Ask HN: Customer wants access, what should i do?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3019570

by kodeshpa • 15 years ago

8 4 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi Guys,

Need your are help, m in tricky situation. Potential customer wants access to private beta. If he likes it, straight way he want to use it for their production.

Product is not yet very polished from UI prospective. As they said first impression matters ,What should i do ? Shall i give customer access as it is or wait for some time ?

div• 15 years ago

Well, if it's beta, you are already showing it to people, so I would definitely show it to someone with a high chance of being a customer.

If they don't like it, you can always email them / call them to have a second look when you feel you've made noticeable progress.

EDIT: If using it in production carries a lot of risk for this customer, don't pussyfoot around and advise him to wait.

kodeshpa• 15 years ago

Thanks, we are not yet public beta. We are still in private beta. But this customer is in need of solution, and want to try it out asap.

kcurtin• 15 years ago

I'd say go for it if a.) the core functionality is intact and b.) you set the customer's expectations. I am in a similar situation at my company and we have begun letting customers use our product. My basic feeling is that the more people you can get using the product the better - they will provide you with feedback and help you test how things scale early on. If the only problem is small UI things, it shouldn't matter so long as you manage is expectations correctly.

TuaAmin13• 15 years ago

I agree. If this guy is a customer instead of (friends, family, etc) for private beta, he's going to represent part of the people paying you for this.

Congratulations. You're basically getting early feedback by someone who really really wants this. He wants a beta to use in production, and he knows that. That's how much he wants it.

Lay down the ground rules as far as production support and bug fix turnarounds based on what you can manage without trying to spend every waking minute keeping them happy. They may not get every new feature request they ask for, and , like you said, some UI might change.

Ask HN: Customer wants access, what should i do?

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