Gluue » Beta

Demo or Don’t!

Kallie — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 12:15:37 +0000

Have you ever had a moment where you’re sitting there eating lemon pie and thinking about the moon and then you’re like, “what even is the moon?” And so you start calling all of your friends and asking them questions like, “do you think the moon was actually part of earth?” and “Isn’t it wild that it takes the moon the same amount of time to rotate on its axis and orbit the earth?” and then you wonder whether the other side of the moon has a different face and whether that face is actually a reflection of your own soul. And then you look down and all the lemon pie is gone and your puppy is running through the house, full of pie and happiness.

Many moons ago, the first version of Jumpchart was sort of like a little cuddly baby. We loved it, of course. We cooed it to sleep at night. We washed its hair with lotion. We fed it a lot of words and hugs and lemon juice. Cut to today: Jumpchart is no longer a baby. Now it’s a bit more sophisticated. Now it wears fancy white fancy pants and reminds us of a bit of our favorite vintage goods, only sleeker. Now we go around showing pictures of Jumpchart to people who don’t even know us and we say things like, “but look! Doesn’t Jumpchart’s hair look like white diamonds?”

Anyhoo. We built an all new interface for Jumpchart, and we’re letting a few people try it out. If you want to be one of them, sign up here:

Sign up to try the Jumpchart demo.

A Little Something for Our Beta Testers.

Kristin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:12:01 +0000

You guys gave us some really great feedback and suggestions! To say thanks, we’ve put five extra projects in your pocket.

Enjoy your extra projects- and thanks again. Now get busy checking off your todos!

A Brand New App- Beta Testing.

Kristin — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:24:22 +0000

The word “beta” evokes an emotion somewhere between excitement and nervousness- for both the user and creator. From a user standpoint- it’s not the real thing yet; it’s being tested, so you can never be sure what you’re dealing with. From a creator standpoint- we’re finally here! What will the reaction be? You’ve worked so hard up to this point, and of course you want a positive outcome. The actual launch product depends on the quality of this stage…

We recently launched our brand new app into beta testing. Paprika is our third full app, and we’ve managed to learn a few things along the way.

Tweet, Tweet, Paprika.

We used Twitter to get the word out about our beta invites, and sign-up. Twitter has become an even better catalyst for spreading news than it was when we launched Jumpchart, and we’ve managed to make friends with people who do what we do, and are a lot like us. (That’s the point, right?!) It’s a great way to start a conversation, and has become a legitimate recommendation tool for our industry.

Reaching Out.

We tried something new this time around- we reached out within the industry using good old fashioned e-mail. We tried to target designers and developers who we thought would appreciate Paprika the most, and give us really valuable feedback on it. Of course, the difficult part was getting through to those we didn’t already know personally. With the touchy BS detectors out there, we really didn’t want our e-mail to sound like spam. It took some careful word-smithing, and lots of revisions, but we reached a version of “Hey, would you pretty please try our new app? It would mean a lot to us, and we really value your opinion.” we were happy with, and out the e-mails went.

Beta Sign Up.

The tried and true method of having people sign up for an invite was a method we used again this time. We set up a simple, slick sign-up page that asks for e-mail address only and included the option to receive our newsletter. By noting very clearly that all e-mail addresses we received would be deleted after the beta (unless the user signed up for the newsletter) we relieved any pressure that we might be contacting them again in the future, or that the user would be held to any future obligations.

Newsletter.

We already know lots of people from Jumpchart and Staction- and thought they might like to hear about Paprika, too. So we used our newsletter to tell them. Although the primary purpose of the newsletter was to spread the word about our beta test, we also included information about other happenings around the Paste office. This effort really spiked the number of beta signups!

Getting the word out about your beta test is nearly as important as getting the word out about the launch, but in a different way. You’re soliciting the feedback of your peers, your competitors, and your potential users. The information that comes from these tests is crucial to the overall success of your app when launch day arrives.

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Oh yeah, and, Sign up for the Paprika beta!
(see it works!)

Paprika Now Accepting Beta Users!

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:57:27 +0000

We’ve had a new app up our sleeve for a while now, and we’re ready for you to take a look!

Paprika is a text-based organization tool that integrates assigned todos, team communication, hash tags and more. If you like Jumpchart, Staction, and lists you can check off as you go, we think you’ll love this.