• Author Author: rscasny
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A Big Thank You to Our Element14 Roadtesters

rscasny

Part of my job at element14 is to manage the Roadtest program. That entails lots of every day activities such as speaking with suppliers about the products that they would like to roadtest or creating roadtest pages or even answering all kinds of questions. I also try to find ways to improve the program. To do this, I often create discussions and polls to get your feedback and your ideas on how to make things work better. With these things, I usually find out what I am doing right and sometimes what I'm not.

 

I recently ran a poll/discussion on the time it takes our roadtesters to complete a roadtest.  Now, I know roadtests are unpredictable. We roadtest such a wide variety of products such that each roadtest is undoubtedly unique. I figured our roadtesters put in a considerable amount of time. But I think when I saw the poll results, it put a number on how much time is spent conducting a roadtest. I've spoken to my boss about this poll. She and I have started a discussion on what else we can do to reward roadtesters beyond the product. That discussion is a work in progress.

 

But today I want to give a big thank you to all the roadtesters. I know you spend a lot of time on the roadtests. Speaking for the entire element14 community, I just want to say I value the time you have devoted to the roadtest program. I know most roadtesters have full time jobs, so the time you take to do a roadtest is all the more valued. Thanks!

 

Randall Scasny

Roadtest Program Manager


  • Thank you and #element14 for providing us platform to explore new products and use creativity of designers to evaluate these products. Looking forward for more such exciting roadtests. And Yes, for people with full-time jobs, we need to spend extra time working on these roadtests, but its indeed exciting and fun to do something different. I would love to see some RISC-V arch Dev board roadtest here, as this is one of hot topic today.

  • I think the element14 road test program is awesome.  Randall does a top notch job of managing the program.  Writing reviews requires a major time commitment, but I enjoy the experience.  The reward is free tech and feedback from the community, and sometimes, vendors making improvements to their products based on findings from reviewers.

  • As i suggest, an annual review and give some prizes to the best roadTesters is a good for encourage.

  • I would like to thank you Randall for bringing great projects to test and your continued push to get the community the test reports that keep the vendors happy.

     

    I have participated in road tests for nearly ten yours and yours has been the best management of the process in that time.

     

    Well done.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to Gough Lui

    I also have noticed that the first review to publish often gets the most views, and this is a factor for me in trying to do the best job I can for the manufacturer. Getting on with the job early doesn't take more time, but it can yield better view stats for the manufacturer. Lately it has been impossible to publish early as the kit is taking months to arrive. Fortunately it doesn't always hold that the first review gets most of the views. My last review (of thermocouple connectors) got over 7700 views even though the parts arrived six weeks after others had already published reviews. That review was never going to be quick anyway, since I had to wait for PCBs to be fabricated and shipped, but it ended up publishing 3 months after award. It wasn't the worst delay I've experienced though - I had to wait 9 months after award for the BBC micro:bit to arrive.