Don't skimp on your product testing!

It's about 8 am and with a lot to get done today, I need some caffeine.  I grab the new travel mug I got from my in-laws, toss in my favorite tea and I'm ready to start the day.  Until I attempt to take my first sip and wind up with hot tea dribbling down my chin and onto my new white shirt.  

I grumble, of course, and try to think of something clever to say to the first person I see staring at my stain, but then I take the cover off my mug and start looking at it.  That extra hole that's supposed to be there to let air in and keep the tea flow going isn't there.  It looks like it is, but because I didn't have it open just right and the holes didn't align, now I've got a blotch on my shirt that looks like ... Elvis maybe?

I wondered who designed this thing, planned to sell a bunch, showed a few prototype designs to a panel who loved the cute little decals on the side, worked with a quality and manufacturing team to produce covers with X tolerance on hole placement....and never thought to test it to make sure someone could actually drink from it.  The benefits of usability, alpha and/or beta testing aren't just limited to software.  You can do some pretty simple things to make sure that your target audience can use your product as intended - and if they don't, it's better to learn that early and fix it rather than create a poor customer experience.  

Remember, refunds and recall programs, brand damage and all that other fun stuff cost you MUCH more than some user testing along your development cycle!