Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?

20 points by e_zr 3 years ago | 28 comments

Some friends of mine founded a devtools startup, building a collaboration tool for dev teams. They asked me for any ideas on how to get developers to try their SDK. I had no ideas of my own so I'm posting here hoping that someone can suggest some strategies/tactics they can use to get their critical, focused batch of beta users.

(If you're interested to try it yourself, you can check it out here - https://sdk.livecycle.io/signup2 )

Suggestions welcome and appreciated... Thanks!!

pkrotich 3 years ago |

Perhaps your friends interviewed potential customers (i.e buyers not just users) and arrived at marketing it as a dev tool for dev teams...

In my opinion - I'm not so sure if the product should be marketed to "dev teams" per se! To me it looks like a collaboration tool around product development... not just for developers.

I would think the primary buyer would be PMs (Product / Project Managers) who would then push for the tool-use onto the dev teams as a way to improve collaboration and close the feedback-loop across all stakeholders (design, marketing etc). Yes, for that to be a success it requires devs to love it and indeed make thier job easier, but I don't think they're the primary buyers. Developers, in general, are notoriously hard to sell to because they filter out marketing jargon!

e_zr 3 years ago | |

That's a great point. I'll show them your feedback. But since this is an SDK that needs to be installed on the preview environment, I assume a developer needs to be involved...

pkrotich 3 years ago | | |

I agree that developers are vital - but the buyer is who to market to, not necessarily the user.

chiefalchemist 3 years ago |

Speak in terms of benefits, not features. No cares about features. They care about themselves. "What's in it for me?" we all subconsciously ask ourselves. Benefits answer that question.

After that, make it super-simple to try out. The more friction, the less traction. Ironic, huh.

e_zr 3 years ago | |

Totally. Great advice. I think they're looking for more short-term suggestions for recruiting some folks to try their product and give early feedback

chiefalchemist 3 years ago | | |

Still applies. It's still a "sale" on Twitter. On HN. In forums. To colleagues. Etc.

Where to pitch is the easy part. Getting the pitch right. Well, that's where things go wrong too often.

Kepouick 3 years ago |

I would suggest that they develop and use the tools themselves. There won't be any better and diligent testers. Once customers join in they would have zillion of requests/ideas and then they have to sort between all of them to keep the product sound.

e_zr 3 years ago | |

Thanks! You're 100% right and I believe they are doing that. My understanding is that they've had a version 1 of product in the market and now they are now rolling out a new SDK version. They were asking for my help in finding ways to get beta testers for that...

Kepouick 3 years ago | | |

Would probably start off from customer base then. It takes time to test and report issues, so they would probably have to think to some incentive. If customer base it too low, then the question is rather how to attract new customers...

tony-allan 3 years ago |

Of the two options, I prefer to start here — https://livecycle.io/

I'll have a look at a tool if:

1. What is does blows my mind and/or it think it might change the world.

2. I'm super curious about how it works (the technology behind the tool).

3. I think that today or sometime in the next 12 months the tool will help me get shit done.

For example, not one hour ago I was blown away by the potential of WasmEdge (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33792322). Already downloaded it and run its Hello World program.

JoeMayoBot 3 years ago |

It has to be a lot better than what I'm using right now or give me a clear capability that nothing else has. There's that term, "There's no silver bullet" and that makes some people skeptical of the next best tool. It hurts if the learning curve is too long and good documentation/tutorials can help. Another consideration is if it comes out as a competitor to other tools in its class (e.g. UI Component libraries) during a version upgrade or when starting a new project, which is when I would evaluate which tools to use for the project.

aristofun 3 years ago |

How cane you expect someone willing to try your new thing if it’s not even clear from your website what is this thing even doing exactly?

e_zr 3 years ago | |

I sent them your feedback :-). Did you check out the SDK landing page? maybe that's clearer? https://www.sdk.livecycle.io/signup2

BunnyPafi 3 years ago |

I think if you just put more focus on what people get out of it, it will work. Engineers just don't like BS, so if you beat too much around the bush they just won't try it because you're selling too hard. IMO it looks very cool, I'll check it out over the weekend. If I can make my designer use it :)

eladav 3 years ago |

I know the product and it’s a real gem. There are some cool use cases for this that I think can be showed off more. As a FE engineer I spend a lot of time being reviewed and having cycles of design and UX fixes and touch ups, doing this quicker and more accurately is valuable, maybe it’s possible to emphasize it more?

mejutoco 3 years ago |

Write excellent documentation, with simple, interactive examples showing the value of the tool.

solardev 3 years ago |

I can't tell what your service does. The website could use more clarity, maybe a few bullet points with precise screenshots or short animations instead of videos.

e_zr 3 years ago | |

Thanks. I'll tell them to add those. Did you check out the SDK landing page? maybe that's clearer? https://www.sdk.livecycle.io/signup2 My understanding is that this is aimed at FE development teams who are already using a preview environment platform (like Vercel or Netlify or something like that) to get preview environments for their PRs. When you install this SDK, you get the ability to leave review comments on top of the preview environment, so the different people on your team can see feedback in context and make fixes faster.

solardev 3 years ago | | |

That's the page I'm talking about. It doesn't mention anything about preview environments and comments, at least at a skim. Videos are great for details but not for figuring out what a service does at a glance.

And FYI Vercel already offers built in commenting in the precise environments. I think it's in beta but we have it enabled on our preview deployments.

assafk 3 years ago |

My team works remotely and it's actually looks like it could be valuable to us.

Like others have said, I'd suggest to polish the messages on the marketing site

zubairq 3 years ago |

I watched the video. The idea is quite good. I would skip all the talk and just demo the product to see if people like it... show , not tell!

e_zr 3 years ago | |

You're very kind!

sargstuff 3 years ago |

search engine term "beta testing case studies", "finding beta testers", ""beta tester resources"" brings up a variety of possible concepts/sources.

sargstuff 3 years ago |

Hire someone with sales/marketing experience, ASAP.

What type(s) of dev teams? sales, marketing, etc. Ah, ok end of 2nd sentence -> developers.

Why would someone develop NEW SDK for a 80's c64 commodore for sale reps when current stuff is supported/understood by by both in-house IT, sales reps and management.

sargstuff 3 years ago | |

Commodore 64 emulation under raspberry pi would allow for running off battery, make it poratable, and allow for using internet interface & modern storage devices.

All of which wouldn't change the groups understanding of how to use the old SDK.

With extra resources on pi, would be able to port everything over to open source version of VMS & use non-monochromatic terminals! (perhaps even emulate the c64 under openvms and slowly roll out port behind scenes)

e_zr 3 years ago | |

For sure. I agree that marketing is super important for them... They're focused on Front-end development teams. Helping the workflow between designers, PMs and developers work faster and better.

sargstuff 3 years ago | | |

Yes, but having reader work to figure out basic overview information is quickest way to generate negative information. (even more so when consider product is designed to generate clear/better/faster communication).

Given a stack of academic papers, what would the typical reader do if had a choice between a) read a paper & develop an introduction/abstract before deciding if paper is worth time to read or b)move on to paper(s) with introduction/abstract spend 0 time the paper without an abstract/introduction.

Someone with sales/marketing background (friend, google advice) would be aware of things such as https://www.questionpro.com/blog/beta-testing-community/

Recommended hire or see a consultant with suitable background, because then can assess if there are conflicts (aka competitor) with advice being given before potentially waisting time on a suggestion(s).

Yes, even if end product will be open source.

sargstuff 3 years ago | |

Now, would just having a link to go see what can do with SDK been as interesting a read?