During Dream.Me’s development, we ran a ~20-person TestFlight. The feedback was appreciated, but it didn’t change the core product because none of the testers were fromt the right audience.

That confirmed a lesson we already knew from experience: good testing starts with user fit.

Before launching Zephyr Studios LLC, some of the team spent time in QA roles including internal testing at a large video game publisher. There’s a reason most bugs survive open betas: surface-level testing reveals surface-level issues. If the tester isn’t trying to use the product for its intended purpose, their feedback doesn’t matter.

Now we build smaller test loops, with sharper targeting. We ask real users to use the product like they would on day one. No onboarding call. No hand-holding. We watch what breaks and what’s ignored.

The goal isn’t to find bugs. It’s to find friction. If a user forgets the product exists, that’s data. If they use it wrong, that’s design feedback. The biggest mistakes we’ve made came from building for feedback that was too polite or too unfocused.

Real testing requires real usage. That only happens when you choose testers who genuinely need what you’re building.

— The Zephyr Studios Team