How your company can benefit from systematic user feedback

These insights are the result of a cooperation between the Competence Center Crowdsourcing at the Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik at St. Gallen University (HSG) and Greenliff AG.

It is directed at test managers and executives who want to use crowdtesting to improve software quality and user friendliness.

In this paper we will present three case studies, each of which represents an approach to crowdtesting that enables companies to benefit from crowdtesting:

• Companies use the services provided by an intermediary on demand to have an application tested by an anonymous crowd (for instance to test a public user application).
• Companies set up their own internal crowd of employees and utilise them to carry out tests (for instance to test an internal application).
• Companies use an external platform to have a number of their customers carry out a test (e.g. to test and participate in the development of new functions for an application).

We will illustrate the different approaches in each case and present specific benefits, challenges and potential solutions. Finally, we will provide a simple guideline to enable potentially interested readers to take their first steps in crowdtesting without any significant risk.