Test Planning Blog Posts

Visualizing the Impact of Beta Testing

In a recent webinar Centercode’s CEO, Luke Freiler, discussed how companies can increase the return on investment (ROI) of their beta programs. (If you missed it, you can watch the entire presentation and download the slides here.) One of the most interesting parts of the presentation was a big picture look at how beta testing […]

How Many Beta Testers Do I Need?

Test Planning

Read the updated version of this blog post. One of the most common roadblocks when beginning a beta test is determining the number of testers you need. An array of different factors can impact this decision. From the number of people internally designated to support the beta project to the number of customers you have, […]

4 Strategies for Improving the ROI of Your Beta Program

Test Planning

Earlier this month we talked about five ways beta testing impacts your bottom line. It’s a great read for anyone looking to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their beta programs. Once you’ve figured out the ROI of your beta program, however, your natural inclination is to start improving that ROI to make your […]

Going Beyond Beta: 4 Ways to Leverage Your Community

Test Planning

Building a beta program can have an immense impact on the success of your product and the financial stability of your company. But the things that make beta testing valuable (gathering customer feedback, having a community of enthusiastic early adopters, being able to test in real-world environments) can be valuable for goals far beyond beta. […]

6 Goals of Public Beta Tests

Test Planning

Planning a public beta test starts with deciding what you want your beta to achieve. Like private beta tests, public betas can be designed with a wide variety of objectives in mind. How you approach your public beta test will very much depend on your primary and secondary goals, since your goals effect everything from […]

Using Beta for Competitive Research

Test Planning

Beta testing can be a great tool for understanding how your customers interact with your product, but the usefulness of beta testing doesn’t have to stop there. You can also use your beta community, tools, and expertise to conduct competitive research on other products in your market. This is an easy way to get an in-depth view of how customers use your competitor’s product and how it stacks up against your own.

12 Tips for Planning Your Beta Test

Test Planning

This week we’re launching a new blog series: Beta Tips. Each post will cover tips for handling a different stage of your beta test. These tips comes from our own best practices after years of running beta tests. We’ve also included tips from a number of our clients, including Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, TiVo, Symantec, and UPS. These tips and more can be found in our free eBook: 100 Tips for Better Beta Tests.

7 Beta Testing Terms You Need to Know

Test Planning

We throw around a lot of terminology on our website and in our resources. Today we wanted to take a moment and clarify what some of those beta terms mean. The terms and definitions below are taken from our free eBook: 100 Tips for Better Beta Tests.

Hiring a Great Beta Program Manager

Test Planning

There’s a lot that goes into hiring for your beta program and a lot that rides on your decision. The person will be managing a process that can make or break your product, saving or costing you large sums of money. But you don’t have to approach this undertaking without guidance. Whether you call the position Beta Program Manager, Beta Test Manager, or Beta Test Engineer we’ve got advice that will help you target the right qualifications and candidates. We’ve even put together a sample beta job posting that you can use as a template.

5 Big Picture Beta Test Planning Tips

Test Planning

With the release of our software and hardware beta test planning kits, there’s been a lot of focus on beta planning details recently. So we thought this would be a good time to step back and take a look at the big picture. After all, what good is all that time spent on planning if you can’t see the forest for the trees? These five big picture tips, taken from our free resource 100 Tips for Better Beta Tests, will help you approach beta planning with the necessary perspective.

Is Big Data the Future for Big Beta?

Test Planning

Generally, we try to keep our blog posts focused on the here and now. Our primary goal is to give people practical advice on how to manage better beta tests. Sometimes, though, it’s interesting to think about possible futures for beta testing. And recent research from HP on data mining unstructured textual data, like social media and product reviews, is great material for that kind of thinking.

Improving Your Beta Program with Personas

Test Planning

Personas are a big part of product marketing, but they’re generally underutilized in beta testing. We have some clients who’ve carried personas into their beta programs, but they’re in the minority. On the other hand, they’re a very successful minority. So, in this blog post, we’re exploring ways that you can apply customer persona techniques to help improve your next beta test.

Can a One-Week Beta Test Still Be Effective?

Test Planning

People frequently ask us if there’s a minimum length for a beta test. Like many things in life, it depends. If there’s one constant, though, it’s that a one-week beta test is just too short. By understanding why that’s true, you’ll have a better idea of how long your next beta test needs to be. So, today we’re discussing 5 inherent challenges of a one-week beta test.

Using Beta Tests to Gather Marketing Data

Test Planning

Most people think beta tests serve one very specific purpose — ensuring product quality before you ship. Fixing bugs is important, but if your beta is designed with only that goal in mind, you’re missing out on opportunities to significantly improve the marketing of your product. We’re here to help, though, with four tips to generate valuable marketing data through your beta test.

Why Didn’t You Run a Beta Test?

Test Planning

So your company just released its latest product and to the horror of the development team, several critical bugs have slipped into the release. Your engineering team is scrambling to get the issues addressed and support is screaming as they get inundated with calls and e-mail. Everyone is busy pointing fingers, and the common thread among your product reviews, social web commentary and general customer complaints is “Did anyone beta test this thing?” And as the company faces the scrutiny of the press, the public and the customer, the one question that gets asked is “Why didn’t you run a beta test?”