When do you launch your product?
January 21st, 2007 by Robert
TechCrunch had a post about a year ago about not blowing your beta testing. Being TechCrunch, the post was geared towards internet related products and sites and a recent post about Geni doing some things right and some things wrong.
Being in the software business, I understand the importance of beta testing and I have also seen beta software that users ended up thinking was production quality and all sorts of problems come of that. The TechCrunch post about Geni is a perfect example, although Geni may have presented themselves as production ready.
As I’ve written recently, I’ve been debating about what features to include in my initial release and it can be tough. So here is what I have come up with:
Enough to be compelling
If you don’t have enough to be compelling, people won’t come back. For software you want enough features that someone will buy which fuels future development. If you have a more tangible product, don’t try to make it too perfect. My wife makes incredible container candles and everyone who buys them loves them, but she is a perfectionist and keeps trying to get the perfect combination of scent, burn time, looks, wick burning, etc. I keep telling her to just make them and get customers, the rest can come. Oh well, at least I get to enjoy them! (EDIT: My wife was just reading this and said “They aren’t good enough to sell yet”. I rest my case…)
Private Betas
Google had the right idea with its Gmail product. For those not familiar, Google is the king of the beta release. Some of their software remains in beta for seemingly forever, but with their email package, they used an invitation only approach. This pseudo-private approach to beta testing had two things going for it. An analog to the beta for merchandise would be a focus group.
- Limited, but increasing, testers - Each tester was allowed to send invitations for others to participate. This allowed Google to gradually increase the amount of testers without having to find the testers themselves.
- Lots of buzz - It seemed like everyone that got an invite quickly blogged about it, generating lots of interest and anticipation.
If you want too much, it will take too long to implement and you are either burning through your capital or you never get it to market. Even worse someone else may come along and beat you to it. If you release too early, you risk not being ready like Geni and possibly having a faulty product.
The solution of course, is somewhere in between 
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