Pain Testing Guide

Design quick, high-signal tests to confirm pains are real, frequent, and urgent

How to Use This Guide

This toolkit gives you how-to steps and question templates for three complementary tests:

  1. Pain Validation,
  2. Ouch Factor, and
  3. Willingness to Pay for Relief (WTP).

Use at least two tests to triangulate. Pair with the Chapter 6  Validate Customer Pain and the Halo Alert – Pain Test Demo.

Quick Start

  1. Pick your audience segment (one persona or subgroup at a time).
  2. Choose two tests from the menu below (e.g., Validation + Ouch; Validation + WTP with substitutes).
  3. Draft your questions using the templates.
  4. Run a small pilot (n = 8–15) to de-risk wording, then scale.
  5. Log specifics: last time, frequency, effort/time/money spent, rank vs. alternatives.
  6. Score with traffic lights (see Interpretation) and decide what to keep, refine, or drop.

What to Capture (for every respondent)

  • Who (segment/role): [Persona or segment name]
  • Which pain (label): [Concise pain statement]
  • Recency: Last occurred: [date]
  • Frequency: [X] times in past 30 days
  • Effort/Workarounds: [What they did in the moment]
  • Cost/time: ≈$[amount]/month; [hours]/week
  • Ranking: #[rank] of [N] pains in the journey
  • Ouch score: [1–10] (analyzed within this segment only)
  • WTP signals: [Current substitute spending and priorities]
Minimum Evidence for a ‘Passed’ Pain Test
  • Respondent recalls a specific, recent instance
  • Pain occurs with some frequency (not once-in-a-lifetime)
  • Pain ranks near the top vs. adjacent pains
  • There is observable effort or spend today (time, money, workaround)

Test 1 — Pain Validation

Purpose: Confirm that your hypothesized pains are experienced in real life, not just plausible in theory.

Best when: You have a short list of pains from clustering/personas/journey maps and need to prioritize which are real and salient.

How to Ask (core prompts)

  • Recognition:
    • “Do you personally deal with [pain]?” ☐ Yes ☐ No
    • “When was the last time this happened?”
    • “How often has it come up in the past 30 days?”
  • Specifics:
    • “Walk me through the last instance—what happened first?”
    • “What did you do in the moment?” (workarounds/contacts/tools)
  • Relative Importance (ranking/forced choice):
    • “From this list, which one or two are most frustrating right now?”
    • “Rank these from most to least disruptive to your week.”
Design Notes
  • Always include ranking or forced choice to avoid polite agreement.
  • Anchor recall with recency + frequency; avoid abstract “Do you ever…?”
  • Use journey step prompts (“During pickup window… what breaks?”) to surface pains that are easy to overlook.

Evidence to Log

  • Yes/No recognition, last time, frequency, top-3 rank, short incident narrative, workarounds used.

Common Pitfalls

  • Overweighting a single vivid story → require ranking + frequency.
  • Generic prompts → tie questions to a concrete step in the experience map.

Test 2 — Ouch Factor (Severity)

Purpose: Rapidly sort pains by perceived severity within a homogeneous group.

Best when: You need quick prioritization across multiple pains in the same context/persona.

How to Ask (paired with behavior)

  • Severity scale (1–10):
    • “On a scale of 1–10, how severe is [pain] in your week?”
  • Behavioral anchor:
    • “What do you currently do to manage it?”
    • “How much time did you spend on it last week?”
    • “What did it cost you last month (fees, tools, lost shifts)?”
Limits of Ouch Factor
  • Not comparable across different groups (a “7” isn’t universal).
  • High severity ≠ high urgency if there’s no action or spend.
  • Treat as directional, not proof.

Evidence to Log

  • Ouch score per pain, plus time/money/workaround specifics.

Common Pitfalls

  • Using scores alone → require behavior context (time/money).
  • Mixed samples → analyze per segment; don’t average across groups.

Test 3 — Willingness to Pay for Relief (WTP)

Purpose: Gauge economic salience. Early-stage focus on behavioral substitutes, not speculative dollar guesses.

Best when: You suspect under-reporting in WTP for abstract relief; you want current spend and relative priorities.

How to Ask (behavior-first)

  • Substitutes/Current Spend:
    • “What do you already spend because of this pain?” (late fees, extra childcare hours, paid apps, parking, overtime)
    • “Any unpaid costs (lost time, stress, favors) you lean on?”
  • Relative WTP (not absolute):
    • “Which of these pains would you be most willing to pay to remove?” (rank)
  • Only when concrete:
    • “Given this specific solution concept [1–2 sentence], what feels like a fair monthly price?” (Later stage only.)
Better Ways to Probe WTP
  • Log actual substitutes and hidden costs (fees, buffers, hacks).
  • Use relative WTP questions (which pain first?) vs. raw amounts.
  • Save dollar WTP for concrete, credible solution concepts.

Evidence to Log

  • Substitute spend/time, relative WTP ranking, any price anchors only if concept is concrete.

Common Pitfalls

  • Early “How much would you pay?” → underestimates value of relief.
  • Ignoring hidden costs → ask for late fees, buffers, churn, waste.

Triangulation & Interpretation

Use at least two tests. Look for converging signals:

  • Green (Go):
    • Recent, repeated instances and top rank;
    • Ouch high with time/money spent;
    • Clear substitute spend or strong relative WTP → Advance to solution exploration.
  • Yellow (Refine):
    • Mixed ranking or sporadic frequency;
    • Ouch high without behavior;
    • Substitutes unclear → Tighten prompts, segment better, probe journey steps.
  • Red (Drop/Park):
    • Rare/one-off; consistently low rank;
    • No workarounds, no substitute spend;
    • Weak relative WTP → Archive for later.
Avoid False Conclusions
  • False positives: Require specific incident + ranking + behavior.
  • False negatives: Offer lists with ‘Other’, prompt by journey step, and allow story-first recall before scales.

Scripts & Templates

A. 10-Minute Intercept Script (in-person or phone)

  1. “We’re studying [context]. Do you ever run into [Pain A], [Pain B], or [Pain C]?”
  2. “When was the last time [Pain X] happened? What did you do?”
  3. “How often in the past 30 days?”
  4. “Rank these 1–3 (most to least disruptive) for you: [A/B/C].”
  5. “What did you do about it? Any time or money spent?”
  6. “If you could fix one of these first, which would it be? Why?”

B. 5-Question Micro-Survey (one persona at a time)

  1. Select all that apply: In the past 30 days, I experienced [Pain A], [Pain B], [Pain C].
  2. For your selected top pain: last occurrence date.
  3. For your selected top pain: frequency in the past 30 days.
  4. Rank your selected pains from most to least disruptive.
  5. What did you spend or do last month because of your #1 pain? (fees, tools, extra time)

C. Logging Table (copy/paste to Sheets)

Respondent [Segment] [Pain] [Last Time] [Frequency (30d)] [Ouch (1–10)] [Time/wk] [$ per month] [Workarounds] [Rank]

Sample Sizes & Segments (Pragmatic Guidance)

  • Pilot n = 8–15 per segment to tune wording; then grow to n = 25–50 for clearer prioritization.
  • Analyze within-segment; avoid mixing groups when comparing ouch or WTP.
  • If ranking is unstable, your pains may be too broad; make them step-specific (e.g., “late pick-up fees” vs. “childcare stress”).

Ethics & Good Practice

  • Obtain consent for recordings/notes.
  • Avoid leading questions; keep wording neutral.
  • Offer a small thank-you (non-coercive).
  • If discussing sensitive contexts, prepare opt-out language and protect privacy.

Decision Checklist (End of Test Cycle)

Note

Next Step
If one or two pains hit Green, you’re ready to enter Diamond 3: Solution. Bring your top pains—and their behavioral evidence—into concept sketches and early solution probes.

Important

Reminder
This guide uses [square brackets] as placeholders.
Replace them with your own segment names, pains, and details before running tests.
Example:
- [Persona or segment name] → “Evening subway commuters”
- [Pain A] → “Dark, unpredictable blocks on the walk home”