What Happens After You Click Submit?

Posted by Brad Day

Applying to a private Betabound Exclusive is arguably the biggest ‘rush’ on Betabound. Typically, you’ve received an email encouraging you to apply to a beta project. Since private Betabound Exclusives represent Centercode clients (and are therefore, very confidential) you usually won’t know much about the project. Details like what the beta product is, who the company behind the project is, what the full tester requirements are, or when the test’s start date is are purposefully left vague to protect the integrity of our clients’ beta tests. After reading a brief description of a private Betabound Exclusive that peaks your interest, you press ‘submit’. But what happens next?

We Review Your Application

First, the beta management team responsible for the project you’ve just applied to will receive your application. Depending on the volume of applications received, our team can select testers in as little as a few days to a couple of weeks — so hang in there! During selection, our test managers evaluate testers based on:

  • Do they meet the test’s basic requirements (e.g. living in a certain region, owning an iPhone, etc.)?
  • Have they participated in a Betabound-run test before? If so, how did they do?
  • Will they be a good fit for that particular testing opportunity?

Just because it seems like you meet all the requirements for a test, doesn’t mean you necessarily do — this is where our qualification survey in each private Betabound Exclusive comes in. For example, we might be looking for testers that consider themselves “novice” at installing tech products in their home. This would be because a client might want to only recruit non-techie consumers to ensure their product’s out-of-the-box experience is straightforward to consumers. So, although you might meet all the other listed test requirements, this unlisted requirement is what prevented you from being selected.

Or, perhaps you’ve lucked out and have participated in several projects managed by the Betabound team. In that case, you may not get selected for a test because we want to give a Betabounder with zero experience an opportunity to participate in one of our Betabound-run tests. Our community is 170K strong (and growing!), and we’re always looking to bring new testers into our projects. Things like a client’s budget and ability to produce physical beta units can impact the number of slots available per project, so our tests can be pretty competitive.

Answering the “Why would you be a good fit to beta test this type of product?” question on our applications is also key to your getting selected. Our test managers look at these answers to get a sense of your voice. Are you detail-oriented, and therefore, do you use proper grammar? Can you clearly and concisely answer a prompted question? Do you seem excited about this testing opportunity or passionate about this product? Before you click ‘submit’, it’s important to think about the importance of that text box in this way.

We’ll Reach out If There’s a Good Fit

Second, we’ll email you directly if you’ve been selected for a beta project you’ve applied for. If you don’t hear from our team within two weeks of applying to a test, you probably weren’t selected (but you’re always welcome to email us at hello@betabound.com to double-check).

Since our tests can be pretty competitive, we prefer focusing on the positive “Yes — you’ve been selected!” message rather than negative, rejection emails. If you choose to accept your slot, the beta project you’ve been selected for will be listed under the “My Projects” section in your Betabound tester profile. From there, our beta management team will reach out to you regarding the next steps on how to participate in that particular test.

Clicking ‘submit’ can be really thrilling — who knows what cool new tech product you might get the chance to explore? We just ask that you keep in mind how competitive our private Betabound Exclusives can be, and to please be patient. Our goal is to get every Betabounder on a test managed by our team, and as always, we welcome your feedback in the comments below or through emails sent to hello@betabound.com.

In the meantime, you can always check our homepage for beta testing opportunities from both Centercode clients (and other great companies seeking enthusiastic testers), as well as any available public Betabound Exclusive testing opportunities.

Still feeling overlooked? Make sure your account’s bases are covered.