How do you know when you're ready to launch?
I have a SaaS app I've been developing for a few months. It's barebones. It's got all the basic features it needs to do what it does well. But nothing fancy. When do I "launch"? Technically people can sign up for it already but not sure when to actually launch. Or should I have a beta period first where I can get some real users to do some testing.
Thoughts?
The app is https://mylodocs.com
I think testing is important before launching. If you feel like you have the time and people to test, I personally would say have a beta testing period. But I wouldn't extend the test period for too long. I would mainly have the testers focus on core features (the things you're users would use most of the time). Hope this helps.
Yeah, I would feel more comfortable to get some real users who would be willing to test. Thanks for your response.
Now.
I'm not sure what you mean by "launch". Do you mean communicating about your app publicly?
My honest answer would be "launch as early as you possibly can". You'll always feel it's too soon anyway. But I'd say launch as soon as you have a minimal product that brings value to the user, even if that value is very minimal at first. Get feedback from real users as early as possible, to iterate and see what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong, and avoid spending hours on things that may have no short-term value to your real users (or confirm that you're spending time working on things that matter to them).
I used to work for a startup that built a SaaS for a very long time (I believe ~18 months) before launching the product, and to that day, I still believe this was the biggest mistake they did.