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Recruiting and Selecting Great Beta Testers
Meet the Speakers
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Jennifer Bakos
Betabound Community Manager
@bakosjen
Brad Day
Director of Betabound
@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
@bakosjen
Brad Day
Director of Betabound
@betabound
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Thank you!
