Ask HN: Solo app devs, how do you do user testing?
Solo dev for an app with hundreds of thousands of users. These are the things I do that ensure smooth releases:<p>• run a beta test group. These users consist mostly of users that have emailed in with feature suggestions or bugs. I ask them if they’d like to join the beta (e.g. they can check their bug is fixed). I frequently get great feedback from a few of these users.<p>• fiverr.com. Shell out $100 spread across a range of testers, and give them all slightly different briefings. Some feedback is terrible but there’s some gold there that’s really worth far more than $100.<p>• learn how to test your own product. It’s hard to do well, but you can learn. It’s a valuable skill that can really set you apart in a regular engineering job too.<p>• used phased releases. Pause the release at 1%, give it a few days for any minor issues to roll in and fix these before releasing to 100%.