Doing what I don’t want to do: user testing

If the wall I hit could talk, it would tell me to get over it

On June 24th I tweeted that user testing for Writing.AI would start next week.

Didn’t happen. I asked my wife to walk through a couple use cases a week later, and then asked my advisor to do the same a month after that.

It’s now mid-September and I still haven’t had anyone test the system besides myself and those two people. This needs to change.

My original plan was to keep polishing Writing.AI until I was happy with it before opening it up to a wider audience. I told myself this would avoid scaring off enthusiastic early adopters.

The other day I realized that I’m using this as an excuse.

I’m not going to be happy with the product for a long time because natural language is messy. There will be rough edges. But if my product can help people now, I should get it launched.

So next week I’ll send out invitations to people who’ve expressed interest in testing, and that excuse will be dead. 🎉

Writing.AI Alpha

Once some outside testers have come onboard, Writing.AI will officially have reached the alpha stage. During alpha, a group of testers will offer feedback on what’s working and what isn’t, and I’ll address as much of that feedback as possible.

Alpha testing is one of two main steps that I need to complete before launch, the other being subscription/payment processing.

The sooner testing gets underway, the sooner we launch, and the sooner people can start using Writing.AI to write faster.

So on Tuesday I’ll send out some emails and get people started testing. I don’t know how it’ll go, but I know it’s the right thing to do.

Created With Writing.AI

This article is part of a series drafted using Writing.AI, a new approach to writing designed to make the process faster, easier, and more accessible. If this sounds interesting to you, sign up for a launch announcement at https://writing.ai or follow @writingai on Twitter.