Welcome to the Centercode Delta Testing Blog

Explore the four types of customer feedback and using them to enhance your product and build brand loyalty.

Field Testing vs. Beta Testing: What's the Difference?

Find out about the key differences between field testing and beta testing, and learn about the unique benefits of each.

Democratizing User Testing

Centercode News

Centercode introduces new editions for companies building a product regardless of structure and scale.

Most Recent Posts

Advice from a Beta Testing Pioneer

Centercode co-founder and Sr. Test Manager Mike Fine joins us to discuss his years in beta testing and expert tips for success.

Why Is Beta Testing Done?

Explore why beta testing is essential for product validation and how it's evolving to fit agile development cycles.

What Is Fishfooding?

Dive into fishfooding to learn the ins and outs of a narrower approach to traditional "dogfooding".

Why Defect Density Isn't Enough to Measure Quality

Defect density offers a view into product quality, however, it lacks context and details. Delta testing can help.

What is the Cost of Quality?

Discover the importance of Cost of Quality and how calculating the four quality costs influences customer satisfaction.

Who Performs Beta Testing?

Who performs beta testing? End users test the product, providing valuable feedback to enhance the product experience.

The Intersection of Beta & Product Management

280 Group's Ghali & Cantwell join the podcast to share insights on integrating beta testing into product management.

What Is The Value of Beta Testers?

Beta testers not only improve products but also act as advocates, making them valuable even after launch.

Fishfooding vs. Dogfooding: What's The Difference?

Dive into employee-driven testing methods, fishfooding and dogfooding, and their impact on product success.

What Comes After Beta Testing?

Journey beyond beta testing: explore public beta testing and the limited-release phase in software development.

What Are The Advantages of Beta Testing?

Beta testing drives product success and customer satisfaction. Discover the advantages and benefits of beta.

What Comes Before Beta Testing?

Unearth the key to stabilizing software and streamlining beta releases - find out what comes before beta testing.

Is Beta Testing The Same As UAT?

Beta testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) share some similarities, but diverge when it comes to method.

User Acceptance Testing vs. Beta Testing: What's The Difference?

Discover the distinctions between UAT and beta and choose the right type for your user test.

Building a Panel and Product Testing with Creatives

Tune in to hear Pete D'Alessandro emphasize user-focused and agile product management and the importance of beta.

Private Beta vs. Public Beta Testing

Explore the nuances of private and public beta testing to optimize software development and achieve success.

Real-Time Product Feedback: Centercode's Slack Integration

Inside Centercode

Centercode's Slack integration delivers real-time beta feedback to one of the most popular messaging apps for business.

From Labs to Launch: The Journey of Google's Duet AI

We're exploring Google's progressively expanding beta test for Duet AI and their approach to beta testing.

Paul Chen - Testing With All Audiences, Sentiment, and What Customers Value

In this episode, Mattel's Paul Chen dives into his past experience at Microsoft with the Surface product launch and demonstrates his passion for developing and designing products to help the next generation explore the wonders of childhood.

Jedi vs Sith: Mastering Beta Testing with Star Wars Wisdom

On May the Fourth, discover the do's and don'ts of effective beta test management by embracing the wisdom of the Jedi philosophy while avoiding the pitfalls of the Sith mentality in this specially themed post for Star Wars Day.

Jonathan Pardo - Music, The Beatles Rock Band, QA, and "Chaos Mode"

In this episode, Jonathan Pardo (Owlchemy Labs, formerly at Sonos) shares insights from his career in music, audio, and technology. He also discusses his time overseeing a community of over 150,000 testers, and highlighted the potential for personal and career growth in QA testing.

How to Find Product Market Fit and 8 Ways to Test It

Achieving product market fit is crucial for business success. Discover a 4-step process to find and determine product market fit and explore 8 simple ways to test and validate it throughout the development life cycle. By understanding your target customers and validating your product or service, you can drive business growth and stay ahead of the competition.

What Is A Software Beta Version?

Discover the pivotal role beta versions play in software development and their impact on the final product. Learn about the importance of beta testing, its place in the software release life cycle, and uncover the differences between alpha and beta versions.

How to Write a New Product Launch Blog

We defined what a product launch blog is, and why it's important. We also provided a step-by-step guide on how to write a product launch blog post, including defining your goals, identifying your target audience, determining your key message, and including social proof.

The Ultimate Guide to a Successful New Product Launch

We outlined the key stages of a successful product launch, emphasizing the importance of planning, execution, and continuous engagement. We shared essential tools, best practices, and strategic insights to guide you through the launch process.

11 Easy Ways to Gather Customer Feedback

Discover 11 effective ways to gather customer feedback and improve your products and services with this comprehensive guide.

Top Five Ways You Can Grow Your Beta Program

Program Management

Check out these top 5 tips from Centercode on how to grow your beta program and prove its value to stakeholders. Plus, hear from product testing expert Alex Larsen on the Delta Huddle Podcast.

The Ultimate Guide to Beta Testers: Everything You Need to Know

Have a question about beta testers? This guide will answer the most frequently asked questions about beta testers and about being a tester, while also providing tips and best practices from decades of beta testing experience along the way.

The Definitive Guide to User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

This definitive guide to user acceptance testing (UAT) is a comprehensive resource that covers everything you need to know about planning, conducting, and managing a successful UAT.

How Stakeholders are Involved in Beta Tests

Assembling the right management team for a beta is a fundamental step to a successful test. The stakeholder team is responsible for managing and coordinating the beta test, gathering and analyzing feedback from beta testers, and working with the development team to address any issues that are identified.

4 Beta Testing Examples from Well-known Companies

Leader Insights

Discover how world-renowned companies like Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple use beta testing to refine their products and better understand their target audience. Explore four real-world beta testing examples showcasing the power of beta testing to drive innovation and improve the user experience.

Understanding Google Play Store Testing Tracks

Understanding Google Play Store Testing Tracks: Learn about the difference between Internal, Closed, and Open testing.

How to Submit Your App to the Google Play Store for Beta Testing

Learn the essentials of Google Play Store app publishing & maximize your app's success with our expert tips on descriptions, screenshots, & more

The Twisted Definition of "Beta" in Gaming

With the Diablo IV beta weekends top of mind, we explore the debate surrounding the changing definition of "beta testing" in the gaming industry and the importance of transparency between developers, publishers, and players to rebuild trust and maintain the value of beta testing.

A Complete Guide to Creating a Product Proof of Concept

Discover how to create a successful proof of concept for your product idea, including types of POCs, testing methods, and common challenges.

Alex Larsen - How to Scale a Beta Program, Virality, and Creating Value

With Alex Larsen as our guest, this episode is all about taking it to the next level. Once you’ve established a program and built momentum, how do you get other teams to see the value in user testing?

The 8 Best Product Management Apps in 2023

Explore the top 8 product management apps of 2023 to optimize collaboration, streamline processes, and make data-driven decisions, all within one comprehensive guide for your product development success.

6 Must-Have Components of a Beta Test Workspace

Discover the six essential components of an effective beta test workspace that fosters tester engagement, streamlines feedback management, and ultimately enhances your product's market readiness.

6 QA Best Practices for Modern Tech Companies

With reduced resources, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of QA processes is more important than ever. To help you out, here are six best practices for quality assurance that you can use to continue meeting the high standards of your team and your customers even as a team of one.

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

Learn the key differences and similarities between Quality Assurance (QA) vs Quality Control (QC), and how to implement effective processes to manage quality.

Strategies for Establishing a Successful Beta Program

In this episode, Chris Rader, VP of Marketing at Centercode along with Technical Trainer, Stefan Stenroos is joined by Richard Ball, formerly Director of Field Testing at Peloton to discuss the best strategies for starting a successful beta program.

7 Tips to Enhance Your QA Environment Remotely

Learn how to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of your QA environments with this blog.

Prioritizing Feedback Using the MoSCoW Framework

Learn how to prioritize beta test feedback using this data-driven method to categorize feedback into four categories: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Would Have. Improve communication, save time and resources, and make better decisions with the MoSCoW Framework.

The Magic of Beta Test Automation

Unlock the magic of beta testing automation and optimize your process as a product manager. Beta test automation can help you streamline your workflows and free up more time for product strategy and innovation.

Reflecting on Decades of User Testing

In this episode, Chris Rader, VP of Marketing at Centercode, is joined by Sharon Rylander, Senior Director of UX Research and Strategy at Square Panda and Mario Sancho, Chief Delivery Officer at Centercode, to discuss the past, present, and future of User Testing.

How Product Leaders Challenge the Status Quo and Deliver Better Products

As a product manager or product management executive, you're always looking for ways to drive better results and improve your products. In your continuous search to improve, have you considered whether you’re leveraging the full potential of beta testing? According to Centercode's 2022 industry report, 7 out of 10 companies say beta testing is the most effective way to improve products.

Best Practices for Beta Test Reporting (with Template!)

Template

When reporting on a beta test, it can be challenging to make sense of the data and difficult to know what information to report on or take action on. By following best practices for beta test reporting and using standardized templates, you can ensure that you're gathering the information you need to make informed decisions and improve your product.

Customer Loyalty Insights from Early Adopters

It's no secret that customer loyalty is crucial for any business. Not only is it more cost-effective to retain existing customers, but loyal customers also tend to spend more and recommend your company to others.

9 Product Quality Metrics to Improve with Beta Testing

One way to measure and improve the quality of your products is by tracking relevant product quality metrics during development.

4 Ways Beta Testing Can Boost User Satisfaction

If you want to retain more customers and keep them away from choosing your competitors, it’s essential to keep customer satisfaction high.

How to Screen Beta Test Applicants to Maximize the Value of Your User Test

By taking the time to properly screen applicants and build a strong recruitment strategy around your test goals, you can not only ensure the success of your beta test, but also maximize the overall value and usefulness of your product.

Maximize Beta Tester Engagement with Strong Communication (with Examples!)

Template

Effective communication is crucial for the success of any beta test. If you’re stuck or just want some best practices, dive into these tips and examples to help you write the best weekly announcement emails your beta testers have ever read.

Why Recruiting More Beta Testers Than Needed Is a Smart Move

By recruiting more applicants than needed, you can increase the response rate, ensure better representation, provide flexibility, and gather extra feedback.

Incentivizing Beta Testers to Improve Participation and Feedback Quality

Incentivizing beta testers can not only increase the number of participants, but also the quality and depth of their feedback.

How Leveraging Brand Evangelists Can Supercharge Your Beta Test

By including brand evangelists in your beta tests, you’re boosting the impact of your projects while strengthening the bonds with your community. But what is a brand evangelist? And how can you recruit them into your tests?

8 Key Characteristics to Look for When Recruiting Beta Testers

Great beta testers have a combination of personal characteristics and skills that make them effective at testing and providing valuable feedback on a product.

Iceberg of Beta Tester Value [Infographic]

Infographic

Most companies recognize the value that beta testers bring to an organization before product launch, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The value that lies beneath the water line expands far beyond what you see on the surface.

Building Brand Evangelism Through User Testing

In this episode of the Delta Huddle podcast, we discuss the importance of building brand evangelism within your user testing programs.

The Anatomy of a Great Beta Tester [Infographic]

Infographic

Great beta testers share many of the same commonalities, making them a very valuable part of the product development process. Here is an infographic explaining some of the desirable traits to look for in your beta testers.

What Are Beta Test Metrics and How Can You Measure Them?

Tracking the right metrics while running your beta program is essential for measuring the effectiveness of your beta testing efforts. But what are beta test metrics exactly and why are they important?

Why Every Product Manager Needs Beta Testing to Achieve their Roadmap Goals

By gathering valuable feedback and identifying and fixing issues early on, beta testing can help you improve the user experience and increase the chances of success for your product. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of beta testing and how to conduct a successful beta test.

The Value of Different Types of Beta Testers During Product Development

We'll explore the different types of beta testers, and how each type can provide valuable insights and feedback to help you make improvements and iterate on your products over time.

5 Surprising Tips for Beta Testing Your Product Over the Holidays

Not only can beta testing help improve the quality of your product, but it can also provide valuable insights and feedback during the busiest time of the year. In this blog we share tips for planning and executing a successful beta test over the holidays.

The Iceberg of Beta Tester Benefits

Most companies recognize the value that beta testers bring to an organization before product launch, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The mass that lies beneath the water line expands far beyond what you see on the surface.

9 Challenges of Product Development in a Downturn

Your next product launch may be keeping you up at night. With fewer resources, budget cuts, and lack of personnel, it’s going to be much more challenging to release quality products and avoid costly delays.

Three Tips for Being Resourceful with Delta Testing During Recession

Being resourceful with what you have by taking something sour and turning it into something sweet will help you overcome difficulties that you may be faced with when it comes to your next product launch.

Pilot Episode: Doing More With Less, Tech Optimism, and Delta Testing

For our very first episode, we discuss tech optimism, maintaining user delight, and doing more with less when it comes to user testing with David Perry, CEO of Carro and Luke Freiler, CEO of Centercode.

The Benefits of Delta Testing Enable You To Do More With Less

Delta testing is the modern user testing solution that answers the unique demands of today's customers, products, and development styles. More specifically, delta testing is automated, saving tons of time.

The Secret to Releasing Quality Products with Fewer Testing Resources

With businesses experiencing setbacks, building a product that stands out amongst your competition is critical. While layoffs or budget freezes can leave you with fewer resources, customers expect that their money gets them a quality product, especially in a downturn.

How Dogfooding Helps Build a Strong Remote Culture

As many teams are now working remotely, it’s challenging to maintain the same level of engagement and productivity that once existed. Remote teams can achieve a thriving remote culture, but it’s going to take some effort to ensure everyone feels aligned and included.

How Dogfooding Improves Company Culture with Involvement and Collaboration

Executive teams invest their hearts and souls into building an environment, a vibe, and a workplace culture that not only attracts new talent, it also keeps employees from looking elsewhere. But, when I say “culture” did you immediately think ping pong tables, sushi chefs, baristas and nap pods?

3 Tips to Recession Proof Your Products

Looking for ways to recession proof your products? Check out these three tips on how to create products that support your business, even during down times.

Centercode Project Kickoff Dashboard: Take the Guessing Out of Configuring Your Next Test

I’m willing to bet that you’ve experienced “writer’s block” before. I’d be lying to say that I have not, because I just did. As I sat down to write about Centercode’s new Project Kickoff Dashboard, I was struggling to come up with where to begin.

What Should You Look for in the Ideal Beta Tester?

One of the most important facets of product testing is identifying and finding an audience that will help you make your products better. When planning a product test, perhaps the most vital question to ask when determining who will test your product is, whose feedback will be the most important to your product’s development?

SOC 2 Certification: Centercode Continues To Knock the SOCs off Our Customers!

Centercode News

Centercode is trusted with your prized possessions–your products and your customers. As such, we take data security seriously.

Eat Your Own Dog Food: Software Testing

In Spring of 2021, Centercode's biggest release yet was imminent and it was finally time to gather customer feedback. Coincidentally, the release included an entirely new framework, Delta testing, built to capture actionable feedback from testers with minimal effort.

5 Agile Principles for Evolving Your User Testing

We live in a world where the tools and services we use every day are in a constant state of improvement. Not only do our favorite devices improve massively with each new release, so does the software that powers them.

Centercode Key Performance Indicators: Impact Score

This week we round out our series on the Centercode Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by discussing testing Delta Impact Score.

3 Agile Inspired Testing Ceremonies

There are a couple of big differences between traditional beta testing and delta testing. Perhaps one of the most significant is delta testing’s focus on working within Agile environments (vs. waterfall). Many parts of the delta testing methodology are pulled directly from common forms of Agile development.

4 Important Agile Ceremonies for Your Testing Strategy

That meeting could have been an email… Unfortunately this is a sentiment we’ve all had after a meeting that didn't feel particularly effective.

Measuring Project Success With Delta Health

In my last post, we discussed measuring tester engagement as a part of test health. Today, we are going to discuss measuring product success.

How to Measure User Testing Engagement

One of the primary concerns of any project manager throughout the testing period is whether there’s enough tester engagement. Good tester engagement is instrumental to a successful delta test.

3 Departments Who Need Your User Testing Results

There are countless benefits to having a successful user testing program. Being able to confidently bring new products to market and mature existing products is where the key business value lies.

Finally, an Automated User Testing Solution for Product Professionals - Part 2

If you read Part 1, you already know that the Centercode Delta release is a totally new way to plan and run user tests using automation, intuitive dashboards, and rich user feedback. So let’s dive into some of these features a little deeper.

Finally, an Automated User Testing Solution for Product Professionals- Part 1

Have you ever wanted to be able to automate your user tests and just jump to the good part where you get awesome feedback that’s easy to apply to product development? Us too.

How to Write Super-Clickable Beta Invite Emails (with Samples!)

Community Management

The benefits of an awesome, highly effective invite are obvious: it allows you to attract and recruit qualified candidates (like customers or potential customers) for your beta, field, UAT, and user testing projects.

How Peer Review Creates Strong Collaborative Teams

Whether you’ve returned to the office, work in a hybrid model, or your entire company took the leap to being fully remote, our work spaces have changed dramatically in the last two years.

How Delta Testing Uses Atomic Habits to Promote Data-Driven Decisions

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” This quote from Atomic Habits, by best-selling author and habit expert James Clear, is as true for using customer insight to drive product decision-making as it is for training to run a marathon, not biting your nails, or remembering to unload the dishwasher every night.

Conducting Continuous User Research with Delta Testing

What is continuous user research, exactly? We like this definition from Tomer Sharon, head of user research at Goldman Sachs:

How the Pros Run Their Beta Programs

So you want to run a beta program — and we're stoked for you! Whether you got here after running a handful of beta tests on your own, or your boss handed the task over to you, the insights you get from beta testing open the door to an incredibly enriching world of customer knowledge and product insight.

How to Keep the Fire Burning in Your Tester Community

Community Management

Relationships require care. And not just in the form of those once-in-a-while grand gestures — though an extra special thank you every now and again never hurts.

The One Little Secret for Optimizing Your Tester Engagement

Imagine you're running a marathon. At first, you're bursting with energy — you've been waiting for this! You feel like you could run forever!

What Most Teams Don’t Understand About User Testing Metrics

Calculating user testing metrics? Avoid this common mistake and learn how to find the 3 metrics that matter most to showing your impact.

How Delta Testing Is Helping Today's Product Managers

No one knows what your customers need better than your customers; that's why their feedback has never been more critical to the success of your product.

3 User Testing Program Resolutions (And How to Keep Them)

It's the time of year for resolutions: where we dream big about the things we want to do and improvements we want to make in the hopes this year will be better than the last. But as everyone who's two weeks into a diet or exercise routine knows, resolutions are easy to set but difficult to keep — especially when you don't have a system in place for making it happen.

Centercode's 2021 Content Roundup

After 2020 and a year defined by upheaval, 2021 has been all about recovery and progress: shedding what doesn't work, strengthening what does, and reimagining possibilities in a world with a new outlook and new demands for the future.

Your Year Ahead User Research Checklist

The end of the year can mean a lot of things. While at home it's about decorating, cooking mountains of food, or reuniting with loved ones, the end of the work year is about looking back at everything you've accomplished — and looking forward to what's around the corner.

Ask the Expert: Should You Run User Tests Over the Holidays?

Should you plan to launch a user testing project over the holidays? In this installment of Ask the Expert, Centercode's Sr. Test Manager Mike Fine talks about the oft-debated holiday test launch: when it works, when it doesn't, and what you should expect from your testers.

Getting Attitudinal Data During Development With Delta Testing

Just like there are many ways to collect attitudinal data, there are different moments when data about your customers' thoughts, opinions, and attitudes comes into play during product development. But how do you get this data?

How to Thank Your Testers