I got an e-mail today inviting me to become part of the “Zwift Advisory Panel”. All I had to do was take a short 7 minute survey to see if I “qualify”. Now, to be honest, it probably wasn’t an invitation that I was going to accept since development companies normally pay me a bit more than “gift cards” for my advice, but I was rather curious to see what kind of questions Zwift was using to qualify members of its Panel.
So let’s jump right in. Question 1, what is my age? Question 2, what is my professional experience? And with that, the survey ended. Based on that information alone, I am not qualified to be on the Zwift Advisory Panel. It would seem that if you have been around a few decades and/or you are a software engineer, you need not apply. (Are you sure that you don’t want to know more about how I ride or how I use Zwift before making that determination?)
Definitely not a good look, Zwift. Here is some advice that won’t even cost you a gift card. If you want to avoid leaving the impression that you are ageist, ask a few more questions so that you have plausible deniability with respect to your reasons for rejection.
I’m not sure the emails are on the back of the focus group post.
Focus groups normally consist and have selected members based on certain criteria such as knowledge of a specific area or simply the ability to be objective in a discussion. I think this is why James asked for your forum name so that Zwift can assess your suitability based on previous posts.
Questionnaires similar to those mentioned have been seen before with equally controversial early exits from eligibility.
The previous questionnaire seemed to focus around the potential introduction of Zwifts own smart bike.
I can’t speak to this survey in particular, but in market research in general it is quite common that you exclude certain professions from surveys if they have too much knowledge about an area, not too little. For example for any marketing ones I have ever done, you’d exclude anyone in the marketing profession as it is very hard for them to answer subjectively as a user, you tend to get them trying to use their professional judgement instead. When I worked in the alcohol industry, you’d exclude anyone from the food and drinks industry for similar reason.
As has been said, we’ve seen these sort of survey emails before from Zwift.
They could do with making the end of the survey not quite so abrupt if you’re not in the target demographic, at least saying “thanks” but also that they’re looking for a very specific range of targets.
I did the survey but did not finish the registration, accidentally closed the browser… and now I cannot get back in to finish the registration. Help? Zwift?
It’s not about asking the questions, but being more sensitive to the customers (who are paying) to make it less obvious that their feedback or input is not wanted for that particular piece of work.
Hey all - the Zwift Advisory Panel has been in the works for quite some time. The goal is to give us a way to quickly gain feedback from the Zwift community.
Only select members in our Zwift community have been selected to participate in this panel, but we will be adding new members frequently.
If you are inquiring about how you can participate in this panel know it’s a random selection process at this time and if that changes, we’ll be in touch with you.
If you receive an email from us, we are inviting you to answer some screening questions to see if you are a good fit for the panel. We are looking to have a diverse group of members on the panel to start, and we will be adding members periodically, so even if you aren’t invited to join during the initial round, there will be later opportunities to join.
Reminds me of an timed aptitude test for a Software Engineer, involving alot of artihmetic. They will have been after a youngster with it fresh in their minds rather than somebody older more qualified and experienced.
Ah, I see. You randomly select people and then by having them answer two simple questions that say almost nothing about the person, their background or their experience, or even whether or not they would increase the diversity of the panel, you decide they would not be a good addition for the panel.
Not how I would select a diverse Advisory Panel but hey, it’s your show. Well, the process is clear and since it seems unlikely that my input (in this thread or otherwise) has any value to The-Powers-That-Be, it’s time to go ride.