Are You an “Ideal” Beta Tester?
So you want to be a Betabound tester, but you don’t feel like you’re the beta testing “type”. Fear not, normal non-geek human person — not every beta tester is a 22-year-old engineer that builds computers in their spare time! In fact, Betabound is an incredibly diverse community full of all kinds of folks who just happen to share an interest in trying new products.
It’s not uncommon be a little intimidated, or even feel like you might not be a good beta tester because you’re not a techie. In fact, some of the most popular questions people ask our support team have to do with finding out if they’re an ideal candidate for testing, or if they have the right requirements or skill sets to be a part of our community. The answer we give them is: if you feel like you might not be, you most likely are. Here’s why.
What Defines an “Ideal” Tester
In today’s world, technology is everywhere. From college students to stay-at-home moms, construction workers to senior citizens, almost everyone is reliant on a plethora of tech products in their everyday lives. Over the last few years, we’ve tested hundreds of these tech products with thousands of diverse testers.
The variety of these products has meant that we’ve needed a wide range of people to test them and give feedback. Recently, we’ve looked for families to test products so we could get feedback from both parents and children. We’ve recruited fitness enthusiasts to test wearable exercise technology. We’ve tested Android feature phones — in one case looking for testers who had never owned a smartphone before. We’ve tested all kinds of products, each one aiming to solve different problems for different people.
The goal is to find testers who would most likely buy the product once released. Often this isn’t cliche early tech adopters, but rather more mainstream users. Before we recruit testers, our client company will give us a set of demographic and technical requirements testers should have for that particular test. Things like age, geographic location, technology ownership, interests, and experience are regularly considered, all in an effort to find the right testers in order to gain the right kind of feedback.
Betabound also runs tests for niche products requiring very specific types of testers to participate. In a recent tester recruitment, we were looking for people with different levels of hearing loss to give feedback on a new product. With such a variety of tests offered you can see why there is no such thing as a single “ideal” tester. We need thousands of ideal testers for the hundreds of different products.
What’s Actually Required to Be a Beta Tester?
As long as you have a reliable internet connection, a home address, and an interest in testing, we welcome you to sign up to become a beta tester!
The United States requires that a person must be 18 years or older in order to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Because almost all beta tests require testers to sign an NDA, most people under the age of 18 cannot beta test a product by themselves. While we do run tests where families can participate together, it’s rare that we’ll test a product where children participate on their own. Therefore, we require all testers to be at least 18 years old to join the Betabound community.
The profile of an ideal tester has almost nothing to do with demographic requirements. With so many products being developed for such different target markets, it’s a good thing if you don’t fit the traditional techie archetype. That being said, what could make you ideal in a sea of other demographically similar candidates are your communication characteristics. If you want to be an ideal beta tester, learn to effectively share your testing experiences with the beta team and fellow beta testers. If you’re responsive, can write clearly, and are enthusiastic about trying new products, you have a very good chance of becoming a great beta tester.