Throughout the year, we’re constantly publishing valuable resources, tools, and information to help you run better beta tests. From our whitepapers to our case studies to our blog posts, we aim to provide a variety of beta testing advice no matter what product you’re launching, job title you hold, or industry you’re in.
In case you haven’t browsed our content library or blog recently, we put together a list of the most popular pieces from this year. It’s a mix of new superstars and old favorites, and it’s a great place for you to get started.
The Most Popular New Resource
Beta Tester Recruitment Kit — This kit provides you with everything you need to build a strategy for rounding up the perfect group of people to test your product. Finding the very best testers is one of the most important parts of any beta test and this kit will help you figure out where to find them, as well as how to get them interested in your testing opportunity. It will also guide you through building a qualification process to identify the absolute best candidates from your pool of potential testers.
The Most Popular Resource of All Time
Software Beta Test Planning Kit — This kit has been a long time favorite of our customers and readers. It gives you everything you need to plan a software beta test, including a complete template, companion guide, and example test plan. We also have a version for hardware beta tests.
Honorable Mentions
Other pieces of content that gained popularity in 2014 are:
- Beta Test Agreement Kit — This kit has all the tools and advice you need to get your legal documents in order before you begin testing.
- 100 Tips for Better Beta Tests — The title says it all. This eBook provides a compilation of advice from us, as well as notable clients of ours that have benefited from beta testing.
- Beta Test Incentives Kit — The kit covers everything you need to know about motivating and thanking your testers, and includes a handy beta incentives budget calculator.
The Most Popular New Blog Post
How Many Beta Testers Do I Need? — It can be difficult to gauge just how many beta testers you’ll need to round up for your beta test. How many is enough? How many would be overkill? This post outlines exactly how you can determine the perfect number of people to recruit for your test.
The Most Popular Blog Post of All Time
Alpha vs. Beta Testing — This post has been seated at our #1 spot for years now. It details the key differences between alpha testing and beta testing (an important distinction for anyone tasked with handling a beta test for a product). After reading this post, you should have a good idea of how each testing phase fits into your product’s development process.
Honorable Mentions
Below are a few more of our most-read blog posts in 2014:
- 10 Tips for Writing Great Beta Surveys — In this post, we outline some best practices that you’ll want to be sure and follow when it comes to writing and sending out surveys to your testers.
- How to Collect Useful Feedback During Beta — This post discusses how to identify what meaningful feedback is, as well as methods you can use to get it from your testers.
- Announcing Betabound: A New Way to Find Great Beta Testers — We introduce and explain Betabound, our fantastic community of over 90,000 pre-profiled testers who help us test your products every day.
The Most Popular New Case Study
Whistle Case Study — This year, the most popular case study in our Centercode Purchasing Resources Library looks at how we’ve helped the pet wearable startup, Whistle. We highlight how they’re using the Centercode platform to handle the challenges associated with beta testing wearable technology and also detail how beta testing has helped them launch their product successfully.
The Most Popular Case Study of All Time
F-Secure Case Study — This case study explains how the security experts at F-Secure used the Centercode platform to build and manage a beta testing community that includes over 12,000 of their customers.
As we begin 2015, we’re committed to continually growing our library of content and sharing what we’ve learned about beta testing over the years. We hope you continue to find our resources helpful as you build and improve the beta programs at your organizations.
Are there any topics you’d like to see addressed in a whitepaper, eBook, or blog post? Please let us know in the comments below, but make sure you check our Beta Management Resources Library first. It’s possible we’ve already covered it in one of our other resources! If you’d like a heads up whenever we release new content, you can also sign up for our newsletter. We hope you have a happy and productive year in 2015!
