Say How Far a Tester Was From the Person Who Does the Job
The UAT Distance Scale
Companion to You Are Not the User · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this when you need to say how far a tester was from the person who does the job, which tells you how much weight the result can carry. Worked in “‘We Tested It’ Means Almost Nothing.”
The UAT Distance Scale, with a column for the testers you actually used.
| Distance | Who performs it | Our testers at this distance |
|---|---|---|
| D0 | A real user doing real work, in the real setting, with real volume, data, interruptions, and exceptions (a production pilot) | |
| D1 | A representative user doing realistic tasks in a controlled setting | |
| D2 | A subject-matter expert familiar with the work but not doing it now (a former nurse, an internal clinician) | |
| D3 | A customer-facing employee simulating the user (Customer Success, Support, implementation, Sales) | |
| D4 | Product, Engineering, QA, or other internal staff simulating the user |
Any test with every tester at D2–D4 is simulated UAT. That’s fine as long as it’s labeled, which is what the next tool is for.