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.
Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
11–20 of 30 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#12I 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.
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...
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#13Perhaps 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 f…
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...
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#14How 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?
I sent them your feedback :-).
Did you check out the SDK landing page? maybe that's clearer? https://www.sdk.livecycle.io/signup2
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#15I 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.
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.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#16Speak 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.
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
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#17Hire 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.
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.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#18I 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!
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#19I 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.
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...
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...
Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to get developers to try a new devtool?
#20I 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!
You're very kind!