Use Cases and Deployment Scope:

We generally use UserTesting for design research, so testing designs at various stages of the product development process. We get feedback mainly on usability, but also on expectations and understandability/comprehension of elements on the design, like copy, imagery, and general components. We have dabbled in concept testing, as well as some messaging (more so comprehension than validation). The Product team owns the license, but the Product Marketing team and Content Design teams have also benefitted from using it.

Likelihood to Recommend:

Its strength is in usability testing and testing designs with users. Another key strength of UserTesting is its panel. Combined, it's incredible for getting quick feedback on usability. With that said, many of the panel members are used to taking tests and generally more technologically savvy. I've heard many words like intuitive more in testing now. However, I do think if you're focused on watching how people are using designs and are structuring tasks appropriately, you can still learn a lot from people who are familiar with design testing. With that said, I do not believe UserTesting and any qualitative research should be used solely for validation. It is important to think about sample size and confidence quality. It's not really appropriate for message testing. It also can't present multiple concepts in a randomized order, so I might defer to using a different tool if you're in that stage of design.