Reflecting on Decades of User Testing

January 27, 2023

At Centercode we believe in technology's ability to make everyone's life better. In the Delta Huddle Podcast, we bring together industry experts and visionaries to share their insights about building products and bringing them to market.

We're excited to announce the next episode of the Delta Huddle podcast! Joining Centercode’s VP of Marketing Chris Rader to discuss the past, present, and future of User Testing is Sharon Rylander, Senior Director of UX Research and Strategy at Square Panda, and Mario Sancho, Chief Delivery Officer at Centercode.

This episode of the Delta Huddle Podcast is really special, for a lot of reasons, mainly because it delves not only into the heart of user testing and what drives it forward, but also its history and where it came from. What we think of today as a “traditional beta test” or a “standard product test” didn’t start out that way. It took years of trial and error and learning about what makes testing great to get to where we are today with delta testing.

In this episode:

Testing during the dot com bubble
Why fewer resources results in an increased need for beta programs
Why delta outperforms beta as a testing methodology
The value of a good beta program
How to convince a company to start a beta program
Perceived reason for testing vs. actual value of testing
How user testing helps break down silos in an organization

About Our Guests:

‍Sharon Rylander’s many accolades and accomplishments include winning a technical Emmy for her work at Sling, collaborating with Pixar Animators to bring miniature robots to life, and showing state of the art VR technology to the late Stephen Hawking. In the past 15 years, she’s worked exclusively with startups to help build out teams for UX, beta testing, customer support, and more, regularly intersecting with the fields of analytics, marketing, and PR. Her current role at Square Panda focuses on foundational literacy games for young children.

With nearly 20 years under his belt at Centercode, Mario Sancho brings a wealth of experience and expertise as the Chief Delivery Officer. His extensive background in beta test management, including roles in support, training, and sales, has been instrumental in ensuring that Centercode’s customers continue to receive the maximum value from all our services.