Tips and Tricks for a successful BETA launch

I have found (through 5 years of managing new features!) that running a great beta program isn’t always easy. The timing is rough, resources are often limited, and it involves getting a bunch of customers to use an early product. Rolling out a beta test can be quite expensive, and if not managed right, it could all be for nothing (and you can go like arrrrgggggghhhhhh). While beta releases can be incredibly useful for gathering feedback and improving your product, the testing process must be carefully planned and managed in order to get the best results.

There are some tips and tricks that always work for me, so I’ve pulled their list together today.

But first things first…

What is a Beta release?

Well traditionally, Beta releases were done to release an early build of the product and recruit ‘unbiased’ beta testers who can find usability issues, functional bugs, suggest improvements, and test that the product performs “as expected”, prior to full release.

Although I broadly agree with this, I think beta testers should not know how the product is “expected” to perform. I personally like to use the tag ‘Beta’ to launch a new capability and validate whether the users are using it as intended or if there are obvious ‘gaps’ that obstruct the users to achieve the intended goal.

So, why do a Beta release?

Product managers invest much of their time in ensuring that the overall customer experience is fantastic. This means evaluating every single detail of the product to ensure that it meets the customer’s needs and works as intended when the customer pulls it out of the box.

No matter how good product discovery and scoping was, how extensively early user research and prototype testing was done, there are still chances that the users end up failing to understand the interface or not using the new capability to reach the intended goal.

So in my experience, a limited Beta release with a select group of users is a great way to:

1. Check that the users are using the new capability as intended.
2. Uncover ‘gaps’ or ‘barriers’ in their journey that obstruct them to achieve the intended goals.
3. Get feedback and hear their early thoughts as they try it out, use the feedback to improve and launch a ‘world-class’ product.

I also like to use Beta to validate known issues. We all have a list of known issues reported by QA teams and we struggle to find the balance between fixing everything for an amazing experience and shipping the features in time. Beta is a great opportunity to gauge how widespread and legitimate these issues are and whether these issues surface when an actual user tries to use the product. Results from Beta testing can be used to prioritize known issues.

For products introducing substantial innovative thinking or a differentiating functionality, beta offers the ability to achieve sound customer acceptance. This ensures that the new feature or capability meets the specific demands of its audience.

Beta VS MVP- What’s the difference?

I think a very obvious question that comes to people’s minds is ‘what is a Minimum Viable Product’ and ‘how is a Beta release different from launching an MVP’?

The MVP and Beta versions are two completely different things. Though both of them refer to stages of software development, the context — or the perspective, if you wish — is completely different.

The MVP is actually a Minimum Viable version of your software product, using which you’re going to execute your validation process. It’s the minimum set of features that delivers value to end-users and helps them do a specific ‘job’. Contrary to that, the Beta version of your product serves to validate the quality, usability, and user experience of your software product in completing that ‘job’. If you are launching Beta, you should be past the ‘value validation’ stage. You can launch a Beta version of your MVP with select users, before releasing MVP to a wider audience but not vice-versa.

5 simple steps to plan a Beta release.

Defining goals of Beta: The very first thing I ask myself is: what am I trying to learn? This question always helps in determining the specifics of the Beta program. It’s critical to think through the goals and set clear objectives for Beta. Think along the lines —

1. Do you want to test the product UI and experience?
2. Do you want to compare workflows and see what is easier for the users?
3. Do you want to uncover defects and see if there are any ‘show-stoppers’?
4. Will the results of this beta greenlight more investments in the product?
5. If so, what metrics do you track to assess success/failure, and what’s the threshold you need to hit in order to greenlight further investments?

2. Selecting Beta customers:

The next step is to recruit customers or potential users for Beta program. If you are looking to partner with existing customers, you have the following options:

1. In-app Beta sign up: provide an option within your product to sign up for Beta program. Give your customers some incentive and provide a quick way to enroll.
2. Send an email campaign: partner with your marketing teams and launch an exciting email campaign motivating customers to sign up for Beta. Again, give them some incentive! It doesn’t have to be extremely fancy — a small coupon code for your product or even a simple message saying their feedback will shape the product and they have the opportunity to influence the design as early adopters is sometimes enough!

If you are looking to recruit potential customers, there are various options too:

1. User Testing Websites: You can target websites like UserTesting, BetaList, Erli Bird, PreApps that provide Beta testing as a service. This would be an ideal resource to tap if you don’t have an email list of beta testers because these websites would give you a list of people who may be willing to test.
2. Social media: There is nothing like social media channels to attract interested testers. Twitter and Facebook (Facebook ads are a good strategy to attract testers) are the best platforms to source users.
3. Personal contact: Source personally all those people whom you think you would be willing to test your product. Through this, it would be easier to get first-hand feedback because personal interaction is there.

3. Beta process: Laying out a step-by-step beta process is essential. Key elements to think about:

• Give testing a timeframe: timebox the beta release. Give users proper guidance on when to start, when to finish.
• Select the workflows to be tested: document the key tasks you’d like the users to complete.
• User onboarding: what material would be needed for successful onboarding? Usually, user guides, FAQs, and user case documents are helpful.
• Keeping the users engaged: plan how often and what kinds of interaction will you have with the users. Also, ensure that the users are engaged throughout the beta program and have the means to ask questions or raise any concerns.
• Sign Beta participation agreements and non disclosure agreements: It’s important to protect your idea and product experience. If your project is worth IP and your company is large enough to file a patent before the launch of the external beta, you should definitely consider that.

4. Feedback collection:

Probably the most important step of the entire process and needs to be constructed carefully. Getting the right feedback that is clear, concise, and actionable is crucial for a successful Beta. Depending upon the scale of Beta release you have a few ways of doing this:

• 1:1 user interviews if beta customers are limited.
• For large scale Beta deployments, it’s best to have an in-app feedback form and consent from beta testers to connect on a call (if needed).
• Tools like Hotjar and Google Analytics are a great way to track clickstream data, record the entire session and capture reactions like rage clicks.

5. Transition: It’s important to set expectations of beta users about when would the beta end, what would happen after that, what would happen to their data, and provide a glimpse of the transition plan if any. Key questions to think about:

• Do testers keep access to the product/software post-beta?
• If not, what’s the plan for off-boarding them from your software?

Launching a Beta has many moving parts but if planned properly it provides amazing returns. As important it is to do everything as per the plan, it’s equally important to avoid some key mistakes that product people do. Let me also cover what ‘not to’ do while launching Beta.

Dont’s of Beta planning — What not to do?

Use of Beta release for validating ‘Value’: If you are launching Beta, you should be past the ‘value validation’ stage. If Beta product is used to test the value, you’ve lost half the battle already! The value should be validated prior to cutting code. You could use methods like user research, prototype testing, sales MVP, etc. for validating value.

Only planning for a ‘Sunny Day’: As much as we like, everything will not go according to the plan. For example- when recruiting beta users, keep in mind that not all users would provide feedback and help you achieve your goals for Beta. If I am looking to get feedback from at least 20 different users, I’d start with 4–5 times that number (80–100 users). Remember, there would be churn during your beta too. So depending upon your scope for Beta, you’ll need to think of the number of Beta customers to select and how to recruit them.

Over educating Beta users: It’s important to provide onboarding material to users but don’t put all your cards on the table. Don’t spoon-feed the entire workflow, keep the scenarios high level and create your tasks around end goals or jobs to be performed. Let the users figure out the rest.

Fixing everything raised by Beta users: Fight the temptation to fix everything that came up as feedback from users. Look for common themes and repeat feedback, try to separate needs from wants, and implement improvements that resonate with the majority of users.

Finally, learn from your mistakes…

The more you lessons you can take away from your first launch, the easier your next one will be. If possible, create templates so that whether your next test starts tomorrow or next quarter, you won’t have to rebuild everything from memory.

Lastly, if you’re finding this helpful, feel free to share it with peers, and share your thoughts with me through comments.