Delta Testing

What is delta testing?

Delta testing is a movement in modern product development that reimagines beta and other forms of user testing in an automated and continuous fashion. Delta testing puts functioning products in the hands of targeted  audiences in their homes, offices, and other technology ecosystems to solicit real-world feedback over an extended period of time.

What are different use cases for delta testing?

Delta testing has a variety of high-value outcomes based on the state of the product and the audience testing it. The four primary types of delta testing programs are: Product Launch, Product Growth, Customer Zero, and Competitive Edge.

Product Launch Testing

• ‍Use cases: Beta testing, user acceptance testing, and field testing‍
• ‍Audience: Your demographic and technographic target market‍
• Product state: At or near feature complete, leading into initial market launch‍
• Result: A highly successful initial product release
  

Continuous User Testing

• ‍Use cases: Progressive delivery, early access, and customer advisory boards‍
• Audience: Your existing customers in the market‍
• Product state: The next version of an existing product already at market‍
• Result: A successful, long-term product maturity cycle
  

Employee Dogfooding

• ‍Use cases: Alpha testing, customer zero, and employee testing‍
• Audience: Your co-workers (and sometimes friends and family)‍
• Product state: Varies widely from very early (alpha) to post-release‍
• Result: A product-centric company culture driving high-quality product releases
  

Competitive Testing

• ‍Use cases: Competitive intelligence, market testing, comparative research‍
• Audience: The real customers of one or more of your competitors‍
• Product state: Released and available in the public market‍
• Result: Actionable market intelligence to drive your roadmap
  

Why is delta testing important?

Delta testing amplifies the results of traditional user testing practices like beta testing, dogfooding, competitive testing, and continuous user testing while reducing the work and resources required to get results. Delta testing helps agile teams: 

Keep up with development

Incorporating delta testing throughout the product development life cycle enables product development teams to validate and iterate on new concepts much more efficiently, driving faster innovation.

Improve products faster

The tactics and tools used for delta testing are optimized for speed and scalability so that each team has the customer insights it needs in real time.

Optimize for low risk and resources, higher reward 

Delta testing offers a unique contribution to product success because it builds on company initiatives, including innovation, quality, customer satisfaction, digital transformation, and customer co-creation. Delta optimizes engineering efforts with impact-based recommendations for product fixes and improvements, and provides a step-by-step path for reaching key targets, like increased star ratings.

When does delta testing happen?

Companies use delta testing throughout the entire product development life cycle. It complements market testing and quality assurance, and it replaces alpha testing, dogfooding, beta testing, UAT, field testing, and continuous user testing.

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