Galaxus Beta - or why we are not the Titanic

Our website is currently still adorned with a "beta" logo. What does that mean? What are we currently working on? And what does this have to do with the Titanic?

Who likes to disappoint customers? Especially those who have just registered on the brand new site?

Time to explain what the "beta" logo on our website means. In short, it means that we have a functioning website, a small range and functioning payment processes. A "minimum viable product" (MVP), as we call it. If you look at Wikipedia you'll already know our secret masterplan.

• We want to learn quickly where we have opportunities on the market
• We want to know quickly whether the most important processes are working
• We want to quickly put what we have learnt into practice
• We want to have a solid basis for further development
• We don't waste resources on things that turn out to be unimportant

We regularly pursue the "minimum viable product" strategy. I use the poll tool as an example. We recently started using it to conduct short surveys among our readership in articles. When our engineering team implemented the request from the editorial team at the beginning of this year, I was annoyed to bits: we had to go to the data analysts every time to get the results of the surveys. What a pain in the arse!

I didn't have to be annoyed for long, a few weeks later we received detailed reports on our surveys and competitions. Instead of seeing it negatively, I now see such MVPs positively. The new feature may not be perfect yet, but I can use it straight away.

Open source pioneer Eric. S. Raymond wrote an interesting manifesto in his book "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". The book is aimed at software developers, but it describes parts of our philosophy quite well. One of the most central sentences in it is: "Publish early. Publish often. And listen to the users."

This is exactly what we are doing on a grand scale with Galaxus. Instead of recreating the Titanic and launching it with great fanfare in Hamburg, we are focussing on a lean speedboat. It's a solid first step that we are now working on. And on precisely the points that our anonymous commentator is taking issue with.

Managing Director Frank Hasselmann has already outlined our priorities: Top of the list is certainly expanding the range quickly. In addition to expanding the product range, we are also looking to significantly expand the payment options, which are currently poor. We naturally want to offer the most popular payment methods so that shopping is as convenient as possible. We from the editorial team look at which articles you like best and try to inform and satisfy you with competent articles.

We are very open to suggestions for improvement. We really live this, it's a core part of our identity. We have made a note of briefs and games. If you have any other wishes or ideas, let us know in a comment.

We are at the beginning of a journey - and we are happy about every customer who has already placed their trust in us.

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