Last week, three strangers got stuck exactly where I thought it was easiest
Before launching my little tool, I tested it myself 10 times — looked fine. So I asked 3 friends who'd never seen it to follow my docs and try installing it. All three got stuck on the same step — the "environment configuration" paragraph I'd written and never wanted to read again.
Getting strangers to test your docs is the hidden homework for indie founders
This trick isn't new. Lao Chen (a developer building his own SaaS tool) posted a similar story on Twitter: he paid $200 on Fiverr to have 5 people try his product, and in just the first week found 11 traps that beginners would inevitably step on. The early Notion team also hired "new user observers" specifically — they'd record screens and watch how people used the product.
For us 1-5 person teams, the easiest mistake is "I get it, so I assume everyone gets it." I made this exact mistake — spent a week writing docs that read smoothly to me, only to watch a stranger finish reading with a blank stare. Not every tool needs this, but if you're selling something customers have to install and set up themselves, this step will catch up with you eventually.
Replication cost: $30 + two days
Money: $30-50. Post a gig on Xianyu (China's secondhand marketplace) or a Douban part-time board. Find 3-5 people who've never touched your product.
Time: 1 day cleaning up your docs, 1 day letting them test, 1 day fixing what you find.
Technical barrier: Zero. If you can type and share a meeting link, you're set (Tencent Meeting free tier works — 30 minutes is enough for one person to run through the flow).
First step: Open your product documentation and read starting from "what the user should do first" — see if you can remember the next step without flipping back to the original instructions.
How to use this trick at different stages
If you're just starting out: No need to spend money. Grab 3 "non-tech friends" from your network, meet for coffee, and watch them try it live. You can skip this for now, but when your first customer tries onboarding, you'll thank past-you.
If you have 1-2 customers: Your customers themselves are the best testers. Every time a customer asks "how do I do this," write it down — that's a 100% blind spot in your docs. That's how I built a real FAQ back in the early days.
If you're scaling: Don't skip this — officially pay for it. Post a test recruitment on Douban's "Product Experience" groups or Xianyu, $15-20 per session, at least 5 people. Every trap in your docs becomes a future support ticket.