Beta Testing Feedback Form Template: Best Practices and Examples

What is a beta testing feedback form template? How can you customize it to gather valuable feedback from users?

Beta testing is one of the most effective ways to gather feedback on a product, but getting useful feedback and handling beta testers is not always as easy as it sounds.

This article outlines some best practices for feedback forms for your beta tests and shares some examples to inspire you.

TL;DR

• A beta testing feedback form is a survey that’s used to collect feedback from beta testers about a product or new feature.
• Product managers can use the beta test feedback form to gather valuable design and feature feedback to understand customers’ needs, usability issues, or UI bug reporting.
• Developers can also use it to identify and fix any bugs before a major release.
• The key difference between beta testing vs. fake door testing is that beta testing is used to test products that are already developed, while fake door testing is used to test product ideas.

How to recruit beta testers:

• The first step to recruiting beta testers is to define your ideal tester. Determine the number of testers you need and segment users into categories.
• Use fake door testing to recruit beta testers by inviting them to test a new feature. Trigger a tooltip and prompt users to engage with the new feature (which doesn’t exist yet), track clicks, and figure out if it’s worth building.
• Recruit long-term happy customers who’ll be more likely to help you improve your product. Segment them with Userpilot.
• Invite users in-app with a slideout or modal to participate in the beta test.
• Reach out to potential testers via email.
• Announce your beta launch on social media to mass recruit beta testers.

When to collect feedback from users:

• Include a visible, always-on feedback widget in your beta version to encourage testers to give direct feedback.
• Use a popup or slideout to remind beta testers to leave feedback when interacting with the new feature.
• Send a “thank you” email to beta testers after they sign up and remind them to leave feedback.
• With Userpilot, it’s easy to manage beta testers and gather feedback from users.

Want to gather in-depth feedback from beta testers without coding? Get a Userpilot Demo with our team and get started!

What is a beta testing feedback form?

A beta testing feedback form is a survey that’s used to collect feedback from beta testers about a product or new features before launching it to the public.

Beta testing is a key step before launching a product because it helps you gain a better understanding of how users feel about your product, detect errors, and fix them before launching.

Who needs a beta test feedback form?

First and foremost, product managers that aim to improve the product experience should be launching beta tests and collecting feedback on new products or features.

With a beta test feedback form, PMs can gather valuable design and feature feedback to understand customers’ needs, usability issues, or UI bug reporting.

Then, this information can be used to identify happy paths and improve the user experience of your product.

Second, the beta test feedback form gives developers an idea of how certain features are being received by users so that they can fix any bugs and improve upon them before a major release.

Beta testing vs. fake door testing

Although beta testing and fake door testing are methods of validating product ideas, they do so in different ways.

Fake Door Testing is about rapidly validating an idea by inviting users to use a feature that isn’t actually there yet. This means the feature has not been developed yet; it’s only an idea.

On the other hand, beta testing is about testing a new feature with a small fraction of users, identifying usability issues, and improving the overall user experience before launching it to the rest of your user base.

How to recruit beta testers?

The first step to recruiting beta testers is defining your ideal tester.

Ideally, this should be your target audience, especially those who understand the problem your product solves.

However, if your product serves a broad audience, then segment users into categories and test out your idea in one segment. Next, decide on the number of testers you need. This number can vary depending on the product type.

That said, here are ways to recruit the right testers:

Use fake door tests to recruit beta testers

You can use fake door testing to recruit beta testers by inviting them to test a new feature. Only this time, the feature doesn’t actually exist.

Hence, the name “fake door test.”

To do a fake door test, start by creating a fake door. This could be a CTA button, a slide-out, a fake advertisement, or an in-app notification.

In this example, we use a tooltip and pretended Asana wanted to use a fake door test before adding their Goals feature.

Trigger the tooltip to prompt users to engage with the new feature (which doesn’t exist yet). Your tooltip must clearly explain the feature, the key benefits, and a strong call to action.

Users who click on the CTA are interested in using the feature. When they do, let them know the feature is not ready yet, but invite them to sign up as testers once the beta version is ready.

Track the success of the test and, from there, figure out if the feature is worth building or not.

Filter out your power users and loyal customers

Another way to recruit beta testers is from your existing customers.

You’re more likely to get feedback from happy, long-term customers who’ll help you improve your product.

Segment customers who engage with your app frequently or make repeat purchases from you. With Userpilot, it’s easy to segment your paying users and active users.

Invite them to beta testing with an in-app slideout or modal

After segmenting users, the next step is to design a modal. Personalize it and trigger the modal or slideout to grab their attention and invite them to test your beta feature.

Ensure the microcopy is easy to understand. More importantly, use a CTA that is bold and easy to understand, just like the example below.

Reach out to potential testers via email

Using slideouts might get you a handful of testers. But if you want a large number of testers, you might need to send emails to reach less engaged users.

This way, you can make sure they don’t miss out.

Here’s an example of an email outreach from Rand Fishkin.

Use social media to recruit test participants

When using slideouts and email outreach, don’t rule out social media. Announcing your beta launch on social media is another way to mass recruit beta testers.

Who knows, you could also attract new users who get curious about your product.

A simple image of your logo and a link to your beta product works fine on social media—just like in the example below.

What is a good beta survey?

A good beta survey is used to gather feedback from users who have been invited to test a product. It’s a great way to get insights into what they like, what they don’t like, and any other issues hindering their experience.

When to collect feedback from beta testers?

Collecting feedback from beta testers can be tricky. If you trigger an in-app survey at the wrong time, it could be ignored. A frequent trigger might irritate the user. In the hands of the wrong user, it might be filled incorrectly.

The key is to collect feedback from the right users at the right time.

So, when is the right time to ask for feedback?

Here’s some:

1. Include a visible, always-on feedback widget in your beta version to encourage testers to give direct feedback. A simple button works fine.

2. Use a popup or slideout to remind beta testers to leave feedback when interacting with the new feature.

3. Send a “thank you” email to beta testers as soon as they start using your product. Send an automatic thank you email to users after they sign up and remind them to leave feedback.

What questions to include in the beta feedback survey template?

When you’re assessing user experience, there are some specific questions you might want to ask your users.

Start by thanking your testers for using your product, and tell them you’d appreciate it if they gave early feedback on a new product.

Follow this up with a brief introduction of your product and the aim of the survey.

Start the survey by assessing customer satisfaction with the current version of the product.

An NPS survey works best for this. Data gathered here may be helpful later to determine how the new feature you’ve launched adds value and improves the product experience.

Ask the right questions to gather qualitative insights. The more specific your questions, the more precise and actionable the answers you’ll get. The best product feedback surveys are a mix of open-ended questions and multiple-choice questions.

Use multiple choice questions and open-ended questions only when there’s no other way to find the information.

Also, you want to understand what users love the most and least about your product.

Then get straight to the point and ask more open-ended questions about your beta version of the product.

Overall, keep the questions short and to the point to avoid testers abandoning the test midway. Don’t forget to leave other comments here.

Beta testing feedback survey examples

Here are a few particularly great examples of beta testing feedback surveys.

A beta testing feedback form template from JotForm

JotForm is a web-app tool that helps users create beautiful and simple forms without coding. The tool has hundreds of free templates that are fully customizable for different use cases.

Here’s an example of a beta product feedback form template in Jotform that can be customized and used for your product.

You can customize the text, add questions, and remove questions. The key is to keep it engaging so users don’t get discouraged.

Use a Product-Market Fit (PMF) survey for new products

If your product is new, PMF surveys can also serve as beta testing surveys.

PMFs measure the degree to which a product satisfies market demand. Here’s an example of a PMF survey built with Userpilot.

Ask simple questions, particularly one specific question where users can choose from multiple responses: very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, and not disappointed.

Sean Ellis, the founder of GrowthHackers, suggests that if more than 40% of your users choose “very disappointed,” then it’s best you stop building the product.

Figjam’s beta testing feedback

While this isn’t exactly a template example, it’s still a great way of collecting beta testing feedback.

Figma dedicated a forum to its beta version product, Figjam, and invited beta testers to give feedback in the forum on whatever they liked.

The support forum is a great idea because it helps Figma gather beta testers for future releases and attend to complaints from users without delay.

Also, they can announce updates to their audience as soon as they are released.

Jira’s new feature feedback survey

Atlassian triggers a product survey after the user has engaged with the new feature. First, users are asked to rate their overall experience with an emoji NPS survey, which makes the experience fun.

Then, users are given the option to give more feedback.

With small modifications to the copy, this template would be perfect as a beta testing feedback form template.

Postfity’s beta testing survey

Similar to Atlassian, Postfity also uses an in-app microsurvey to collect feedback after the user has interacted with the beta version of their new feature. In this case, the video scheduling feature.

They ask two simple questions: one to dig deep into how the user used the tool; and second, to understand the user’s experience with the tool.

Keeping the survey simple makes it easy for users to complete the survey faster.

Userpilot’s feature survey

Userpilot’s feature survey works great to collect feedback about a newly released feature. Limit questions to 2 or 3 at most.

Replies from users can help project managers understand how users feel about the feature. It can also reveal unhappy paths in the user experience.

How can Userpilot help you with creating and launching a beta testing survey?

With Userpilot, it’s easy to manage beta testers and gather feedback from them.

You can create in-app surveys that are completely customizable to fit your brand and suit your users’ tastes. However, you don’t want to show the same test to all your users at once.

This is why you need to segment your users.

Userpilot lets you segment and invite relevant user cohorts to try out your product.

You can even create long-form surveys with Typeform and embed them in your app. This way, you have a beautiful, responsive form to collect surveys without writing a single line of code.

Conclusion

Finding the right people to test your product is just one part of the best testing equation.

Once you’ve identified your beta testers and have something to test, it’s important to have a way to collect their feedback and incorporate it into your final product.

Want to gather in-depth feedback from beta testers without coding? Get a Userpilot Demo with our team and get started!