From 30 Days to 30 Minutes: How Starling Minds Transformed User Testing with Userbrain
User Testing Used to Be a “Nightmare”
For John Oman, Head of Design at Starling Minds, gathering user feedback was a major challenge. As a B2B mental health platform rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy, the team had limited access to end users—and the process of recruiting participants for testing was both time-consuming and resource-intensive.
“We used to send out emails, manage giant lists of members, email them directly, schedule them. It was like a whole other job of just administering the user test.”
Recruiting, scheduling, and incentivizing participants could take up to 30 days. Because of the effort involved, testing was often skipped altogether—leading to designs that needed costly fixes later.
Userbrain Made Testing Fast, Easy, and Impactful
When John came across Userbrain, he found exactly what his team had been missing: unmoderated, remote user testing with real people—and results in hours, not weeks. Suddenly, testing was part of the flow, not a blocker.
“What struck me with Userbrain is that it was just super easy to use. It was super easy to get your tests going. Saves time. It’s the best.”
Instead of waiting a month for results, the team could now run a test and get feedback the same day.
“Before, we might have been waiting a month. Now, it’s 30 days down to 30 minutes.”
From Skipped Tests to Seamless Workflows
With testing too slow and expensive, the team often skipped it—only to face usability issues long after launch.
But the team at Starling Minds didn’t want to compromise anymore. They found a better way to test—fast, easy, and affordable—and changed how they make design decisions with the help of Userbrain.
“We test it now, whereas before, it was kind of like a completely different decision-making process.”
They even redesigned their homepage using insights from Userbrain. After several iterations, they added a new data visualization feature that significantly improved user engagement.
“We noticed that Userbrain testers were more excited about the design and understood better what we were trying to do.”
The time savings were so significant that a team member who previously handled testing logistics is now in a full-time design role.
How Userbrain Supercharged Starling Minds’ Design Process
Since adopting Userbrain, Starling Minds has made major gains in qualitative improvements in their product and process:
- Faster Iteration: Tests that once took weeks now run in under an hour, helping the team iterate early and often.
- Real User Reactions: Spoken feedback helped surface emotional responses and deeper understanding.
- Improved Efficiency: Freed from admin work, one team member now contributes as a full-time designer. -** Smarter Design Decisions: **Frequent testing with Userbrain gave the team deeper user insights, helped them catch usability issues early, and led to more intuitive, confidently designed products.
Userbrain didn’t just improve how Starling Minds tests—it transformed how they design.
“It Will Make Your Product 10 Times Better”
John’s advice for other teams?
“If you don’t have any kind of user testing product in your stack, you need one. It will make your product 10 times better, 100 times better. Userbrain is super easy to use, super easy to get your tests going. Saves time. It’s the best.”
Userbrain has become an indispensable tool for Starling Minds, enabling the team to test more frequently, save time, and make better design decisions. For John, the platform’s ease of use and quick feedback loop have transformed their approach to user testing.
“Userbrain is the best,” John concluded. “It’s super easy to use, quick to get tests going, and it saves tons of time. It’s made a big difference for our team, it's the best."
