Make Your Beta Testers Love You–Or Else

by francine Hardaway on November 3, 2009

Because I'm tangentially a part of the Bay Area echo chamber, I have a chance to sign up and test a lot of new software. I also advise companies, and I try their products, too. Listening to TWIST with guest Mark Suster made me think about my own reactions to the sites I try early.

Here's the cold hard truth.
I never come back to most of them. I'm not going to mention any names, but some pretty well-publicized companies have lost me.

Why?
1)The site is slow or the log-in fails, or it's too tough to sign up. In other words, it wasn't really ready for a beta. I hate those cutesy messages that tell me "oops! something went wrong, try again." It shouldn't take me three tries to register, and if I register, I should be immediately able to navigate the site. If I can't figure out how to upload a photo, download a file, or find friends, I'm outta there.

2)After I sign up, I realize I already "own" a piece of software that does this. That happened with many Twitter clones. After I was on Twitter, I realized I didn't need them.  This is what's wrong with being something more than the first mover in the space.  The same thing is true for me with video sharing software, and with video watching sites. Joost, Hulu, Boxee — I don't watch enough TV to use them all, and I don't take enough video to use UStream, Qik, and Kyte. I have accounts in all these places, and I never go to them.

3)They don't fully meet my needs. That goes for the defunct TeeBeeDee , the site for older people, and also for MySpace, the garish network for younger people.  I want to be with good people, not older or younger people.

4)They end up spamming me.  This is the case with PlentyofFish, and some of the other dating sites.   They somehow always have "new matches" for me that I have to visit the site to see. And then I can't communicate directly with  I get tons of emails from sites I no longer wish to hear from, and I don't have the patience to unsubscribe.

5) I'm tired of them. They involve effort I'm not willing to put in. DailyMugShot would be one of those. Doing anything every day bums me out.

7) For some products, I'm just the wrong beta tester. I'm not interested in losing weight, or reading about fashion, or playing pirate/Zombie games. I'm probably not the right beta tester for Google Wave either, though, because I don't do much collaboration.

So what kinds of sites do I luse?

6) Sites that help me: Freshbooks and Mint. They both simplified my life.

7) Sites that give me information I need, like EmpowHer or

8) Sites my friends use, like Facebook and Twiiter.

9) Sites that are fun, like Foursquare. I'm not a person who plays games, so who knew I would fall in love with Foursquare? But it's easy to do, easy to "win," small things, like being Mayor of Starbucks on my block, and connected with my friends..

10) Sites with great, fast e-commerce and free shipping (Amazon).

Once I'm gone from a site because it no longer interests me or integrates into my life, it's VERY dfficult to get me back. So when you launch software, be careful who beta tests it and extraordinarily careful how their user experience goes. It's not good enough to call them after a week and ask them how they are doing.

The takeaway: When you launch your beta test, target the right customer with the right product, and make sure in advance that they'll love it.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

siirbahcesi November 4, 2009 at 6:49 am

Also maybe being more hard-nosed with the big bank CEOs about lending out to consumers after they had . So when you launch software, be careful who beta tests it and extraordinarily careful how their user experience goes. It's not good enough to call them after a week and ask them how they are doing.

siirbahcesi November 4, 2009 at 6:50 am

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siirbahcesi November 4, 2009 at 6:51 am

it no longer interests me or integrates into my life, it's VERY dfficult to get me back. So when you launch software, be careful who beta tests it and extraordinarily careful how their user experience goes. It's not good enough to call them after a week and ask them how they are doing.
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siirbahcesi November 4, 2009 at 6:55 am

be careful who beta tests it and extraordinarily careful how their user experience goes. It's not good enough to call them after a week and ask them…
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siirbahcesi November 4, 2009 at 6:56 am

I'm not a person who plays games, so who knew I would fall in love with Foursquare
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juliab33 March 8, 2010 at 7:54 am

yeah i have tested several beta sites, or games and such like and some of them are so far from being of any use to the public, i think they should only be put up for beta testing if the work is completed, beta testing should simply be a means to discover previously unknown bugs during testing, some of the bugs are so obvious that they must of known about them before release

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