Product Validation Pioneers is Centercode’s quarterly insights program spotlighting real-world leaders who run beta and pre-release testing. In each feature, we share practical lessons gathered from short interviews with practitioners who are advancing product validation inside their organizations. This edition highlights Jennifer Joseph at Bourns Inc. whose experience demonstrates that you can build reliable products without sacrificing speed.
Insights from Jennifer Joseph
Role and responsibilities: Jennifer leads the profitability (P&L) of Bourns’ multi-national Protection Division by overseeing Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, and Pricing. She also oversees strategic planning, including both the annual strategy and the five-year roadmap, while delivering against the annual operating plan (AOP).
Involvement in beta programs: Jennifer’s team engages customers with engineering samples during the product development process. These pre-release builds enable early validation of specifications and functionality under real-world conditions.
How beta testing impacted a product: In one program, customer testing confirmed the prototype met specifications at room temperature (25°C) but exposed failures at high temperature (125°C). That boundary-condition weakness would have been easy to miss in lab-only testing. Because customers reported the issue early, Engineering corrected it so the product could meet target-market expectations and reliability standards.
Biggest challenge in running beta programs: Time. Adding beta can raise concerns about delaying time to market and losing a first-mover edge. Jennifer addresses this with meticulous planning and disciplined execution to milestone schedules, treating beta like any other critical phase with owners, dates, and decision gates.
How success is determined: Jennifer favors a systematic, metrics-driven approach:
- Gather and categorize customer feedback and defects
- Assess severity and frequency to understand risk
- Assign risk severity and impact percentage to each issue
- Prioritize and set timelines for resolution, then track to closure
Trends and shifts: Two movements are accelerating validation: (1) pre-validation via simulation tools before building physical prototypes, and (2) cheaper, faster iteration loops. Together, they reduce cost and calendar time while raising confidence in the final design.
Advice for peers preparing a beta test: Allocate realistic timelines and follow a systematic, thorough process, especially for prototype builds. Clear criteria, disciplined triage, and aligned schedules ensure programs move forward without compromising quality.
Closing thoughts
Jennifer Joseph’s blueprint combines customer-centered testing with operational rigor: validate early with engineering samples, simulate before fabrication, and manage beta testing with the same intensity as launch. The payoff is faster, more reliable product releases, and the confidence to scale. If you’re evolving your product validation practice, her approach is a model for balancing speed, risk, and quality.
