How to Evaluate Your Product's UX

You Don't Need to Be a Designer

Every founder should be able to evaluate their product's UX. You don't need design training—you need a framework for seeing what users see.

Here's the practical approach I use when reviewing products.

Step 1: The Five-Second Test

Open your product cold. What do you understand in five seconds?

Ask yourself:

• •What is this product for?
• •What should I do first?
• •Who is this for?

If the answers aren't immediately clear, you have a messaging or visual hierarchy problem.

Pro tip: Record yourself doing this. Or better yet, watch someone else do it. What's obvious to you might be invisible to new users.

Step 2: Walk the Critical Path

Identify the single most important action in your product. Then complete it yourself, counting every click, scroll, and decision point.

Track:

• •Number of steps to completion
• •Where you have to think
• •Where you have to scroll to find something
• •Any moment of confusion or hesitation

A rule of thumb: if your critical path has more than 5 decision points, you're losing users at each one.

Step 3: The Error Test

Intentionally make mistakes. What happens?

Test scenarios:

• •Enter invalid data in forms
• •Skip optional steps
• •Click the back button mid-flow
• •Leave and return later
• •Try to undo actions

Poor error handling is invisible until things go wrong. But your users will find every edge case you missed.

Step 4: The Squint Test

Literally squint at your screen. What stands out?

This removes detail and reveals visual hierarchy. You should see:

• •Clear focal points
• •Obvious groupings
• •Logical flow from top to bottom

If everything blurs into sameness, your visual hierarchy needs work.

Step 5: The Explanation Test

Try to explain how to use your product to someone in one sentence per screen.

If you can't, your users can't figure it out either.

Good: "Click the blue button to create a new project." Bad: "First look at the sidebar where you'll see several options, then..."

Step 6: The Comparison Test

Use your product and a competitor back-to-back. Where do they feel smoother? Where do you feel friction?

Don't copy their solutions—but notice where they solve problems you haven't.

Step 7: The Real User Test

Nothing replaces watching actual users. Even 5 sessions reveal patterns.

Simple method:

1. Find 5 people who match your target user

2. Give them a task: "Sign up and create your first X"

3. Ask them to think aloud

4. Record the session

5. Note every moment of confusion or frustration

Tools like Loom make this easy and async.

What To Do With What You Find

Prioritize issues by:

1. Impact: How many users hit this problem?

2. Severity: Does this block them or just annoy them?

3. Effort: How hard is it to fix?

Focus on high-impact, high-severity issues first—especially those affecting your conversion funnel.

When to Call for Backup

You can identify many UX issues yourself. But expert help is valuable when:

• •You've found problems but aren't sure how to fix them
• •You need objective perspective (you're too close to your product)
• •You want to validate solutions before building them
• •You need to move faster than trial-and-error allows

Want an expert eye on your product? Book a free UX audit and I'll walk through your critical flows, identifying specific issues and quick wins.