Power User Page Gone?

#30

That’s my experience most of the time as well. I’m sure most of the tests (especially hardware tests) are enormously popular and they get more applicants than they could possibly every need.

I’ve had better luck with individual company’s Centercode platforms, but it’s never a 100% thing and can still spend considerable time on the application only to get rejected. I had a few tests that were for an item that I am an enthusiast and considerable technical resource on other forums for, made that clear in the “tell us about yourself” section, and still got denied.

You’ll also spend a bit of time researching where to find the various Centercode sites. Some are buried on the company’s domain, some are subdomains on Centercode’s site, etc. There are also sometimes “keys” to apply to tests that aren’t shown to every member of a particular Centercode site, these tend to be buried in user communities related to the brands and are harder to find.

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#31

Power user was really more active when your allow to do reviews on Amazon but some say it’s bias since you get it for free. But after the crack down from Amazon Anker moved towards social media like youtube and how many followers. It’s understandable but yeah it is what it is now.

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#32

1 out of 12 is actually not too bad of a hit rate. I only apply for hardware betas in general, and assume it will be less than 1 out of 10. But over time that adds up.

And it doesn’t take long to do the applications once you have done a few. Most of the information is the same, and I have some standard relevant answers saved in a note I can reference as needed.

Some of the tests the target audience is VERY specific and the applicant pool is huge. On the other side, at certain sites I recognize testers from years of overlapping betas at this point.

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#33

I think they make the mistake of quantity over diversity in their testers.

There’s often very simple bugs in released products which implies they had testers not do much beyond an unboxing (or they ignored the tester feedback).

This undermines the pre-order risk, they are asking for folks, before reviews exist, to buy the Soundcore Frames. If you look at their last product - Liberty 3 Pro - there are very basic bugs in the released product. Given you’d expect a 20%+ discount after month+ , why pay to be a guinea pig?

Can’t skimp on testing and ask for pre-order, and when you do see reviews often it’s not with all the features tested which are the very reason you’d buy the new product vs the predecessor.

So for audio product, they need some diverse Android and iphone and Windows and Mac and IOS device owners and get all combinations to be tested so basic, try with ANC, try with Ambient, etc. The number of combinations is indeed significant which is why diversity of testers required, not just very similar people doing nearly identical testing.

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#34

Well I’ve given up so I’ll stick to Anker’s Testing Events whenever they decide to do them again lol.
What did you get to test from Betabound?
Are you allowed to talk about it?

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#35

There is a distinct differences between Anker’s Power Users system and beta tests that I’ve participated in for other companies:

Most betas (I think Apple’s iOS beta is the only exception I’ve experienced) require you to sign an NDA. They absolutely do not want you talking about the product. This is sort of the opposite of the Power Users program, the requirements for which seem to be based on how many people the selected tester can tell about the product.

It’s pretty clear why they want the NDA from my testing experience in other platforms. The product is unreleased and may or may not be released, or may have significant hardware or software changes based on what is found in the testing.

They likely would not want you to review the product if it is truly in beta, as they can be pretty rough at times or not have all of the features built right away. If I were reviewing a wireless router and my review mentioned “SSID stops broadcasting after 12 hours of uptime and device would require a restart to get it back”, that would turn lots of people away from the new product. I had another device where the first beta was 2 months with a stripped down feature set and an “end of beta” survey, a few month break, and then another month of using new firmware with more features added. Stuff like that is the reality of beta testing. You need some tolerance for things not quite working and needing to be dialed in.

Beta testing is fun, but it is also a bit of work. Premature hardware failure (and return shipping for post-mortem inspection if this happens), taking steps to try to narrow down how to reproduce an issue, duplicating it and grabbing logs, working with the product team or developers directly to get a fix and test the fix, short firmware cadences that include fixes from other testers and requests to see if you can reproduce a similar issue, etc.

Compared to this, the Power User program seems more geared towards marketing, not truly beta testing.

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#36

Most of it is still under NDA so I can’t give any specifics. From BetaBound specifically it’s only been some smarthome type stuff. But from finding various CenterCode sites I’ve done quite a bit of networking equipment.

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#37

Oh nice :+1: I’m gonna have to check Centercode

#38

Since this has blown up with comments:

Anker, if you are reading, I obviously am a good conversation starter and would love to influence others with testing products lol. :smile:

Seriously though, thanks for all the info everyone!

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#39

Sure, that’s why I’m talking about them. I can’t give a lot of information per NDA, but I have tested high-end earphones, vacuum robots, soundbars, and a lot of networking devices (routers, extenders…).

Obviously they ask you for some info, as they look for some certain demographic profile.

The good thing (besides of the fun of testing something that has not reached the market yet) is that sometimes (and if you do your “homework”) you can keep the devices once the beta test is over.

#40

Oh that’s pretty cool! Maybe I should give Betabound another try lol

#41

A post was merged into an existing topic: Spam Links / Accounts - ongoing

#42

Ironically after reading about it on here I figured why not. Threw in about 4 applications thus far and just got an email back today regarding it. Signed my NDA and the company is not your mom and pop company so I know it is going to be good.

#43

PowerUser is a social marketing thing here. It started as their way of getting Amazon reviews before that whole system got nixed.

They have some people as beta testers, some of whom started from this forum and possibly from that group as well. They actually have NDAs, and don’t talk about the program much on here. I am not part of that and never have been, despite expressing interest a few times. :slight_smile: But from what I can tell their participant list is short and possibly not as diverse of a range of testers as would be ideal.

#44

Ah, more competition for the good stuff… Sometimes I think we should all be more quiet about these programs.

Glad you got picked and that it should be fun. I hope it goes great - every now and then a planned beta is more like an alpha and the end result is hopefully a redesign. The good ones are really at consumer stage hardware but need software refinements.

I apply for any of the hardware betas that are listed on betabound, and getting a hit on 1 out of 4 would be a great rate overall. But I have been doing it long enough to have perspective on it. And good ones where you contribute effectively will be more likely to accept you again - two companies probably account for more than half my beta tests in the last 6 years.

#45

I always try to put as much into the ones I have done in the past just to not leave a bad taste in their mouth if I apply for something else of theirs. I am honestly stoked for this one because of the brand and the product itself. My wife hasn’t heard the end of it since I found out lol

#46

Oh man you are so lucky! Enjoy the item to test :+1:

#47

Regarding “keeping quiet about the betas”… I think of it sometimes, but sharing is love :)!

Anyway Betabound has a very strong US-focus, and Europe is maybe elligible for 1/4 of the total, so for me (living in Europe) there is not a big increase in competiton. BTW Jercox… I think that maybe we have shared some "network-related-company"beta?.. :wink: Your nick rings a bell

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#48

I definitely share as well. Just have to remember that I don’t want to be picked for every beta anyway, it would be too much work. Most people I know don’t consider a worthwhile tradeoff in any case.

I don’t specifically recognize your username, but I have done a number of “network-related” beta tests, and I tend to be fairly active on the forums while doing so, so very likely.

#49

Hey, someone besides me gets beta app fever :slight_smile: . I too have to remind myself that there are some devices that I don’t need more of or that sometimes I have time constraints and can’t always put the time in to do it really well.