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RoadTest Review Writing: What Happens with the RoadTest Doesn't Work Out As Planned?

rscasny

I get this question ever so often: My roadtest didn't go as planned or what I wanted to do didn't work out or I had a problem."

 

How should I write the review?

 

First off, I think a roadtest that doesn't go as planned can be an opportunity for a great review. Things that didn't go as planned happen all the time in the real world, so roadtests are no different.

 

This is how you can handle these roadtests:

 

1. First, enter a comment on the roadtest page. Describe the situation in detail. Adding any important reading, data, screenshots. Ask for help. Members often help other members. So, feel free to ask.

 

2. If you are really stuck, message me at I can call my liaison at the sponsor and we will get you more help. Avoid using the public tech support email, chat or form. The reason not to is that they may ask you for your invoice number, P.O. number, where you bought it. The roadtest program is special and most of those tech support reps would not have the means to deal with it, administratively.

 

3. If the above don't work, then go ahead write the review and show us how far you got. If you had hoped to test it in a system and then learned it was incompatible, just tell us about it. This can be valuable information for our sponsor.

 

Randall Scasny

RoadTest Program Manager

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  • In my opinion, road testers are not obliged to create a working product demonstration. They are there to test the ins and outs. Sure, it is generally the intention to develop a project of sorts as I find that is the best way to learn - i.e. when you have a problem to solve.

     

    So, in my opinion, the emphasis of approach is to document the difference between your user assumptions and intentions made at time of first reading about the product, and the intended solution, and the actual user experience getting to know a product, when trying to solve the particular problem. Where did you come unstuck. Was it project documentation, was it a hardware fault or firmware bug etc. or was it simply too complex (they over complicated things).

     

    So, it is the development journey that matters for engineers and developers (as this helps determine development risk) and not simply a working product demo, which merely satisfies the marketing crowd and twitter feeds.

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  • In my opinion, road testers are not obliged to create a working product demonstration. They are there to test the ins and outs. Sure, it is generally the intention to develop a project of sorts as I find that is the best way to learn - i.e. when you have a problem to solve.

     

    So, in my opinion, the emphasis of approach is to document the difference between your user assumptions and intentions made at time of first reading about the product, and the intended solution, and the actual user experience getting to know a product, when trying to solve the particular problem. Where did you come unstuck. Was it project documentation, was it a hardware fault or firmware bug etc. or was it simply too complex (they over complicated things).

     

    So, it is the development journey that matters for engineers and developers (as this helps determine development risk) and not simply a working product demo, which merely satisfies the marketing crowd and twitter feeds.

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