Today’s episode is all about the greatest resource your testing program can offer you: your testers. Beyond the valuable feedback and insights you get from them during a project, testers offer an immense amount of hidden value and opportunity within a test program. While testers are obviously essential to a successful project, that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Great testers stay with your program, form the backbone of your testing community, and even have the potential to become the vaulted “brand evangelists” in the process. With the right amount of nurturing and engagement, brand evangelists become a force multiplier for making sure you launch with confidence.

Joining the Delta Huddle Podcast to discuss how to find that hidden value are Dževad Kudić, Co-Founder and COO of Talliez, and Chris Rader, VP of Marketing at Centercode.

Dževad is a veteran in the user testing field, having run programs for early stage start-ups, including Nest, which he supported through the acquisition to Google/Alphabet. His current company, Talliez, focuses on re-inventing consumer reviews to make them useful, engaging, and fun. And Chris’ years of experience in user testing has helped some of the world’s top brands to build, optimize, and revitalize their customer and employee test programs.

Together they discussed how to find and nurture quality testers, why brand evangelists are so important for great test programs, and how having a strong community leads to an even stronger impact on your products. There were a lot of fun anecdotes and great stories shared in this episode, and some excellent lessons learned about how testers can shape the direction of a product and even an entire company.

Timestamps: 

(01:44) - What is Talliez?

(03:24) - Leveraging Centercode across multiple organizations.

(05:06) - How did Dževad get into user testing?

(07:05) - Why do we have so many names for testing?

(10:22) - The dynamic nature of real world testing & effective recruitment.

(17:04) - How testing is like a “glass ball” for understanding your product.

(20:31) - Identifying great testers through marketing and asking the right questions.

(28:14) - How tester stories impact your organization beyond your testing program.

(29:59) - What does the term “Brand Evangelist” mean to you?

(34:39) - Why its crucial to make your testers feel valued within your program.

(37:48) - How Brand Evangelists can directly influence product decisions.

(41:47) - Brand Evangelists can help diversify your marketing strategy.

(45:36) - What are you optimistic about in tech right now?

Welcome to the first episode of the Delta Huddle Podcast by Centercode!

At Centercode, we believe in technology's ability to make everyone's life better, and over the last two decades, we’ve used the power of user testing to improve products, find solutions, and discover user delights. Now, we’re ready to bring those best practices and industry insights directly to you in The Delta Huddle Podcast

In the Delta Huddle Podcast, we aim to bring industry experts and visionaries together to share their insights about building products and bringing them to market. We’ll dive deep into the world of delta testing, learn about the struggles and successes of testing programs, and ultimately push the boundaries of what’s possible in user testing.

In this episode, our VP of Marketing Chris Rader sat down with Luke Freiler, CEO of Centercode, and David Perry, CEO of Carro. David is a member of the Centercode Board of Directors, with a successful history in tech and gaming. His new business, Carro, is an e-commerce partnership network used by over 30 thousand Shopify brands. Before Carro, David’s previous company Gaikai was acquired by Sony Playstation to establish leadership in the future of streaming video games from the cloud. That service is known as Playstation Now.

Both David and Luke brought some incredible insights and wisdom to the table. Together, they tackled topics such as the direct benefits of user testing, brand evangelism, tech optimism, doing more with less, and maintaining user delight.

Timestamps:

(0:00) - Intro

(1:50) - How did David and Luke Meet?

(5:55) - Video Games, Luck, and Generational Changes in Tech

(8:18) - The Importance of User Testing and its Future

(12:40) - Diverse Audiences, Launching with Confidence, and Tech Leadership

(18:49) - Codifying Delta Testing Using 20 Years of Experience

(23:08) - Using Centralized Tools vs. Building Everything From Scratch

(24:35) - Doing More with Less, Hiring Talent, and Maximizing Effort

(31:33) - Brand Evangelists, Content Marketing, and Maintaining Engagement in a Post-Covid World

(38:19) - How Do Expectations Change in an Economic Downturn?

(43:04) - Increasing User Delight By Decreasing User Friction

(53:43) - Tech Optimism, Persisting Challenges, and Closing Thoughts