Sharon Rylander & Mario Sancho - Reflecting on Decades of User Testing

This episode of the Delta Huddle Podcast is really special, for a lot of reasons, mainly because it delves not only into the heart of user testing and what drives it forward, but also its history and where it came from. What we think of today as a “traditional beta test” or a “standard product test” didn’t start out that way. It took years of trial and error and learning about what makes testing great to get to where we are today with Delta Testing. Joining Centercode’s VP of Marketing Chris Rader to discuss the past, present, and future of User Testing is Sharon Rylander, Senior Director of UX Research and Strategy at Square Panda, and Mario Sancho, Chief Delivery Officer at Centercode. Sharon’s many accolades and accomplishments include winning a technical Emmy for her work at Sling, collaborating with Pixar Animators to bring miniature robots to life, and showing state of the art VR technology to the late Stephen Hawking. In the past 15 years, she’s worked exclusively with startups to help build out teams for UX, Beta Testing, Customer Support, and more, regularly intersecting with the fields of Analytics, Marketing, and PR. Her current role at Square Panda focuses on foundational literacy games for young children. And with nearly 20 years under his belt at Centercode, Mario brings a wealth of experience and expertise as the Chief Delivery Officer. His extensive background in beta test management, including roles in support, training, and sales, has been instrumental in ensuring that Centercode’s customers continue to receive the maximum value from all our services. Timestamps: (01:52) - How did Sharon and Mario Meet? (05:21) - User Testing during the Dot Com Bubble (11:28) - Why less resources results in an increased need for beta programs (12:36) - Why Delta outperforms Beta as a testing methodology (19:44) - The value of a good beta program (21:59) - How do you convince a company to start a beta program? (26:55) - Perceived reason for testing vs. actual value of testing (36:03) - How user testing helps break down silos in an organization (42:27) - What advice would you give to your younger self?