How many users does it take to validate a product?
When you're a first-time founder/maker, and you're the only person using your own product, you probably overlook important things. That's why you need to test the product with as many people as possible.
The problem is that time is limited. You have to decide not only how many people will test it, but also who those people should be.
Yesterday, I launched my Chrome extension for the first time publicly, and my goal is to get feedback from at least 20 testers.
People either describe their experience in writing or I watch them use the product during a call.
My testing group consists of:
Developers and UX/UI designers – people with experience who understand common patterns and expected behavior.
People who have the problem the tool solves – my potential users.
If both groups point out the same issue or suggest the same improvement, it almost always becomes a top priority in the roadmap.
What makes feedback relevant to you?
The number of testers?
The mix of respondents?
Or the way the feedback is collected?
Finding: Developers were able to give me detailed and more accurate feedback than users itself. Developers spotted many things, recommended things while user said: It's okay. :D
Replies
The point about views over responses is the one that actually changes behaviour. I would add one more layer. Watch where the silence sits. If people open the page and leave in seconds, that is a clarity problem, fix the words. If they read the whole page and still do not act, that is a trust or pricing problem, fix the offer. Both look like silence from the outside but need completely different fixes.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@oshylabs I am not in the phase of creating the webpage yet, but will be doing that soon. So let's see how it goes :D
@busmark_w_nika You already have a page, it is just not on your own domain. The store listing is doing that whole job right now, and the same split applies to it. Someone who lands on the listing and does not install did not understand what it does, so that is the short description and the first screenshot. Someone who installs and never opens it understood it fine and was not convinced it was worth a habit, so that is the first run experience.
Worth reading the listing that way before you build the site. Whatever is broken there will get copied straight onto the site otherwise, and then you have two things to fix instead of one.
Bharat's point about views versus responses is the one I would add to. I launched a niche legal tool for UK renters and the number that actually told me something was not signups, it was how many people who read the free analysis came back a second time with a different case. Anyone can be curious once. Coming back means the thing solved a real problem the first time.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@oshylabs But how can I know "came backs" from the Chrome web store page?
@busmark_w_nika You cannot, and that is the honest answer. The store page reports store events, installs, uninstalls, weekly users. Someone opening your extension is not a store event, so it never reaches Google at all. No amount of staring at that dashboard will produce the number.
It has to come from inside the extension, which is cheap for you because SafeLimit is already running while someone is on LinkedIn. On activation write a random id and the date into chrome.storage.local, then post the id and date to one endpoint. A Supabase table with two columns covers it, so you do not need the website first. Count the ids that turn up on two or more separate dates. That is your return rate.
Two things to get right before you ship it. Declare it in the privacy policy and the store listing, because a tool about account safety that quietly tracks its own users is the worst possible story to have surface later. And keep the id random and unlinked to anything from the LinkedIn profile, otherwise you have handed yourself a GDPR obligation you really do not want sitting on a free extension.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@oshylabs In that case, I need to learn how to integrate some sort of tracking :D
Quality over quantity matches what I found too, except my version of the signal wasn't tester count, it was who came back unprompted. Ran a small beta before launch and installs/signups told me almost nothing. Out of around 40 people only a handful opened the app again a few days later without any push notification nudging them, and those were the ones whose feedback actually pointed at real fixes. Everyone else gave polite feedback that didn't change anything.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@raffay_sajjad Is your tool online? Where can we find it?
There's no magic number — for us, it was less about hitting 100 or 1000 users and more about seeing people come back and build multiple apps. With 7100 users creating 2000+ projects, repeat usage told us the core idea works before we chased raw numbers.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alexbieber12341 Okay, and how many paying users out of 7100?
the number that matters is not how many use it. its how many can describe it to a friend without your help.
5 people who can pitch it back to you accurately is worth more than 500 who signed up because you asked them to.
i look for two signals before i call anything validated. one, a stranger uses it twice in a week without any nudge. two, someone else tells someone else about it and you find out weeks later. everything before that is just polite traction.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@thenameisarian some people made post about my product even without asking, so it is a good sign I think :D
BetterClaw
Retention matters more than raw tester count.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@better_shaya I am doing my best to make peolple keep using my extension :)
Love this breakdown, Nika especially the distinction between expert and user feedback.
In my experience, 5–8 quality testers who truly match your target persona beat 50 random users every time. but the magic happens when you combine both groups like you did. experts catch the craft issues UX flows, edge cases, performance, while actual users catch the context issues does this actually fit into their life?.
the fact that devs gave you deeper feedback while users just said it’s okay is classic and it’s exactly why observation watching them use it is often more valuable than asking them what they think. people are bad at predicting their own behavior, but great at showing it.
Curious did you notice any patterns in what users called okay vs. what experts flagged as broken? that gap is usually where the biggest product opportunities hide. 👀
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@easton_carter I need to say that I can see differences very clearly. Regular users agree with everything I did and said, but pro developers roast me :DDDD
for me it stopped being a count and became a ratio. the question i track is: of the people who try it, how many do the core action for real in their first session, and how many come back without a push notification. in our case roughly 7 in 10 new users save something real right away, and the ones who build a small library in week one are the ones who stay. one user who reorganizes their whole camera roll teaches you more than fifty signups who bounce. validation isn't how many people showed up, it's whether the behavior you bet on actually happens without you pushing.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@linoy_bar_gal I am still far away from this scenario :)
@busmark_w_nika
The behavior-versus-opinion split matches our own beta. Just over 50 installed, about half gave feedback. A couple were developers by chance, and one filed 33 meticulous TestFlight bug reports solo. That kind of thoroughness is a professional habit more than a user instinct. Most of what actually moved our roadmap came from people outside that world, and it rarely arrived neatly: long voice messages, half-formed reactions, plain frustration. Harder to process, but it pointed at the real friction almost every time. Watching someone hesitate says more than any tidy write-up.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alex_gidirim are you alredy selling the product (pro version) or just testin?
@busmark_w_nika testing for now, nothing live yet. We're waiting on our first App Store review before anything is actually sellable.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alex_gidirim Would like to be alerted once it is live :)
@busmark_w_nika absolutely!
I’ve also noticed something similar.
Developers often give much more detailed and actionable feedback because they naturally look at usability, edge cases, and expected behavior.
Users may simply say, “It’s okay.” :) Just for the sake of giving a feedback and if they are not very serious. Sometimes that's genuine, sometimes it's politeness.
For me, the mix of testers matters more than the number alone.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@aruna_polosofttech When is the product validated then? Does it have any number of users? :)