreement Evidence from users replacing an argument between two people who both know the product too well.

## How usability testing capacity is assigned.

Research capacity is assigned under outsource UX design, on the same agreement as the design work it informs. An Azendo [service delivery manager](https://azendo.co/how-it-works/) answers for what that capacity delivers.

## Roles we assign usability testing for

* [Product Designer UX/UI design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/product-designer/)
* [UX Designer UX/UI design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/ux-designer/)

## Service lines it sits in

* [UX/UI design](https://azendo.co/services/ux-ui-design/)

Capacity is agreed as a committed monthly capacity across a discipline, not per skill.

## Related in design and research

* [Zeplin — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/zeplin/)
* [Framer — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/framer/)
* [prototyping — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/prototyping/)
* [information architecture — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/information-architecture/)
* [journey mapping — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/journey-mapping/)
* [user research — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/user-research/)
* [User interviews — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/user-interviews/)
* [moderated and unmoderated usability testing — skill we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/moderated-and-unmoderated-usability-testing/)

## Tell us what your roadmap needs usability testing for.

A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.

[All skills we assign for](https://azendo.co/skills/)