Running a Beta Program: Lessons Learned

Shipping software in isolation is comforting. You control the inputs, the environment, and the narrative you tell yourself about how things work. The moment you invite other people in—especially people who don’t share your assumptions—you lose that comfort. You also gain something far more valuable. Running a public beta for ABM Warranty through Apple’s TestFlight program forced me to confront that tradeoff head-on, and it fundamentally changed how quickly and confidently the app matured. The motivation for opening a beta was simple: ABM Warranty was solving a problem I knew...