When you’re building a new product, there’s nothing quite like seeing it through fresh eyes. But what if, instead of seasoned professionals, you have newbie testers? What if they’re college interns, new hires, or even friends and family? That’s exactly the situation I found myself in recently, and it turned out to be a huge advantage.
Why Non-Expert Testers Are a Secret Weapon
For a recent client project, they brought on college interns. Their first assignment was to help me with manual app testing. They had never seen the product before and had no formal training in software testing. It quickly became clear that their lack of insider knowledge made them perfect proxies for real users!
They didn’t know what was “supposed” to happen. They got lost, made mistakes, and asked questions that our team hadn’t considered through our cycles of design, development, and client feedback. In other words, they surfaced the exact issues that would trip up our first customers! Here is how I led tester onboarding.
Step 1: Demystifying App Testing
We started with the basics. App testing isn’t about breaking things for fun (though that can be part of it). It’s about walking through the app like a real user, step by step, and noticing where things are confusing, broken, or just not what you’d expect. I explained that a good tester:
- Follows real user flows
- Tries different paths
- Reports anything odd, with as much detail as possible
Step 2: Blind Testing & Competitor Comparisons
Before we got into any testing flows, I wanted to capture true first impressions of the app. So we started with “blind” user tests. I met with the testers individually on a recorded Zoom call, sent them the site link, and asked them to narrate their experience as I gave very simple prompts (create an account, browse, make a purchase).
The Zoom recording captured where a tester moved their cursor to, where the tester hesitated or was confused by copy, and where they clicked quickly through flows because of good button placement and user messaging. At only 15 minutes each, these short sessions generated immediate bugs and ideas for improvements and features we hadn’t considered.
Only after that did we have them try out competitor apps so they could compare flows and spot what felt easier or harder. At our second testing session, a tester was even offering ideas to improve copy because it was clearer on a competitor app!
Step 3: Introducing Personas
To keep our testing focused, I introduced the concept of personas. Instead of just “clicking around,” I asked the interns to imagine themselves as specific users:
- A casual app browser
- A planner searching for the perfect thing
- A loyal member looking for exclusive opportunities
This helped them see the app through different lenses and made their feedback much more actionable. Instead of “the button is weird,” we got “As a group planner, I couldn’t find a way to filter by date and group size.”
Step 4: Writing Useful Bug Reports
We practiced writing clear, specific issue reports. First, I gave examples of bad reports (“It’s broken”) and good ones. Then I shared this template for bug reports and pinned it to our Slack Channel for easy copy/paste.
- User type
- Device/OS
- Steps to reproduce
- Expected result
- Actual result
- Evidence
Next, I integrated Slack with Jira so we could quickly put these issues into our backlog for the client to review and triage with the development team. This structure made it easy for our developers to reproduce and fix issues.
Step 5: Testing Scripts & Creative Challenges
We gave the interns simple scripts: sign up, browse, buy, cancel, log out, log in. But we also encouraged them to get creative by trying different browsers, devices, and even “weird” actions (refreshing mid-checkout, using emojis in forms, etc.). This surfaced edge cases we never would have found otherwise.
Lessons Learned
- Fresh eyes are invaluable.
- Personas keep testing focused and realistic.
- Clear, structured bug reports save everyone time.
- Encourage curiosity and creativity because some of the best bugs come from saying, “What if I try this?”
- Testing is a team sport
Not every project has the budget to include a team of QA pros to make your app better. But with a couple of curious, motivated people and a little structure, you can find bugs and discover ways to improve your app for future users.
If you’re ramping up new testers, don’t worry about their lack of experience. Teach them to think like users, give them clear scripts and personas, and watch your product improve.