Your Beta Better Be Brilliant

This is a letter to all companies creating new and innovative software and releasing it to the public. I just have to make this clear.

I happen to be very interested in new and innovative technology and in particular, software. Although I think the whole “Web2.0″ bandwagon is a lot of hot air, it is still pushing a lot of people to create better applications for users in more ways than we knew possible. This in turn creates a greater user experience for users and the web a better place for people to be.

The Web2.0 Bubble has only really started but look at the competition

It is just getting ridiculous the amount of Web2.0 companies out there and even worse is the fact that 99% of them are in “Beta” phase or even less. Now fair enough if being in Beta is one of the traits of Web2.0 due to the fact you can change your application at any time and adapt and move and evolve.

This however, can be your downfall if you don’t play it right.

So what are all of these companies doing wrong?

To put it simply; it’s one thing to gather input from users and model your application based on their feedback, it’s another thing to do this at the users expense by exposing them to something that’s just not quite right.

That dont impressa me much.

The real reason why I am writing this is because – on numerous occasions recently – I have come back to re-download or re-signup to a service that I have used before in Beta stage. The reason I came back is because I know I have used it and I know it can get the job done the quickest way possible. Upon first use of these products they really didnt impress me much. But wait! All of a sudden I am using them again and I rediscover how great they are plus they are stable and are just generally impressive.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. People don’t want to do what they have to do or use what they have to use… they want to be amazed by something, they want to be engaged by something. For those who disagree with me, you just don’t know it yet.

Developers, you need to ask yourself…

By letting people in on our beta is there a chance of destroying initial interest in our product?

Is it better to do demos and screencasts etc until the date when we can release something substatial and impressive.?

What can we do (marketing wise) to innovate and keep people interested instead of exposing some buggy software.

The Bottom Line

If someone sees something impressive, they will use it, they will continue using it and they will rave about it. People are getting smarter on the internet and if you disappoint them with your initial offerings, it is definately a bad marketing move on your part. Even in such a fast paced world you still need to sit back and work out the best way to do these things.