SaaS for advanced UX research to prioritize tasks and features.
The Reddit post and comment shed light on a clear niche opportunity. The original poster is looking to move beyond the usual usability testing and explore "less common methods" that are truly beneficial. The commenter offers a great example with "Gerry McGovern’s Top Task methodology," highlighting its ability to cut through internal debates about feature importance—a major pain point in product development.
Opportunity: There's a demand among UX professionals and product teams for more specialized and impactful research methods that go beyond standard usability testing. Specifically, methods like "Top Task" that help objectively prioritize features based on user needs are incredibly valuable. A SaaS product could make such methodologies more accessible and easier to implement.
Product Form: A SaaS platform dedicated to facilitating specialized UX research methodologies, with an initial focus on "Top Task Analysis" or similar prioritization techniques. The platform would:
- Guide users through setting up a Top Task study (e.g., defining tasks, creating the shortlist for voting).
- Provide tools for survey creation and distribution to target user segments.
- Automate data collection and analysis, calculating task scores and identifying the critical few "top tasks."
- Generate clear, actionable reports and visualizations that highlight user priorities, which can be used to inform product strategy and resolve internal prioritization debates.
- Potentially expand to include other "underrated" but effective UX research methods over time.
Target Market: UX Researchers, Product Managers, Product Teams, UX Designers, and any stakeholders involved in making decisions about product features and priorities.
Expected Revenue: A tiered subscription model seems most appropriate:
- Basic/Starter Tier: $49-$79/month. Aimed at individual professionals or small teams, allowing for 1-2 active studies per month with limited participants.
- Professional/Growth Tier: $149-$249/month. For growing teams and businesses, offering more studies, higher participant limits, team collaboration features, and potentially more advanced analytics.
- Enterprise Tier: $499+/month (or custom pricing). For larger organizations, offering unlimited studies, extensive participant capacity, integrations, dedicated support, and advanced security/compliance features.
The value proposition is strong: saving time on manual research setup and analysis, and more importantly, providing data-backed clarity that can save significant development resources by focusing on what truly matters to users, thus reducing costly debates and misaligned efforts.
Origin Reddit Post
r/userexperience
What’s the most underrated UX research method you’ve used?
Posted by u/regularhuman14•06/11/2025
I’ve been stuck in the same usability testing patterns for a while, mostly unmoderated video and post-task surveys.
Curious what less-common methods others are using that actually yield usefu
Top Comments
u/uxmatthew
Exploratory research. Ask what people have done recently. Ask why it was important to them. Ask them why they value that. Ask them how they did things. Ask them why they did it that way.
u/soapbutt
User interviews in generally IMO are one of the best ways to get information. I love this ideas of quick interviews at the source like that.
u/Yorkicks
I prepped super short interviews and went to the door of the store I had as a client and interviewed their clients right there.
Worked quite well to identify their current pain points.
u/travisjd2012
I've always found card sorting great for everything from initial product planning to reorganizing settings options into a reasonable structure.
u/PastTenceOfDraw
User research and user testing with disabled users and ideally co-design. So much of the web is inaccessible. The best way to save time and money is to avoid making design decisions that crea
u/come2thecabaret
Goal Directed Task Analysis (GDTA) for designing user interfaces in domains where Situation Awareness is critical. Really great methodology for deriving precise information requirements for c
u/come2thecabaret
Goal Directed Task Analysis (GDTA) for designing user interfaces in domains where Situation Awareness is critical. Really great methodology for deriving precise information requirements for c
u/oddible
Informances. Basically physically doing the actions the user would do to get a feel for the motor part of what they're doing. Incorporate as much tacit knowledge as possible (the efficiencies
u/Yorkicks
I prepped super short interviews and went to the door of the store I had as a client and interviewed their clients right there.
Worked quite well to identify their current pain points.
u/sauldobney
Have you tried web-overlay surveys where you get users to mark up websites directly with their opinions about what they like and dislike on the page?
u/lullaby-2022
I have a great question. In what situations do you, in companies, really allow you to do this type of research?
In my company, customer requests arrive and we have to fulfill them in the mos
u/bodados
Fly on the wall. Helps you see, hear, feel and immerse in the task and the environment without the colored lenses of prior knowledge.
u/uxmatthew
Exploratory research. Ask what people have done recently. Ask why it was important to them. Ask them why they value that. Ask them how they did things. Ask them why they did it that way.
u/PastTenceOfDraw
User research and user testing with disabled users and ideally co-design. So much of the web is inaccessible. The best way to save time and money is to avoid making design decisions that crea
u/sauldobney
Have you tried web-overlay surveys where you get users to mark up websites directly with their opinions about what they like and dislike on the page?
u/zoinkability
Not scrappy or necessarily low cost, but I have used Gerry McGovern’s Top Task methodology many times and every time it has basically eliminated internal debates over relative importance of v
u/Slay-Aiken
Reaction Cards! Can be done quantitatively but I got advice from a friend whose been the industry a long time to them qualitatively and have people physically sort through the cards and talk
u/come2thecabaret
Goal Directed Task Analysis (GDTA) for designing user interfaces in domains where Situation Awareness is critical. Really great methodology for deriving precise information requirements for c
u/Dear_Jump_7460
Same boat here.
Lately i’ve been using UXPin to build logic-based flows pretty quickly. It’s scrappy but surprisingly insightful. There's also been some noise around AI behavioural analytic
u/zoinkability
Not scrappy or necessarily low cost, but I have used Gerry McGovern’s Top Task methodology many times and every time it has basically eliminated internal debates over relative importance of v
u/bodados
Fly on the wall. Helps you see, hear, feel and immerse in the task and the environment without the colored lenses of prior knowledge.
u/breathingcarbon
Yes, this is one of my faves too! I’ve recently adapted a somewhat scrappier and low cost version to apply in my current role building my organisation’s data maturity, which seems to be worki
u/is_this_the_place
What is this method?
u/jkvincent
Interviews combined with observational testing have always worked best for me. Hear what users say, but also watch what they actually do. Those two things combined will tell you what you need
u/Slay-Aiken
Reaction Cards! Can be done quantitatively but I got advice from a friend whose been the industry a long time to them qualitatively and have people physically sort through the cards and talk
u/bodados
Fly on the wall. Helps you see, hear, feel and immerse in the task and the environment without the colored lenses of prior knowledge.
u/soapbutt
User interviews in generally IMO are one of the best ways to get information. I love this ideas of quick interviews at the source like that.
u/dbr3ck
Microsoft Clarity. It’s free and really insightful.
u/travisjd2012
I've always found card sorting great for everything from initial product planning to reorganizing settings options into a reasonable structure.
u/bodados
Fly on the wall. Helps you see, hear, feel and immerse in the task and the environment without the colored lenses of prior knowledge.
u/bookninja717
I have found the absolute best research method is to WATCH people doing their jobs, both with and without your product. How do they do the work? Where do they struggle? Where do they complain
u/oddible
Informances. Basically physically doing the actions the user would do to get a feel for the motor part of what they're doing. Incorporate as much tacit knowledge as possible (the efficiencies
u/northern-gary
Using the product yourself on a regular basis
u/ResponsibilityIll687
Diary studies - hands down. Especially in the age where data is king - you need users to engage with the model (or data) over a long period of time to give you actual useful feedback
u/jkvincent
Interviews combined with observational testing have always worked best for me. Hear what users say, but also watch what they actually do. Those two things combined will tell you what you need
u/soapbutt
User interviews in generally IMO are one of the best ways to get information. I love this ideas of quick interviews at the source like that.
u/PastTenceOfDraw
User research and user testing with disabled users and ideally co-design. So much of the web is inaccessible. The best way to save time and money is to avoid making design decisions that crea
u/sauldobney
Have you tried web-overlay surveys where you get users to mark up websites directly with their opinions about what they like and dislike on the page?
u/zoinkability
Not scrappy or necessarily low cost, but I have used Gerry McGovern’s Top Task methodology many times and every time it has basically eliminated internal debates over relative importance of v
u/sauldobney
Have you tried web-overlay surveys where you get users to mark up websites directly with their opinions about what they like and dislike on the page?
u/Specialist-Produce84
Accessibility testing is so underrated! Looking at the state of many websites and services it seems it is not even the norm unfortunately.
u/Dear_Jump_7460
Same boat here.
Lately i’ve been using UXPin to build logic-based flows pretty quickly. It’s scrappy but surprisingly insightful. There's also been some noise around AI behavioural analytic
u/Dear_Jump_7460
Same boat here.
Lately i’ve been using UXPin to build logic-based flows pretty quickly. It’s scrappy but surprisingly insightful. There's also been some noise around AI behavioural analytic
u/Yorkicks
I prepped super short interviews and went to the door of the store I had as a client and interviewed their clients right there.
Worked quite well to identify their current pain points.
u/breathingcarbon
Yes, this is one of my faves too! I’ve recently adapted a somewhat scrappier and low cost version to apply in my current role building my organisation’s data maturity, which seems to be worki
u/zoinkability
Not scrappy or necessarily low cost, but I have used Gerry McGovern’s Top Task methodology many times and every time it has basically eliminated internal debates over relative importance of v
u/PastTenceOfDraw
User research and user testing with disabled users and ideally co-design. So much of the web is inaccessible. The best way to save time and money is to avoid making design decisions that crea
u/lullaby-2022
I would love to understand better how to use it and get the most out of it...do you recommend any training?
u/zoinkability
Not scrappy or necessarily low cost, but I have used Gerry McGovern’s Top Task methodology many times and every time it has basically eliminated internal debates over relative importance of v
u/come2thecabaret
Goal Directed Task Analysis (GDTA) for designing user interfaces in domains where Situation Awareness is critical. Really great methodology for deriving precise information requirements for c
u/travisjd2012
I've always found card sorting great for everything from initial product planning to reorganizing settings options into a reasonable structure.
u/dbr3ck
Microsoft Clarity. It’s free and really insightful.
u/artemiswins
These days especially for the complex flows im working on user interviews plus CoPilot procedures to help analyze has been amazing to use. Procedure is generally to record, grab transcript an
u/jkvincent
Interviews combined with observational testing have always worked best for me. Hear what users say, but also watch what they actually do. Those two things combined will tell you what you need
u/breathingcarbon
Yes, this is one of my faves too! I’ve recently adapted a somewhat scrappier and low cost version to apply in my current role building my organisation’s data maturity, which seems to be worki
u/dbr3ck
Microsoft Clarity. It’s free and really insightful.
u/travoltek
Semi structured interviews with users of your product, except instead of making them du your boring task validation wireframe flows, you just follow them as they go about doing a real thing t
u/oddible
Informances. Basically physically doing the actions the user would do to get a feel for the motor part of what they're doing. Incorporate as much tacit knowledge as possible (the efficiencies
u/travoltek
Semi structured interviews with users of your product, except instead of making them du your boring task validation wireframe flows, you just follow them as they go about doing a real thing t
u/zoinkability
Basically a structured user survey that identifies the small handful of tasks that are most critical to your audience, so you can focus your efforts on optimizing those tasks.
[This book](ht
u/lullaby-2022
I have a great question. In what situations do you, in companies, really allow you to do this type of research?
In my company, customer requests arrive and we have to fulfill them in the mos
u/soapbutt
User interviews in generally IMO are one of the best ways to get information. I love this ideas of quick interviews at the source like that.
u/northern-gary
Using the product yourself on a regular basis
u/ResponsibilityIll687
Diary studies - hands down. Especially in the age where data is king - you need users to engage with the model (or data) over a long period of time to give you actual useful feedback
u/uxmatthew
Exploratory research. Ask what people have done recently. Ask why it was important to them. Ask them why they value that. Ask them how they did things. Ask them why they did it that way.
u/Yorkicks
I prepped super short interviews and went to the door of the store I had as a client and interviewed their clients right there.
Worked quite well to identify their current pain points.
u/Dear_Jump_7460
Same boat here.
Lately i’ve been using UXPin to build logic-based flows pretty quickly. It’s scrappy but surprisingly insightful. There's also been some noise around AI behavioural analytic
u/bookninja717
I have found the absolute best research method is to WATCH people doing their jobs, both with and without your product. How do they do the work? Where do they struggle? Where do they complain
u/s8rlink
Card sorting either with handpicked subjects in a moderated call and doing both pre made buckets where they can sort the cards into and then having them create their won buckets to analyze me
u/jkvincent
Interviews combined with observational testing have always worked best for me. Hear what users say, but also watch what they actually do. Those two things combined will tell you what you need
u/travisjd2012
I've always found card sorting great for everything from initial product planning to reorganizing settings options into a reasonable structure.
u/dbr3ck
Microsoft Clarity. It’s free and really insightful.
u/Aromatic-Square2859
Has anyone else used this? Is it easy for beginners?
u/oddible
Informances. Basically physically doing the actions the user would do to get a feel for the motor part of what they're doing. Incorporate as much tacit knowledge as possible (the efficiencies
u/travoltek
Semi structured interviews with users of your product, except instead of making them du your boring task validation wireframe flows, you just follow them as they go about doing a real thing t