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Comment by roryisok | Hacker News Reader

I have an app in the windows store with a few thousand users. When anyone emails me with feedback or an issue, I usually ask if they want to try the beta version (after I've resolved their issue of course). I've gotten about 15-20 part time testers this way, they've been a mixed bag. Some provide pages if detailed feedback, some barely anything.

When I have a decent, bug free mvp of the next version I'm going to fork out for usertesting.com

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Forget usertesting.com use Mechanical Turk(get testers to download screen record plug in for chrome to record/send you their tests..charge $10 or less a test). Way cheaper and you get more screen recorded tests for less.

I do something similar. I have a Android app that I sell outside of the app store. I did build some licensing and support infrastructure to allow for automatic notification of updates. There is also a Beta release channel. Therefore, I use the support conversation in order to see if they want to be flipped to that channel.

I also use ACRA and Tracepot to capture crashes and anomalous events. Users can also email me a debug log along with their current app settings. This has evolved over a 5 or 6 year period.

That actually sounds like a great approach! I can imagine you've triggered a sense of involvement or idea ownership in the most active ones. From my own experience, as a user, reporting a bug er suggesting a feature in a product, only to see it fixed or added, has a tremendous effect in loyalty and even promotion of said product. I think I'll definitely adopt this idea once properly released.

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