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To Beta or not to Beta

It’s been often talked about whether new web 2.0 services or new internet services in general should enter that proverbial public beta stage rather than holding off and releasing a polished, final product. I’ve been increasing noticing the beta phase being something more accepted and implemented in the web 2.0 community as new services emerge. With XMG Image v2’s release on the horizon, this particular topic has come up quite often in my thoughts when getting ready for deployment. On one side with the beta option, is the idea of getting feedback from users, as there are no better improvements to be made on your application then user-suggested ones. But on another note, this beta stage could be rather irritating to a user who’s constantly dealing with bugs and unexpected events while using your system and at worse, could result in lost clientele. So, before we can make a calculated decision, we need to look at all sides of the story…

Now, before even considering a public beta phase, you need to first have a clear definition of what this so called “beta” phase will actually consist of and the obvious aspects must be taken into account such as; the market/industry your service is in, what your service is trying to accomplish, and the overall magnitude of your application. With that said, for XMG Image, the service is; targeting a fairly unsaturated market, trying to accomplish things in a smoother more user-enjoyable way, and is fairly robust as an application. So, with much emphasis put on usability and the lack of much notable competition in our market, a public beta seems like the most reasonable choice to carry on with.

Now that we’ve established our service is going to head for a public beta, there are some things you should consider before diving into beta and throwing you’re unfinished, possibly buggy system out there for the public to beat the hell out of and send loads of bug reports to you for. For starters, be sure to have a clear definition of what your beta release will actual consist of and what you expect to get out of it. For XMG, entering a beta stage doesn’t mean releasing an incomplete, buggy product, that’s not even going to accomplish its primary functions without encountering bugs. It still means getting 100% of the application finished and all its functions tested from a developer’s standpoint. Leaving the “beta” part more for users feedback and suggestions that, when implemented, will further evolve your application, not to get things working as you initially planned (that’s just being lazy :-P).

Entering a beta stage can be extremely beneficial to new services, but could also be a miscalculated move. Be sure to figure out exactly what you expect to get from your beta stage and take in as much user feedback as you can get from it. It will definitely come in handy when getting ready to revamp your service.