What is a beta program?
A beta program is a pre-release phase in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) where a limited group of users, known as beta testers, are given access to a beta version of a release of the software before its official release (GA: General Availability). Also referred to as Limited Availability (LA).
What are the benefits of a beta program?
The primary benefit of the beta program is to gather valuable feedback from real users who use the software in diverse environments and scenarios. This is an opportunity for developers to fix any issues (defects, bugs) that may not have been surfaced during regular testing (QA).
The secondary benefit of the beta program is that the company (that is releasing the software) can prepare to better support the new product/feature. This is a great opportunity to fine-tune launch plans and create a go-to-market (GTM) strategy for the launch of the release.
What are some tips for running a successful beta program?
In the beta phase, finding customers willing to give feedback is super important. Their thoughts on how the software performs, the user experience, and spots for improvement are like gold for the product and dev teams. This teamwork in testing helps developers improve the software overall before the features are available to a larger and wider audience.
Beta programs usually depend on volunteers, and these can be individuals, businesses, or organizations ready to test the software in real situations. This helps developers get different views and make sure the software meets what users expect.
Even though customers will be testing the beta release and may find issues with it, this does not mean that developers and testers should rely heavily on customers to find defects. The beta release should be of high quality to avoid embarrassment in front of the customer (beta tester). If a buggy piece of software is released to customers, the company’s credibility may be negatively impacted. You still need to do your best testing, and the user interface should be mostly ready. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but good enough!
From the product manager’s view, beta testing is a way to get feedback on what customers like or think needs improving. It’s also a way to check if market research and positioning assumptions are right. Weird things can happen when a product is in customers’ hands. They might find new uses for it, and things you thought were fantastic might not get the great response you expected.
Be ready and open-minded. From a customer support standpoint, beta testing is a way to talk with customers in a forgiving setting and get practice handling common issues. Include your developers to listen in on what customers are saying about the beta release, it might be a great learning opportunity. Ensure developers do not promise feature changes or timelines to customers! Using account management, product management or customer support people to to interface with customers might be more effective in the long run.
Beta Testing Tips
- Don’t replace good testing with a beta program, release quality needs to be good
- Involve development, QA, customer support, account management and marketing
- Let the product management team lead conversations
- Clearly outline to customers what the expectations are
- Provide customers with a clean plan (timing, sync up meetings, rewards)
- Incentivize customers for their effort
- Collect feedback in whichever format is most suitable to customers
Mass Delairi
Product Management Leader
