The Startup That Helps Companies Fix Their User Experience Problems

Screenshot: UserTesting

UserTesting once saved a client from using orange underpants as its company logo.

That’s what UserTesting does. It saves other companies from their mistakes. It helps them test their wares.

As explained by Darrell Benatar, the startup’s CEO, the company offers a more grown-up version of the old fashioned focus group. In short, it runs an online panel of over 1 million testers—volunteers mostly—who can test products and other company materials on demand. The company, Benatar says, has developed a way for businesses to “peek over” the shoulders of users and hear candid comments about their experiences with everything from web portals to smartphone apps.

Under the traditional user-testing paradigm, a product manager might pay a consultant a large sum of money for feedback once a year, and results might come in days or even weeks. But UserTesting promises that companies can get useful feedback as often as they like—and for much cheaper.

That may seem like idle boasting. But the company does claim some big-name customers, including Google, Facebook, Home Depot, Verizon Wireless and Amazon, and on Wednesday, the startup announced that it has raised an additional $45.5 million in a new round funding, led by Accel Partners.

“Everyone’s starting to realize how critical customer is to their success,” Benatar says. “Technology is everywhere in our lives, and it’s becoming an imperative for companies to provide great customer experiences. Our platform makes that fast, easy and inexpensive to do.”

When a customer requests testing via the service, UserTesting sends emails or phone notifications to the individuals with the requested attributes, and within minutes, Benatar claims, about ten people will sign on to test the site or app in question.

The service then records the experiences of these users as well as any comments they might have. On smartphones, it can even use built-in camera to record a user’s facial expressions or how they fiddle with physical devices, like a Nest smart thermostat. These volunteers are paid about $10 for building a roughly 20-minute video describing their experiences.

About an hour later, according to Benatar, the customer can view these videos and even annotate them. “It’s not until you see real people interacting with your product or website that you realize their emotional response is important,” says Kobie Fuller of Accel Partners, who is joining the company’s board of directors. “UserTesting is a platform that totally bridges that gap.”