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5 Customer Validation Skills You Need in 2020
Centercode
JANUARY 16, 2020
5G, AI, self-driving cars — in no time at all, we’ll be looking back and saying, “Oh, those old things?”
Centercode
How to Manage Scheduling Surprises During Customer Validation
Centercode
DECEMBER 11, 2019
Surprises? Never. When it comes to scheduling, we always know exactly when our releases are going into delta. We’re never caught off guard by unexpected critical issues. Our releases roll out continuously, without disruption, just like clockwork.
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Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar on Co-Creation and Leading a Thriving Beta Program
Centercode
AUGUST 8, 2019
Technology is developed to serve people, but those people – customers – haven’t always had their own seat at the product development table. That’s what makes the work of people like Dona Sarkar so compelling.
Tableau Uses Centercode to Increase Beta Team Productivity By 100%
Centercode
JULY 17, 2019
Our latest case study looks at how the Centercode Platform helped Tableau Software, the world-class data analytics company, increase their beta team’s productivity by 100%. Tableau enables people to easily visualize, analyze, and make sense of data across disparate sources.
API Analytics: The Ultimate Guide to Grow Your Platform Business
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API product and platform owners have their own unique challenges. Learn how to leverage data to convert, understand, and support your customers better.
3 Reasons Feedback Management Is Taking Up Too Much of Your Time
Centercode
DECEMBER 17, 2019
A report from the Centercode Research Team found more evidence linking to challenges we as Customer Validation (CV) professionals already know — it takes too much time to get useful feedback. Whether it’s the quality, the lack of coverage, low volume, or simply the effort it demands, more than half of CV professionals reported issues with managing feedback. The reason? There isn’t always a single cause, but what it mostly comes down to are time sinks.
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4 Easy Marketing Tactics to Use for Your Next Survey Invitation
Centercode
OCTOBER 1, 2019
Like your UX, support, QA, and product teams, a marketing team spends a lot of time trying to think like customers. We’re obsessed with discovering what attracts them, what engages them, and how to speak their language.
Meet the Betabound Team
Centercode
JUNE 11, 2019
If the Customer Validation platform is the skeleton, Betabound is the beating heart of Centercode. Every day, members of our 200,000+ tester network are putting their time and energy towards helping our customers build spectacular products.
Tester-Powered: How Google Will Support Stadia with Beta
Centercode
MARCH 27, 2019
You know that classic movie scene where a new kid walks into a classroom and everyone turns to stare? That kid is Google, and the classroom is the gaming industry.
Developing a Test Strategy for the Agile World
Centercode
APRIL 2, 2019
Test strategy is critical to the success of any testing effort – but where do you start? How does your strategy conform to different development methodologies? What should you tackle in-house, and what should you outsource? How you involve real users in beta testing?
More Effective Agile Leadership
Speaker: Steve McConnell, CEO, Construx Software
In this talk, Steve McConnell, CEO of Construx Software, distills hundreds of companies’-worth of real-world experience into the proven Agile leadership practices that work best. Steve will seamlessly thread together traditional approaches, early Agile approaches, modern Agile approaches, and the principles and context that underlie them all—creating an invaluable resource for Agile leaders, their teams, and their organizations.
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10 Time-Tested Tactics for Mobile Beta Test Planning
Centercode
MARCH 20, 2019
When a mobile app is sluggish, unresponsive, or difficult to use, one of two things is likely to happen. One, it gets buried on a screen full of other apps and forgotten about. Or two, long press and uninstall.
4 Key Elements of Testing VR
Centercode
JUNE 4, 2019
Experiencing technology firsthand is central to our mission here at Centercode. That’s why when our CEO Luke brought the Oculus Quest all-in-one VR system into the office, we did what any dedicated tech enthusiasts would do: we took turns playing Beat Saber. Was it entirely in the name of research?
6 Steps to Recruiting Participants for User Research
Centercode
JULY 2, 2019
What’s the secret to obtaining high-quality user feedback? Whether you’re gathering input for a usability test, a focus group, Customer Validation , or another form of user research, finding and recruiting quality participants makes a world of difference to the quality of your feedback.
Our Favorite Thank You Notes from Customers and Testers
Centercode
NOVEMBER 27, 2019
‘Tis the season for gratitude. With Thanksgiving coming, we’re feeling especially grateful to work with you guys — the best customers, collaborators, contributors, and testers in the world!
Win the Digital Transformation Game with the Product Mindset
Speaker: David DeWolf, Founder and CEO, 3Pillar Global
No matter what your idea is, no matter how good it is, and no matter how well you know your market, 3 out of 4 digital initiatives do not succeed. To better understand how to win, we should first understand why we’re failing. In this webinar, David DeWolf will share his experiences and lessons learned to help you succeed in playing the “product” game, instead of the “IT” game.
Crowdsourced Testing vs. Beta Testing: What’s the Difference?
Centercode
MARCH 12, 2019
Imagine this: you have two groups of 100 testers. You give them the same product. You ask them to report back on their findings. Would their answers be the same? Well, that depends on who the testers in those two groups are. It also depends on what you ask them.
How Technology Drives the Evolution of Beta Testing
Centercode
APRIL 9, 2019
We may associate the idea of beta testing with Google, Microsoft, video games, and other tech with roots in the late 20th century, but IBM cemented “beta” as far back as the 1950s. The Director of Betabound, Brad Day, wrote about the history of beta.
Top Tech Traits Consumers Are Shopping for This Cyber Monday
Centercode
NOVEMBER 20, 2019
Thanksgiving marks the biggest shopping weekend of the year, and if the trend continues, Cyber Monday will shatter retail records again as more and more consumers shop from the comfort of home.
How Sonos is Leveraging User Research to Enhance Their Beta Program
Centercode
APRIL 30, 2019
Beta testing is much more than a box to check off on a list. While some companies only think of it as a last-ditch effort to tie up loose ends before launch, others are tapping user research to play a more fundamental role in the product development process.
BI Buyers Guide: Embedding Analytics in Your Software
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The business intelligence market has exploded. And as the number of vendors grows, it gets harder to make sense of it all. Learn how to decide what features you need and get an evaluation framework for every technical and non-technical requirement you could imagine.
5 Essentials for App Beta Testing
Centercode
MARCH 5, 2019
Apps are both readily accessible and everywhere. Go into a grocery store, a mall, a transit station, and you’ll see apps for everything from shopping to parking to public transportation.
How to Test a Folding Smartphone (and Other Emerging Tech)
Centercode
MAY 14, 2019
Seeing the risks and rewards of emerging technology unfold is part of what makes the tech industry so exciting to follow. And since CES 2019, one of the biggest nail biters is the race to get the folding smartphone into the hands of consumers.
A Deep Dive into Video Streaming: Popularity, Features, and Adoption
Centercode
NOVEMBER 14, 2019
On November 12, the Walt Disney Company launched their long-awaited video streaming platform, Disney+ …surprising no one. Disney is, after all, just one name on a long list of media production outlets to jump into the stream of on-demand media.
The Beginner’s Guide to Identifying Beta Program Metrics
Centercode
APRIL 16, 2019
What are beta program metrics exactly? Which ones are important? Why do I need them? These are the types of questions that suddenly pop into the minds of product and program managers when an executive team comes looking for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
A New Segmentation Model for Customer Onboarding
Advertiser: Skilljar
A great customer onboarding program is a proactive and meaningful way to make a lasting impact on customer engagement, retention, and expansion. In this eBook, Skilljar will show you a new framework for building a customer onboarding program, including how to segment users and drive long-term value and retention through education.
How to Avoid Psychological Biases in Your Research
Centercode
OCTOBER 8, 2019
In a perfect world, all the data you collect from your surveys would be 100% unbiased. But I don’t have to tell you that’s not the world we live in. In reality, bias is common in research.
Humanizing the Role of Beta Managers Through Communication
Centercode
AUGUST 27, 2019
If you’ve attended a QA or testing conference recently, it seems as though manual testing is a dying discipline. Due in part to the speed of development, test automation, and artificial intelligence, a greater proportion of test management is now influenced or even controlled by developers.
The #1 Mistake to Avoid When You’re Writing Surveys
Centercode
NOVEMBER 5, 2019
Here you are, running another Customer Validation (CV) survey. Your survey is packed full of questions that will yield meaningful product insights, like “ What issues are you encountering? ” and “ What do you like most about the product?
AI and the Future of Testing
Centercode
APRIL 11, 2019
Whether it’s the rise of AI, CI/CD, or DevOps, the lines between testing and development are blurring. But as testing methodologies evolve and bleed into development, professional testers are questioning how this evolution will affect their role in product development.
Architect Your Organization for Effectiveness, Productivity, and Joy
Speaker: Ron Lichty, Consultant: Interim VP Engineering, Ron Lichty Consulting, Inc.
As a senior software leader, you likely spend more time working on the architecture of your systems than the architecture of your organization. Yet, structuring our teams and organizations is a critical factor for success. In fact, the impact of software architecture parallels the impact of organizational structure. We are excited to welcome Ron Lichty, co-author of a seminal book on managing software teams and a well-known speaker, he’ll speak to organizing for effectiveness, productivity and joy.
Centercode User Group ‘19: Fresh Perspectives on Beta Testing
Centercode
FEBRUARY 12, 2019
The spread of talent within the Customer Validation industry makes for brilliant conversations. These gatherings are rare, but each one offers incredible insights into both the state of Beta Testing and the professionals leading the charge.
Beta Testing Success in 5 Steps
Centercode
FEBRUARY 20, 2019
Centercode has been running beta tests for over 18 years. That’s why we can say this on good authority: beta testing isn’t easy. For one, there is no “one size fits all” formula that works for every product, every company, or every customer.
Fuel Your Product Management Goals with These 3 Testing Tactics
Centercode
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
When it comes to making decisions about your product, data is your best ammunition. Between analytics, surveys, support tickets, and customer testing, there are plenty of opportunities for your product management team to collect information about your customers’ experiences.
Closing the Customer Feedback Loop
Centercode
JUNE 18, 2019
Whether it comes early in the development lifecycle, right before launch, or between releases, customer feedback is vital to understanding what your target market wants and expects. Any time you talk directly with your market, it reveals incredible insights.
The Essential Guide to Building Analytic Applications
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Embedding dashboards, reports, and analytics in an existing application presents some unique opportunities—and poses unique challenges—to software teams. Download this eBook to hear 16 product experts share insights on business intelligence, UI/UX, security, and everything that goes into building a successful application with analytics at its core.
3 Essential Community Management Tips from Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar
Centercode
AUGUST 15, 2019
In this second post of our two-part interview with Dona Sarkar, leader of the Windows Insider program , she unpacks several community management tips for beta program executives, product managers, and other people responsible for Customer Validation.
Announcing the 2020 Virtual Customer Validation Conference
Centercode
OCTOBER 29, 2019
It’s back — and this time, it’s exclusively online! We’re excited to announce the Virtual Customer Validation Conference , happening on April 7 – 9, 2020.
How to Choose the Right Beta Testing Tools and Features
Centercode
FEBRUARY 26, 2019
Imagine building a birdhouse out of a 100 lb block of wood with only a set of instructions and a handsaw. Too easy? How about this one: imagine running a community of 1,000 active testers when your only beta testing tools are Excel and Outlook.
Product Questions to Ask Customers Across the Product Life Cycle
Centercode
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
In product development, timing is everything. The type of customer-driven product questions you ask, when you ask them, and the kind of customer feedback you use to answer them all influence the insights you pull in and how they’ll ultimately serve you.
An Adult Conversation About Estimates
Speaker: Beekey Cheung, Software Consultant, Professor Beekums, LLC
Estimates are a contentious topic in software development. Most of our development teams hate providing estimates and many managers are starting to view them as unnecessary. As senior software leaders, how can we determine whether estimates are helpful or harmful to our teams? We are excited to be joined by Beekey Cheung, a software consultant and blogger known as Professor Beekums, who has helped many leaders and teams go from fearing estimates to using them appropriately. He'll walk us through the value of estimates, how to overcome the hesitancy many have in giving them, and how to provide better estimates.
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