From Hours to Minutes: How Poll Everywhere Validates Designs 10x Faster with Userbrain
Owen McGillicuddy, Lead Designer at Poll Everywhere, knew how important user feedback was. But getting it felt like a full-time job.
“I’d spend hours recruiting users, setting up calls, and manually validating designs,” Owen says. “With other tools, we’d burn credits on tests that gave us inconclusive results—like 45% vs. 55% splits between preferences of mockups, but no real answer behind choice reasons.”
Poll Everywhere helps educators and corporate trainers drive live audience engagement. Behind the scenes, testing new features involved long delays, guesswork, and usability surprises after launch. Owen needed a faster way to get clear answers before shipping.
Userbrain Cut Testing Time from Hours to Minutes
Everything changed when Owen started using Userbrain.
“Now we can do design work in a much more user friendly way,” he says. “I’d set up a test, click ‘Send,’ and have results in 20 minutes. We then watch the recording and realize what's working and what's not, then make immediate proof-based changes to our product.”
Userbrain helped Owen go from hours of manual work to fast validation. There were no more gut decisions or endless meetings. Just clear, human insights delivered through real recordings.
- Validate designs early: Catch usability issues before they reach customers
- Spot real friction: Watch testers navigate designs and identify sticking points
- Get everyone aligned: Share short clips with execs and engineers to support product decisions
“Before, a single test could take tons of hours of back-and-forth. Now, it’s done within 30 minutes.”
Proof Over Opinions. Confidence Over Guesswork
Userbrain didn’t just speed things up. It gave Owen’s team the evidence they needed to build smarter, ship faster, and align their organization.
Fast Iteration, Fewer Mistakes
The team was refining how users view poll results. After watching testers struggle to toggle visibility, they made the fix and revalidated it the same day.
“We shipped changes immediately because we saw real people struggling with an existing process.”
Stakeholder Buy-In Without the Meetings
Videos became a shared language. Everyone from engineers to execs saw the same user experience.
“Our CTO & CEO watch every test... This gives us a lot of power to make changes, because we have the proof behind each decision.”
Empathy That Scales Across Teams
Customer Success felt validated. Engineers built with more awareness. Designers had support for their decisions.
“User testing with Userbrain has been the most powerful thing in building empathy within our own internal organization. And it really speaks volumes internally.”
“Userbrain Pays for Itself in a Single Test”
Owen’s advice for other teams is clear. Don’t guess. Test.
“The ROI is invaluable. If you're not testing things on actual people, then your product is very likely to not succeed. One test can save you weeks of rework. So the amount of time it takes to set up a test with Userbrain and validate a concept is worth so much more than the time you're going to spend trying to figure it out and fix it in the long run.”
For Poll Everywhere, Userbrain isn’t just another tool. It’s how they ship with speed and certainty.
