UX research on a budget: how to interview real users in a week

You’re moving fast. Shipping, pitching, firefighting. User research? That usually falls into the “we’ll get to it later” bucket. The problem is, “later” often turns into “too late”. The truth: talking to users early can save you from building the wrong thing entirely. And you don’t need a budget or a research team to do it. You can talk to real users, collect insights, and shape your product - all in a single week.

That’s not a fantasy. Airbnb’s founders once met their users in person, noticed terrible listing photos, and fixed it. That simple change doubled their revenue in a week. This guide shows how to do that kind of scrappy, high-impact research even if you’re broke and busy.

Adopt the scrappy research mindset (yes, you do have to talk to users)

Skipping user interviews might feel efficient in the short term, but it’s like sailing without a compass - you’re moving, but maybe in the wrong direction. Startups often skip research because they think it’s a “big company” thing. Yet, research done early can cut development time by up to half and prevent problems that are a hundred times more expensive to fix later. A few hours of real conversations now can save you weeks of rework later.

A hand-drawn sketch shown to a user tomorrow beats a high-fidelity prototype that never leaves Figma

At this stage, forget academic rigor. You don’t need statistics - you need direction. The goal isn’t to publish findings; it’s to make something people actually want. Think of this as guerrilla research. DM someone on Reddit. Offer to buy a coffee. Jump into a Slack group and ask for quick feedback. You’re trading effort for money, and that’s a great deal. The less budget you have, the sharper your focus becomes. With fewer distractions, you’re forced to ask better questions.

Before you start, drop the idea of perfection. You’re here to get clarity, not polish. A hand-drawn sketch shown to a user tomorrow beats a high-fidelity prototype that never leaves Figma.

Recruiting real users with (almost) no money

If you’re wondering where to find users without a recruiting budget, start close. Already have a few customers or beta users? Reach out directly. Send a short, genuine message asking for a quick chat to help improve the product. People usually like being heard, and if they use your product, they want it to get better.

Offer small, non-monetary perks as a thank-you:

• free month of premium access
• early feature access
• shout-out in your community

If you have zero users yet, don’t panic. Go where your potential users hang out - LinkedIn groups, Slack communities, Reddit threads, Discord servers, or Facebook groups. Be direct and respectful. Explain what you’re building, why you want feedback, and what the commitment is (“a 30-minute chat this week”). Mention what’s in it for them - maybe early access or the chance to influence a product in their field.

A Fitbit designer once built a user panel by messaging people on Facebook and Reddit. If they could do that at scale, you can do it for five users. And don’t underestimate your network. Post on your own LinkedIn or X account. Friends-of-friends often match your audience better than you think. If you can spare a small incentive, even better. It doesn’t have to be cash - one founder offered a PDF of “100 free tools for small businesses” to everyone who did an interview. It worked.

When recruiting, over-invite. If you need 5 interviews, message 50 people. Some will ghost. Some will flake. That’s normal. Make it easy to say yes. Use Calendly or another free scheduler so people can pick a time without endless back-and-forth.

And if your users exist in the real world - coffee shops, coworking spaces, gyms - try guerrilla intercepts. Offer to buy someone a coffee in exchange for feedback. Keep it short and polite. Even five-minute chats can spark insights you won’t find in analytics. By the end of day two, you should have a small list of people ready to talk.

One-week game plan: from “hello” to insights

You’ve got your people. Now, how do you make the most of one week?

Day 1: Set your focus

Write down 3–5 questions you truly need answered.

• “What’s the hardest part of tracking your finances?”
• “How do you currently solve X problem?”
• “Can you walk me through the last time you used a tool like this?”

Keep it tight. You’re not writing a survey; you’re looking for real stories. Start sending invites today - the sooner, the better.

Days 2–3: Schedule and prep

Keep scheduling momentum. Line up calls. Prepare anything you want to show, even if it’s just a few rough sketches or a Figma click-through.

You can use Google Meet or Zoom - all free and reliable. If your audience isn’t techy, stick to browser-based tools. Aim for 30 minutes per interview. Enough to get depth without draining anyone. Have someone join to take notes if possible, or ask for permission to record using a free Otter.ai account.

If you’re not comfortable with tools, do it analog. One founder of a cooking app once printed screenshots and met people in cafés to ask, “What do you think this screen does?” The insights were instant.

Days 3–5: run the interviews

Now comes the fun part: talking to real humans. Start broad, then get specific. Ask them to describe their day, their frustrations, their hacks.

For example:

What happens when you forget to do X?
What tools or apps do you use for that?
What’s the most annoying part of that process?

When you show your prototype, keep it light:

“This is early. I’m curious what you’d expect this to do, or what’s confusing.”

Avoid steering them toward praise. Instead of “Do you like this?” ask “What would you change here?” If silence happens, let it. People often fill silence with useful honesty. Keep sessions under 30 minutes - it’s enough for depth without fatigue. If you can, have a teammate take notes. If not, jot down quick highlights right after.

After every chat, note key quotes and moments that made you think, “Wait, what?” Those are clues worth exploring.

Day 5–6: synthesize your findings

Once interviews are done, gather your notes. Put names and quotes into a table - one row per user, one column per question. Patterns will jump out.

Ask yourself:

• What problems came up multiple times?
• What surprises challenged your assumptions?
• Did users describe pain differently than you expected?

Highlight direct quotes. Nothing drives design decisions like a real sentence from a user saying, “I just wish it would remember my last setting.” One simple trick: hold a short team debrief right after each interview. Even 10 minutes helps. Everyone hears different details, and discussing them right away locks them in. At the end of the week, you’ll have a clear, lightweight research summary. No slides needed. Just a shared doc with takeaways, a few screenshots, and action items.

You’ve just completed a mini research sprint.

How polished should your MVP be for testing?

If you’re proud of your first version, you launched too late.

This question comes up in every founder conversation: “Should I wait until it looks good?” The answer: absolutely not.

Most successful products launched while still rough. Airbnb’s first version was full of glitches and poor design. Instagram started as a bloated check-in app before the founders deleted everything except photo sharing.

Your MVP doesn’t have to impress. It has to teach. A founder on Indie Hackers once said, “If you’re proud of your first version, you launched too late.” You’re looking for reactions, not ratings. If five users can understand what it does and where they get stuck, you’re in great shape.

Think of it like serving water in a paper cup instead of a crystal glass. If people ask for more, you’ve validated the idea. Then you can focus on polish later. Dropbox validated its idea with a 2-minute video. The Figma team started by testing their collaborative editor with design students before it even ran smoothly. The goal was always insight, not appearance.

Tell users upfront:

This is early. We’re testing how the idea fits into your routine, not how it looks.

They’ll forgive the roughness. And when they see you improving based on their feedback, that goodwill compounds.

Tools and templates to speed things up

When you’re working lean, tools should help, not slow you down. Stick to what’s fast and free.

Scheduling: Calendly or Google Calendar for simple time slots.

Video calls: Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams. All work fine.

Recording and transcripts: Otter.ai transcribes calls automatically, so you can focus on the chat.

Templates: User Interviews Launch Kit and Great Question’s guide both provide question lists and note sheets.

Note-taking: A Google Doc or Notion table works. For synthesis, a spreadsheet with users in columns and questions in rows helps you spot patterns.

Debrief: After each session, share a quick note in Slack: “3 takeaways from today’s call.” It keeps insights alive and makes the whole team care about what users say.

If you’re running more than one sprint, store your notes in Notion or a shared folder. Over time, you’ll build a lightweight “insight library.” This is how small teams start acting like mature product orgs - by capturing learnings instead of losing them between sprints.

And always remember: if a tool feels like overhead, skip it. For five interviews, pen and paper still win.

Wrapping up: one-week UX research checklist

You just ran a week of real user research - without a research team, budget, or bureaucracy.

Here’s a checklist to keep this practice going:‍

• ‍Start with focus. Pick one or two core questions that matter now.‍
• Recruit creatively. DM users, ask friends, post in communities.‍
• Don’t wait for polish. Early feedback beats late perfection.‍
• Keep interviews friendly. Talk like a human, not a script.‍
• Avoid leading questions. Ask about what they did, not what they’d hypothetically do.‍
• Five users are enough. Small samples reveal the biggest issues.‍
• Use simple tools. Calendly, Meet, and a doc are plenty.‍
• Share insights fast. Write a short summary, not a report.‍
• Make it a habit. Repeat this mini-sprint every month or after big changes.

That’s how you turn UX research from a one-off task into a product superpower. And when you build that reflex - to talk, listen, and learn fast - you’ll find that every next release lands closer to what people actually need. Your users are out there. They’re one message, one coffee, one quick chat away from changing your roadmap.