I've been letting people use semi-supervised development previews of Timelinize[0] for a little over a year now -- it is unfinished, unpolished, buggy software, but I wanted to get it in people's hands while I stand by in real-time ready for feedback, to prove out the concept and see if I am even on the right track. I let users know it is in the very early, rough stages, and to really just follow the instructions and do the happy path for now.
The feedback is lukewarm, and most users are disinterested at this point. Which is unfortunate, since I believe that a fully functional application would actually draw them in, because a few testers did actually express amazement at the basic idea of what they saw the software do for them in an initial trial run. Most feedback got lost in the weeds of the known bugs and unfinished aspects, though, which didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, and it just discouraged testers from trying more/again.
Could be a did it wrong. But at this point I'm having to forge ahead in my nights/weekends and basically finish writing this very complicated piece of software in the hopes it'll be something great, even though it doesn't exactly have direct competition that I know of. (Ultimately, though, I just need it to be great for me and my family. I am just hoping others will find it useful too.) When I finally do release a public beta, it had better be good. That's what I know now.
PS. Looking for a different name that doesn't sound like Tylenol -- according to repeated user feedback.