Jake Francis - Leveling Up Beta Through Passionate Communities

Launch With Confidence

About This Episode

Passionate, engaged communities are at the heart of every successful beta program. It's been a theme that we've had in a lot of our episodes, and today's episode is absolutely exemplary of that. Jake Francis has built beta programs with the help of these engaged communities. In his current role as GPU Software Dev Engineer and Game On Driver PM at Intel, he connects with passionate, engaged communities to help lead their beta program when it comes to graphics cards.

In this episode, Jake breaks down how he built his programs at AMD and Intel, starting with Discord as a basis before leveling up through the use of Centercode. We talked about how Centercode’s integrations allowed him to scale quickly, why it’s important to build strong communities through trust and transparency, and how Intel sees deep value in a continuous beta program.

About Our Guest

Jake Francis is a SW GPU Dev Engineer and Game On Driver PM at Intel. He has been in the discrete graphics industry for 14 years, primarily focused on gaming graphics software engineering in roles such as software product management, gaming social media, digital marketing, software quality strategy & execution, and program management.

This breadth of unique experiences enables him to effectively communicate end user needs through to internal teams to drive meaningful change from critical feedback.

Jake has launched two successful delta/beta programs with Centercode as the foundation for each, taking advantage of Centercode’s API integrations for true input/output workflows.

Timestamps

(0:00) - Intro

(2:02) - How did Jake get started in beta testing?

(5:41) - Intel, testing with varied audiences, and communicating effectively

(12:45) - Recruiting from passionate communities, scaling programs, and dogfooding

(19:08) - Wearing multiple hats and resolving issues in a timely manner

(25:22) - Advice for new beta program managers

(27:40) - Leveling up a beta program from Discord to Centercode

(34:55) - Building strong communities via trust and transparency

(40:41) - How Jake leverages Centercode’s integrations to easily scale his program

(48:35) - Why AMD and Intel see incredible value in beta programs

(56:32) - How Jake tackles a new beta project

(59:36) - Transparency at Intel

(1:04:59) - How has beta positively impacted AMD and Intel, and how Centercode helped

Zero Cost Resources and Guides

Beta Test Planning Kit: https://bit.ly/sw_plan_kit

Beta Recruitment Kit: https://bit.ly/recruit_kit

Centercode Visual Theming Guide: https://bit.ly/visual_themes

Beta Agreement Kit: https://bit.ly/agreement_kit

The Beta Shipping Manual: https://bit.ly/ship_manual

The Tester Engagement Pocket Guide: https://bit.ly/tester_map

Beta Test Incentive Kit: https://bit.ly/incentives_kit

Beta Test ROI Kit: https://bit.ly/beta_roi_kit

The Definitive Guide to Delta Testing: https://bit.ly/guide_to_delta