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Alpha
Testing and Beta Testing
Alpha testing is done using white box testing
techniques in a lab type environment before a product is made available to
the general public.
The next phase of testing, known as Beta
testing, includes a limited group of users outside of the company...
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Turning Ideas into Reality
An
experimental hands-on try-it-out approach is
invaluable to
→
innovation.
→
The Jazz
of Innovation
→
The Jazz of Innovation:
11 Guiding Principles
→
The Virtuous Circle of
Experimentation
→
Loose-Tight Leadership
You never know the real value of your invention until you test market it.
Rapid prototyping is about building and testing new things fast. It helps
you jump past endless analysis to quickly obtain a valuable
→
feedback.
"Before there is a prototype, the ideas exists
in abstract form only," writes Paul Sloane.2 "It is described in
words and leaves scope for misunderstanding. It is hard for the originator
to convey exactly what he or she has in mind, and it is easy for people to
get hold of the wrong end of the stick. Once the prototype exists then
people can see and touch and feel the idea. Comments for improvement will
flow thick and fast. Whether the prototype is a model in cardboard and
string or a software application consisting of a few skeleton screens with
nothing behind them, it presents a framework for refinement and extension of
the idea."
Discovering New Customer
Values
Prototyping provides an opportunity for interaction with and learning
from potential customers. Apart from evaluating the key benefits that your
new technology or product promises, you get an access to the user's
experience with any other aspects of the innovation that they see as
valuable, which you and your project team may not have expected or imagined.
 Business e-Coach
I invented inspirational
→
Business e-Coach
in 2001 and, by now, have
won
customers in over 130 countries. Though I understand my target market
well enough, I keep launching every new mini-course as a prototype to test
the market. I start with developing and releasing a free micro-course
to analyze the market feedback. I
experiment with
everything: content, style, title,
→
differentiation,
creative marketing approaches. Having
discovered the optimum combination of ingredients of success, I create and
launch a full-scale show.
>>>
→
e-Coach:
10 Success Lessons
Microsoft's Sway
Microsoft used online
suggestion system to improve the functionality of their innovative
presentation application named Sway. Participants of the beta-testing stage
of Sway development were able to submit their
feedback via UserVoice. Their input made a difference. Microsoft
implemented many user suggestions. For example, Sway users were enabled to
import PDF files directly into Sway, as well as reorder sections more
easily.
>>>
→
How To Create Greater
Value Online
Learning About the Markets
for
New-To-the-World Products
"No one tests the depth of a
river with both feet." ~ Ashanti proverb
Radical
innovators generally have only the outlines of a very big
picture and, compared with incremental innovators, must operate in
the dark, since customers seldom have a context for understanding
the product or its capabilities. Neither the final
new-to-the world
product, nor its applications can be described reliably. As
exploratory questions are most important for market learning,
traditional
market research methods
designed to answer traditional market research questions are used
infrequently in radical innovation projects. To do a better job of
learning about markets for radical innovations, some
alternative approaches, including early prototyping, should be
practiced.5...
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Google's 9
Notions of Innovation
We "prefer to have something working at
the end of the day, something to refine and
→
improve
the next day. That's what we do: our
'launch
early and often'
→
strategy.
The hardest part about indoctrinating people into our
culture is when engineers show me a
prototype and I'm like, 'Great, let's go!' They'll say, 'Oh, no,
it's not ready. It's not up to Google standards. This doesn't look
like a Google product yet.' They want to castle-build and do all
these other features and make it all perfect. I tell them, 'The
Googly thing is to launch it early on Google Labs and then iterate,
learning what the market wants--and making it great.' The beauty of
experimenting in this way is that you never get too far from what
the market wants. The market pulls you back," says Marissa Mayer, a
Google's Top Manager...
More
→
Google:
10 Success Lessons
Test Marketing Your New
Products or Service
Test marketing is a great way to check out if
your business idea is sound. It can help to tell you if there is a market
for your products, energize you inspire new ideas...
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