Useful beta exit criteria state which user scenarios must work, for which target segment, under which constraints, and what evidence the decision owner will accept.
Define the decision before reading the result
Name the state the team is considering: continue private testing, release to a bounded segment, expand access, hold for repair, narrow the promise, or stop. For that decision, list the user scenarios the product promised, the target segments, operational constraints, and the evidence available from sessions, usage events, support reports, and issue records. This prevents a broad idea of positive feedback from substituting for an explicit release question.
The GOV.UK Service Manual describes beta as a phase for real-user testing, iteration, performance evidence, support preparation, accessibility work, and understanding the wider journey before live service. A private product beta may have a smaller governance surface, but the underlying discipline carries over: criteria should cover the whole promised scenario and the conditions required to operate it, not only whether a demo succeeds.
Write pass, hold, and narrow conditions
For each scenario, specify the event or observation that counts as completion, the evidence source, the segment, and the defect or uncertainty that blocks the next state. Separate must-fix conditions from requests that can be deferred. Add a narrow condition when the evidence supports one segment or workflow but not the full promise. Keep thresholds fixed during synthesis unless the decision owner records why they changed.
Beta Decision Dossier is prepared through Reality Contact, LLC from the buyer's supplied evidence and criteria. The buyer makes the product decision and remains responsible for engineering, privacy, accessibility, security, legal, and operational review. The dossier can show what the bounded record supports; it cannot establish universal demand or assure the behavior of a future release.
Where the service stops
Reality Contact, LLC synthesizes the supplied beta evidence and prepares bounded options, but does not decide for the buyer, repair the product, certify security or compliance, infer population-wide demand, or promise release performance and adoption. The buyer approves the must-fix set and release boundary, assigns repairs, decides release, hold, narrow, or stop, and reruns the named acceptance scenarios before changing the beta state. This is research synthesis and decision-record preparation, and it does not replace legal, security, privacy, accessibility, or professional review. The buyer approves the criteria, chooses the product state, assigns repairs, and reruns the acceptance scenarios before changing the beta boundary.
Sources: GOV.UK guidance on beta evidence and readiness; Maze product-research study and reporting capabilities.