This month we interviewed one of our most experienced testers in a new market for Testbirds – China. We are happy to introduce you to Jason, from Shanghai.
First things first: Tell us about yourself.
My name is Jason. I am currently living in Shanghai, China. I am working as a support engineer in the tech industry and I do freelancing such as translating and testing. I am personally interested in electronic gadgets such smartphones and tablets. Outside of testing, I like to do some simple tinkering with the devices I have, such as flashing different ROMs to my Android devices. I also enjoy playing sports such as tennis and badminton.
How did you find out about Testbirds?
It was a couple years ago when I was looking for something interesting to do during my free time. After a quick search online, I stumbled upon Testbirds. After reading some good reviews on the internet, without hesitation I joined and since then did a number of tests.
Why did you decide to become a tester?
Firstly, it is because I am passionate and interested in testing out new things. Secondly, I was trying to find a way to generate some income from the devices that I own, and from the free time that I have. Testbirds offers the balance of choosing my own time for testing, as well as giving me the opportunity to try out new products.
Tell us about one app or website you wish Testbirds had tested before it was released.
The Podcast app in iOS! The app is pretty bad and full of bugs, especially for the one I have on my iPhone5s running the latest iOS 9.1. It is just painful to use, especially when the app is supposed to be simple.
What question would you like to ask Testbirds?
I do have one in mind. It is difficult for me to respond to invitations as they usually arrive in my inbox in the middle of the night. My question is, what will Testbirds do to make it easier for testers in different time zones (such as those in Asian countries) to have the same opportunity to participate in global tests?
Good question! Here’s the answer to your question from our Crowd Manager Andreas:
Hey Jason, thanks for asking this question! I understand that this is very inconvenient for you. There are two different reasons that lead to these invitation times. When we are doing a global test, i.e. a test with people from around the world, we set deadlines to accommodate the majority of invited testers. As we continue to grow in Asia, you will get more and more invitations convenient for Asian time zones. As we often have to work under tight schedules, we have to accept the Bird who signed up quicker, if the two are equally qualified.The issue of late night invitations also occurs for testers located in Europe and the Americas, because of the way our system sends out invitations. To avoid unnecessary rejections of testers, our Nest only invites a few people at a time. Depending on the reactions, more or fewer invitations are sent out until all places are filled. An example: We need 30 testers for a project, so the system initially invites 50. Out of those 15 accept the invitation, so 15 are still missing. So after a while, the system invites another 30 people, which leads to another 10 people signing up. This continues until we have enough testers or the system calculates that there might not be enough testers until the end of the sign up phase. Then we will have to invite even more people because time is running out. If you receive invitations midnight, it might be that the invitation process started already in the afternoon, but there are still places left. We are doing our best to make testing a positive experience for our testers and we always consider new ways to improve your experience.Hopefully, this insight about our invitation process answered your question. Thank you for sharing your story with us Jason! We look forward to keep on testing with you. 
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Josephine cares for our Spanish & English speaking crowd and is bringing some Latin spirit into the team. She is improving her German on a daily basis and surprises us with tricky words such as “Brandschutzbeauftragter”.
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Testbirds specialises in the testing of software such as apps, websites and Internet of Things applications by using innovative technologies and solutions. Under the slogan, “Testing Reality”, the company offers various testing methods to its clients looking to optimise the user-friendliness and functionality of their digital products. With over 250,000 registered testers located in 193 countries, Testbirds is one of the world’s leading crowdtesting providers. In addition, the IT service provider utilises cloud based technologies to support customers in the optimisation of their digital products. The combination of the two testing methods delivers a unique and extensive portfolio that takes the quality of software to the next level. Testbirds was founded in 2011 by Philipp Benkler, Georg Hansbauer and Markus Steinhauser. Today, the company has over 100 employees. Other than its headquarters in Munich, there are now offices in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm, franchises in Hungary and Russia and sales partners in Italy.
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