Pilot
By now, you’ll have developed a strong understanding of your users’ needs, and have chosen a way of meeting those needs with your design (a prototype). The pilot phase is where you start building your product for real and collect feedback on your prototype by testing it with a limited number of users. The pilot phase should be structured in an iterative way that allows you to roll out the service to real users while minimizing risk and maximizing the potential to learn and improve the product or service.
During this phase, you may want to refine the metrics that you identified during the research phase, and continue to improve the product based on the user feedback that you gather.
To test your product, start with a limited number of people who will try your service and give you feedback about how to improve it. It’s helpful to test your prototype with people that fit the user personas you developed during the design phase.
Usability Testing
Usability testing is the process of observing people as they attempt to use a product or service while thinking out loud. The goal of usability testing is to identify any problems, collect data and determine user satisfaction with the product.
Start with a usability test plan; this includes recruiting participants, identifying how you want to test your product, analyzing the feedback you get, and reporting your findings in a way that helps you make improvements.