Best practices on running a beta?
Someone asked for beta access last week and I'm rushing to make sure I can give the person access by the end of the week.
That said, I've never really ran a proper beta. What things should I be taking into consideration? Any good resources to read up on running a beta? Videos, books, podcasts etc., I'm open for anything.
Ooh, this is timely, as I'm launching applications for the beta for Nodewood today.
Honestly, I haven't got really fully in-depth for it. I'm limiting it to 5 people to keep in manageable, and I'm having them fill out a survey to try to screen for a) people who are likely to engage highly with the product, and b) a wider range of use cases.
I put together a beta information page so that potential users know what state the product is in, what I'm looking for from them, and the kind of feedback I find most useful, plus how to apply.
I already have pretty significant documentation up as part of my marketing/SEO strategy, so I think that's a big point in my favour, but in general, having a lot of self-help resources helps both the beta and live customers, so the sooner the better.
Hope that helps! If you like, I can let you know any unanticipated speedbumps I run into later, though I suspect you and I will be granting beta access at about the same time.
Late response from me, but thank you for this. I very much like your beta page and your product seems awesome as well. Writing boilerplate really is mind numbing.
Your documentation is very thorough! I agree that having a decent amount of docs and guides help beta users (who are already quite adventurous) to discover and try new things. It also helps set expectation as well.