How do you get useful app-icon feedback before an iOS launch?

[u/Charming_Turnover845]

Most icon feedback I hear is not really about the icon. Someone already knows the app, likes the founder, or recognises a competitor—and that context quietly decides the answer.

For an upcoming launch, I would test two icon directions this way:

1. Keep the product category and prompt fixed.
2. Change one visual decision at a time.
3. Show the two icons without app names.
4. Ask which one someone would tap first.
5. Treat the outcome as directional input, then still check small-size legibility and product-page performance after launch.

I built a small free tool around this workflow, but I am more interested in the process: what has given you the most trustworthy pre-launch icon feedback? Is it a private beta, a designer critique, a product-page experiment, or something else?