Open betas are about balls-out experimentation, not small, incremental changes…

I participate in as many beta programs for new apps and services as I can get my hands on. I’m both extremely curious and enthusiastic about the tech people are building around the world. But it drives me crazy to see two negative commonalities in most beta programs that I jump into:

1. Developers barely introduce anything new over the months (or years) that these things run
2. I’m almost never polled about my opinion, or asked to pitch in ideas

I can understand the second one. Most developers that I know don’t want to “pester” their users with questions. Most beta testers too, don’t provide feedback when asked (though in my experience as a founder, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with just how many responses we actually do get when polling testers).

But the first one — barely introducing anything new — makes me sad. When I say “anything” I mean new features, new design, new interaction / interface… anything. What most devs tend to do are simply minor incremental changes leading up to the final launch.

This is really just a “pre-launch,” less so an open beta program.

Launching an open beta should be a time for balls-out experimentation and exploration.

Open betas are the time to be absolutely fearless with changing things up, trying new ideas, A/B/C/D testing… hell, trying out a completely novel interface, just to see if it makes things more fun/efficient/intuitive.

We have several thousand very active beta testers on our new project. Our beta users are so used to us changing stuff all the time, no one complains. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Our testers find it exciting to participate in the adventure.

The best part is, we’re gathering heaps of mini successes and failures. Experience points. Ammunition to head into the battle once we do launch.

This, I think, is the way open betas should be like.