Preparing for a Private Beta
I struggled finding the next step after building the TeamCI MVP. I knew I had to find people, get feedback, and support the process. It wasn’t exactly clear though. A plan formed after a break. Now I have a plan:
- Write documentation
- Create infrastructure for user to me communication
- Create infrastructure for me to users communication
- Track KPIs
Documentation
I built the documentation website using Hugo and deployed it with Netlify. I chose Hugo to try something other than Jekyll. I chose Netlify because I wanted something faster and easier for CD than my standard approach. Netlify handles everything and it’s free. Great decision on my end.
Create Support Infrastructure
All users — especially beta users — will have questions. I realized I had no documented support channel. I wager that email is fine enough. I created a support email address and linked it on the docs and check run UI. I choose the check run UI page because that’s the first interaction point with the product — everything starts there. I considered an Intercom-like solution on the docs page, but dropped that because of the cost. I’d like to revisit that in the future. Hopefully a simple email will be enough.
User Communication
I need to contact users eventually. I realized that since TeamCI is a Github App, I have no users records, thus no email addresses. This is a wrinkle in the Github Application story but oh well. My work around is request organization members, get the public email address, and add it to my mailing list. A job finds member’s contact information and calls a Zapier webhook. Using Zapier saved me time and is more extendable that writing code myself.
KPIs
I wanted an attractive dashboard for meager KPIs. Geckoboard was my first choice. I opted for something else. I couldn’t find anything that was attractive enough and free. I decided on a simple terminal dashboard for now. My KPIs are:
- Total Installations
- Total Builds
- Builds per Installation
- User Base
I can pull them down with curl from the backend. Again, easy enough for now.
Conclusion
I’m excited to enter private beta. Some people have already volunteered and I’m eager to work with them. Until then, you can sign up for the public beta on https://teamci.co. I’ll write another post about the results from the private beta.
