Recruiting and Selecting Great Beta Testers

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Recruiting and Selecting Great Beta Testers

Meet the Speakers

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Jennifer Bakos

Betabound Community Manager

jennifer@centercode.com

@bakosjen

Brad Day

Director of Betabound

brad@centercode.com

@betabound

Agenda

1. What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

2. Planning Your Beta Recruitment

3. Launching Your Beta Recruitment

4. Selecting the Right People

5. Building a Diverse Tester Community

6. Maintaining a Healthy Tester Community

7. Q&A

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What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

Definition

A process by which a product team determines their beta test's objectives, target market's qualifiers, and overall product goals and then reaches their product's ideal customer and ultimately launches a successful beta test.

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What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

Why is recruitment important - and why is doing it right so critical?

● Recruitment is all about setting yourself up to succeed later

● Recruiting the right people is vital to the success of your beta test -

not just the success of your recruitment

What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

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Beta community...

✓ Targeted

✓ Enthusiastic

✓ Strangers

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What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

Methods of Recruitment

● Email invites

● Targeted outreach to a niche market

● Referral programs

● Project-specific strategies

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What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

Recruitment Goals

Q: What are you looking to accomplish with your recruitment?

A: Build a panel of enthusiastic users who truly care about your product

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What Do We Mean by Recruitment?

43% - Existing customers

45% - Early adopters

*responses from 4,929 Betabound community members

What is the primary reason you're interested in beta testing?

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Planning Your Beta Recruitment

1. Define your tester requirements based on objectives and target market

Ask yourself these questions:

● How many testers do I need?

● What criteria do my testers need to meet?

● How long do I need to find my testers?

● What are the demographic, geographic, or technical elements I need covered?

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Planning Your Beta Recruitment

2. Design a qualification process (landing page + qualification survey)

Verify your target market through your

qualification survey

● Confirm your requirements that every

tester has to meet

● Ask a couple open ended questions

Be up-front about the engagement you're

asking of your users

● Provide a timeline

● Transparency builds authenticity

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Planning Your Beta Recruitment

2. Design a qualification process (continued)

Assess the length of your qualification process

● Ideally no more than 5 to 10 minutes

● 20 survey questions maximum

Provide closure and some clear next steps

● Expose your strategy for selection

Launching Your Beta Recruitment

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Where - platform(s) you'll be using to recruit?

How - total budget allocated and messaging used?

Launching Your Beta Recruitment

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Where?

● Your beta community

● Beta test promotion sites

○ Betabound

● Blogs, social media, user forums

● Company website

● Existing customer base

● Online advertising

● Referral programs

● Trade shows

Launching Your Beta Recruitment

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How?

● Leverage your budget

● How much are you willing to spend

to make sure you still find the

people you need?

● Develop your messaging

○ Be clear

○ Be concise

○ Provide a timeline

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Launching Your Beta Recruitment

Build a pool of qualified candidates

● Give users at least 2-3 days to apply

● Avoid holding users in a pool for more than 3 weeks

● Provide additional follow-ups transparently and as necessary

○ Ex: Additional information needed from candidates

Selecting the Right People

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● Be diligent

○ Contact should be made within a week of testers applying

● Look for enthusiasm and passion

○ Enthusiastic about your product - not just about testing

● Congratulate your testers! Being picked for a beta is exciting

Selecting the Right People

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If you recruited outside of your beta community, be aware of the risks associated

● External users might not be familiar with your expectations

● External users might feel overwhelmed

● External users might drop out

Selecting the Right People

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● Keep an eye out for some key red flags

○ Grammar and spelling mistakes

○ ALL CAPS

○ Too much focus on participation incentives

● Only notify selected testers

○ Those who weren't selected could feel excluded despite being a fit

The Importance of a Community

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Building a Diverse Tester Community

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Answering the "Now What?" questions:

● Who is in charge?

● What is your ideal community?

● Where to house your community?

● When to engage with testers?

● How to message them?

Maintaining a Healthy Tester Community

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● An introduction to Betabound

○ Key takeaways:

■ Take ownership

■ Treat others like you'd want to be treated

■ Dare to experiment

■ Get social

■ Be consistent

Q&A

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Jennifer Bakos

Betabound Community Manager

jennifer@centercode.com

@bakosjen

Brad Day

Director of Betabound

brad@centercode.com

@betabound

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Thank you!