Discussions with white-label microsharing SaaS, called Headmix begin in Spring 2008. (I first wrote about this work here.) After six months of discussions, decisions and integration work, BlueShirt Nation (BSN) Mix went live to all Best Buy employees this week.

The original use case that prompted this integration has been joined by countless possibilities. The first public news of BSN Mix helped to quickly identify test volunteers and the uncovering of new use cases that we might not have conceived.

Now it's on. BSN Mix was on a staging site for about three weeks. Stage testers were solicited directly and put the site through it's paces. We learned a lot!

The feedback from stage testing helped us to adjust the user interface. We reduced barriers to posting by eliminating steps. We changed the organization of group content and we adjusted the layout in an effort to make organization of content more intuitive.

I tempered my expectations pre-launch. By doing so, I underestimated the enthusiasm of BSN Mix's early adopters. They have already started calling themselves “Mixers.”

Some of the passionate BSN users have jumped into Mix with both feet and embraced it from the first minute. One devout BSN user seemed reluctant to check it out. He self-deprecates and calls himself “tech-challenged.” He seems pretty pleased with Mix now.

These first users spent the first couple of days hammering us with comments and bug reports. It was fantastic. Most of the discovered issues were minor. The most dramatic bug reported using BSN Mix was about BlueShirt Nation; it had nothing to do with BSN Mix. That bug was caused by a system update that was performed shortly after the Mix launch. Bad timing perhaps because the users pointed to Mix as the culprit. Even that “major” bug was solved within 20 minutes of reporting.

Some of the user suggestions were so obviously smart (and easy to implement) that we just did it immediately. For example, during the first couple of days we added a widget to the front page that shows “new users.” That prompted suggestion to add a widget for “new groups.” It was a forehead-slap-obvious suggestion that we needed from that user. It was added minutes later.

The comments and suggestions we received during these first few live days have affirmed some of our decisions for the roadmap. Improvements coming to BSN Mix in the short term will include improved SMS mapping, an Outlook plug-in introduction, and greater integration with the primary content in BlueShirt Nation.

Fortunately, not all of the content posted to Mix during these first few days was about the site and it's operation. Some posts were about BBY'ers communicating for advice, posing questions or seeking business related input. One post that stands out to me was from a Media Supervisor preparing to go through her first Black Friday. She was looking for advice about her preparations and asking for suggestions. Mixers were eager to give her in-depth advice from positions of experience.

I am taking all this initial excitement with a grain of salt. This is, after all, very early in the honeymoon period. The launching of BSN Bazaar taught me that BBY'ers are quick to try. The content will need to continue flowing and the user interface must continue improving for the site to remain relevant.

Ultimately, the real test of BSN Mix will come when early adopters who fit our original use case make their way onto the site. If all goes well, I expect a Territory Manager (and hopefully her team) to join Mix next week to provide this proof of concept.