Last week, I met with the founder of a WebTV startup here in France. During our discussion, the beta test issue came out : she was planning a 2-weeks beta phase, during which a dozen of selected target customers would have access to the WebTV website. And that was pretty it.
Of course, I did my best to convince her to change her mind, and go for a longer test period, to be offered to a larger audience. Here are my arguments :
- beta testing is aimed at... testing a beta version of a product. In other words : the objective is to get as much as possible end-users feedback in order to fix bugs which can be detected only in the real life (vs. the R&D lab or the garage) by real users (vs. software engineers and developers), spot user interface' s incoherences, and... get the people used to the product.
- The Web is... global. Remember "www" ? Stands for : " World Wide Web ". The Web allow anyone to reach anyone in the World (well, there are some limits, but still, you know what I mean). Why would you want to limit your scope to a dozen of people, when thousands can help you build a better product, almost in the blink of an eye ?
- in today's Web 2.0 environment, every single new website or online tool come up as a "beta". Everybody is used to it now. Especially the people who this startup is targeting. So, one more Web 2.0 firm launching its first product in beta mode won't hurt anyone.
- speaking of the target audience : the goal of the startup is to create a community of end-users/visitors. What a better tool than a beta phase to create this community spirit ? People will be proud to be part of the development team, they will feel like pioneers, helping at building something new, something great.
For all those reasons, I suggested to launch as soon as possible, in beta mode, for 6 months, and worldwide. Keep your eyes open : there might be an eye-catching WebTV near you soon ;-)
