Synthetic Users: Early-Stage Research with AI

Learn how AI-powered synthetic users can accelerate your process — and build a workflow you can run on your own product.

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Session Summary

DATE

October 15, 2026

TIME

12-3pm ET

FORMAT

Single Session

PRICE

$299

$199

About the Session

Synthetic users are making their way into design workflows, with designers using AI-generated personas to support research and testing. But their usefulness depends on how they're created, how they're used, and what you expect them to tell you.

This session goes past chatting with a persona. You'll build a workflow that grounds personas in real market and competitive research, sends them through an actual product or prototype, and captures what happened in a structured usability report — then figure out how much to trust what comes back.

Over three hours you’ll:

Learn where synthetic users add real value, and where their limitations make human research essential

Generate personas grounded in actual market and competitive research rather than invented traits

Send those personas through a live product or prototype, not a static screenshot

Capture their experience in a structured usability report

You’ll walk away with:

A framework for evaluating synthetic-user feedback and deciding how to apply it effectively

A working end-to-end approach you can adapt to your own products

A clearer sense of when to reach for synthetic research and when to recruit human users

The session recording, available afterward

Early bird pricing ends September 30th. Enroll now.

single session. small group. limited space. reserve your seat.

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Who It’s For

UX RESEARCHERS AND DESIGNERS trying to further accelerate your workflow with AI. You've used AI to generate personas or react to screens, and you want a method that produces something you'd put in front of your team.

‍DESIGN TEAMS considering investing in AI-powered user research tools who want to explore other ways they might unlock the power of AI for research without investing in a dedicated tool.

Research You Can Run on Every Iteration

YOU WILL LEARN

How to generate personas grounded in real market and competitive research, including the “opposed ones” most persona sets leave out.

How to run a synthetic test against a live prototype or site, so personas move through real flows instead of reacting to a static image.

How to read the output critically — separating findings worth acting on from those that may require real human research participants.

How to point the workflow at your own personas, products, and context.

How to decide which research questions synthetic users can answer, and which ones still need humans.

Meet the Instructor

Stefan Twerdochlib

PRINCIPAL PRODUCT DESIGNER | KING

Stefan Twerdochlib is a Principal Product Designer at King in Stockholm. He designs with AI as an extension of his own practice, building the tools he needs when they don't exist — including the synthetic user testing workflow this session is based on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need experience with AI-powered user research?

While many individuals who enroll in this workshop will likely have experimented with using AI tools and LLMs for user research, no specific previous experience with AI-powered user research is assumed.

Do I need a paid subscription to any tools?

Yes. The workflow runs in Claude or ChatGPT using Projects, which requires a paid plan. If you're on a free account, you'll need to upgrade before the session.

Is this a replacement for real user research?

No, and it’s better used as the thing that comes before it. Running synthetic first means that when you do get real participants, you’re asking pointed questions instead of casting a wide net.

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Is this the same as the usability testing material in AI for UX Design?

No. That course covers planning a test and synthesizing what comes back. This session is the part in the middle: actually running it when you don’t have participants.

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What if I can't attend live?

The recording is available afterward. That said, we strongly encourage attending live — the session is built around working through real screens together, and that’s hard to replicate on a replay.

What do I walk away with?

You'll leave with a working usability testing skill you can run in your own LLM, along with the supporting files — report template, session protocol, and safety guardrail. We'll cover how to adapt each of them to your own product and research questions. Additionally, you'll have access to the session recording for future reference.

what if I don't like the course?

All Lab Sessions are backed by The Designlab Happiness Promise. After you've fully participated in the course, if you're not satisfied you can get your money back. Read more here.

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can i use my company's Learning & Development budget for this course?

Absolutely! Many of our participants use their company’s learning and development budget to attend Designlab programs. If you have any questions about how to do this during enrollment, please reach out via our Help Center contact form.

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What if I’m part of a team that wants to take this course?

We’re happy to work with a team or company. Feel free to enroll everyone here or book a call with our team for more information on multi-seat discounts, custom trainings, and more.

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Research at the speed of an idea.

Learn how to get the most out of AI for user research, and understand when human user research remains essential.

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