What even is a beta period?
Basically – we spent the last 4 months testing the product with real users, and gathering feedback on the software.
To all of our beta users, trial & “soon to be announced” partners – just one more shout out to say how much we appreciate the ideas, engagement and excitement that has continued to lead us to where the real problems and opportunities are.
Our exciting news, is that we’ve collected enough info to know what we need to for a launch of the Core Product for Member Design in the ANZ region, this launch is on Oct 23rd 2023 and you can sign up for more info here
Covered in this blog:
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What was our Beta Program
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What were we trying to learn?
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Who participated?
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How it went?
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What we learned?
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What’s next?
What was the
Beta Period?
We onboarded 50+ Structural Engineer & 5 suppliers of Mass Timber products in Australia and New Zealand
- Once the product had passed “prototype” phase we
needed to get it in the hands of users for testing - During this period, we focused on improving the
product and implementing feedback.
This period ran from around June of this year until the 23rd of Oct, during this period of time we were able to build relationships with early customers and get a good grip on our plan to build the best product in market.
It was essential to have our assumptions challenged and get really direct feedback and found that the interviews with real users made it so much easier.
Who participated?
The interest in our software from engineering firms came from our existing networks, as well as inbound requests from Tier 1 firms around the world following some of our early marketing.
The supply chain and association partnerships have been a really positive experience as the Timber Industry as a whole in Australia has welcomed us with open arms.
What were we trying to learn?
Our mission is to bring sustainable building materials into the mainstream, but do our users really want to come on that journey too?
We joked during discussions that you can be considerate by leaning into the discomfort of telling us where we could really improve. There are unknown knowns we want to know
It became very obvious quite quickly that there are things everyone needs, and there are things particular types of users really want.
What was most useful was understanding that there are typical groups of archetypes who get value from the software in a
variety of ways depending on their context.
Engineering User Archetypes
These different categories of needs & experiences looked like this:
Junior:
- Needs the most basic 101’s for decision making, if they are able
to regularly check in with us this is powerful and finds the reporting
useful - Experiences a sense of ownership and credibility as the Timber expert
in their teams, especially if no existing expertise in their organisations
Experienced:
- Needs a platform to start from for their Timber learning, they have
useful utilisable skills in other materials so the cost for their
learning can stop them getting the opportunity - Experienced efficiency and a sense of relief that the embedded education
and information on codes were there for orienting them around key areas
Master:
- Needs to see a more advanced version of the software, things
like connection detail packs and more adjacent analysis features
for this tool to outright beat their current workflows - Experienced a sense of relief when delegating Timber tasks to
less experienced team members as calculations from our tool
were a far better option than spreadsheets
What we consistently heard
As you can see there are a variety of needs and opportunities to pay attention to, so we consider ourself lucky to be in the position that we are.
This was an extremely successful exercise and will unquestioningly be replicated across our growth marketins in the future.
What’s next?
What we choose to do with this information and these learnings continues to evolve, we are choosing to be open and build community by making sure that people are aware about what we are doing and why.
We are always open to feedback or ideas, so email through at admin@clttoolbox.com and let us know what you thought, check out our roadmap below
