The UI change was met with positive feedback from a 20-person focus group. He told me the story of a company that made a significant UI change to its mobile app. 'Selection bias' means choosing people from your local area, people who look like you, or even people whom you know-not necessarily people who resemble, or think like, your real end users. Hugh Reynolds, chief strategy officer of Swrve, sees selection bias as a major problem when a company selects beta-testers. While the startup takes in a minor investment, the early adopters drive interest and serve as beta-testers. With their mobile app in alpha, they put it up on a platform such as Kickstarter with the primary goal of driving awareness and a secondary goal of getting more funding.

Padilla has seen some startups use crowdfunding platforms to source and engage beta-testers for their apps. They are often champing at the bit for new features and might jump at the chance to become beta-testers for your next app release.

In this scenario, he recommends targeting 1,000 to 20,000 valid beta users.Ģ. Source your beta-testers through multiple channelsĬarlos Padilla, director of engineering and operations for GameSalad, advises that, as you crowdsource and engage testers for your beta app, you should start with your online forum users, who are already loyal to your product. He also suggests identifying users who regularly interact with your company through the help desk. But when you need to test different behaviors, phone models, Android versions, and configurations, for example, he recommends using an open beta test to increase the number of beta users. With a small, closed beta test-say 20 to 200 people, consisting of end users, product managers, other internal stakeholders, etc.-you can get more precise feedback, advises Rhine Wu, senior director of engineering for Cheetah Mobile. 1. Consider the merits of closed versus open beta tests Here are some secrets to help you run a successful mobile app beta test. And while gaining feedback about a soon-to-launch mobile app is critical, it's also important not to waste tester or developer time in doing so. They may have tens-if not hundreds, or even thousands-of testers to shepherd through the beta-testing process.

With quality assurance (QA) teams under pressure to do more with less, adding the challenge of mobile app beta-testing can quickly overwhelm them.

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