Saving that turkey...to (beta) test, or not to test? ?? ?? Answers inside.

Happy Thanksgiving folks! ???Before you dig in: here are some tips that can save you months of wasted effort:?

"At any given point in time, there isn't just one version of Facebook running,?there are probably 10,000. Any engineer at the company can basically decide that they want to test something. There are some rules on sensitive things, but in general, an engineer can test something, and they can launch a version of Facebook not to the whole community, but maybe to 10,000 people or 50,000 people—whatever is necessary to get a good test of an experience."?

If one's to believe what Mark Zuckerberg once famously said in a?podcast?- Meta is a master in?Beta...testing?(and I never waste an opportunity to crack a dad joke.)

Now, considering its recent performance (and the?infamous?layoff of 11,000 employees) you may be wondering if this is even something to look up to (and no, I'm not even suggesting you should try to reach such a crazy number of versions in your product).?

Well, the jury is out on?beta tests. I know people who decided to follow their gut and won big time (following Henry Ford's advice: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”)

On the flipside, I know people who did that, and failed miserably.?

A friend of mine was among them.

Watch this breaking?story???

His team made the decision to work on a new 'killer feature' for 10 months, only to find out that...it's not something that fits the profile of the bulk of their existing users.?

As a result,?adoption of this feature hovered under 5%.?

So when should you do a Beta Test???

Whenever you want to...

• Make any change to your product functionality, UX or UI.
• Launch a new product, feature or major product update.?
• Test a new market.?
• Identify and fix bugs.
• Spread the word?about a new product/ feature.
• Validate?product-market fit.
• Gather?feedback?from your customers.
• Understand how your product performs.
• Identify missed product opportunities.
• Experiment with a redesign.
• …and lots of more scenarios.?

So essentially, every time you make a change that affects your users and don't want to rely on your gut.?

?

How to set up?a good Beta Test?

Well, needless to say you can't just decide to run a test and hope for the best. Here are the steps you need to take to ensure your beta test will be successful:?

1. Decide on what exactly you want to test: product learnability? User satisfaction? Errors??
2. Think which type of audience will be best for you:?If you’re looking to get usability feedback on a product update, existing users will be more likely to give accurate feedback on how it?feels?(they have a baseline to compare from). But if you are expanding into a new market, perhaps beta testers unfamiliar with your product could be a better option…Or you might want to select a beta tester with experience using a direct competitor to draw out comparisons.
3. Think how you can recruit these users: pull from a specific segment of your own users with an in-app microsurvey, or recruit "professional" beta-testers from specific focus?testing groups (and if so, what criteria do they need to meet?) If you're pulling users from a specific segment of your customers, the best way to recruit them for your beta test is by targeting e.g. an in-app slideout at this audience segment:

You can easily create such slideouts in?Userpilot's trial for free.?

4. The key to making it successful is by narrowing your audience down in the audience targeting:?

5. Think which type of a beta test you should run (more on this below).?

6. Set up validation criteria and analytics.?

7. Analyze your results accordingly.?

8. Collect qualitative feedback after the test.?

Types of Beta Tests?

There are many types of?beta tests?you can run:

• open vs closed betas?
• entire product/feature MVP vs. fake door tests?
• technical beta testing?
• ...post release beta testing...

Now go read that blog and think what?you?should beta test next - your product adoption rate will thank you???

Wanna share your gory story about the consequences of launching something without doing proper user research or beta testing??

I'm all ears!?

+ our free?Onboarding Audit?offer is still on the table - grab it while it lasts!

See you next week!?