We are going to launch a bug tracking tool shortly. The product isn't completely ready but some of the core features are usable. We want to do a limited release so that the product can benefit from some customer interaction before we promote it aggressively.<p>Do you think that a invites-only beta is a good idea for such a product? Is there some other way of doing a selective/limited release without over exposing the product before its ready?
Invite beta is definitely the way to go. We are also launching an unrelated web app in a few months and found that invites-only beta is great way to get people talking about your app.<p>Read this as well:
<a href="http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch13_Hollywood_Launch.php" rel="nofollow">http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch13_Hollywood_Launch.php</a>
You can limit the number of signups without making it invite-only. You just make it first-come-first-served, and accept no more than X signups.<p>I'm assuming you've done a closed trial first, among yourselves (using it to develop itself, I hope!) and any dev friends you can gather. You definitely want to go through this stage before you open it up.