I’ve lost count as to how many Beta testing opportunities I’ve been told that I’ve received the generic auto-generated “Nope” email 12 weeks after I forgot I had offered to participate some 34 weeks earlier. While I was successful at resisting the impulse to pad my profile with what I might surmise is an ideal beta testing participant, I still think I would have been a good candidate for at least one testing opportunities, of the 3 dozen over the last couple years. Looking at the remarkably consistent and steady Wyze new product launch tempo, and using as little critical thinking to make an educated assessment as to which beta testing requirements were most likely associated with which new product, it became clear that this was almost certainly not an issue of my profile not including some ideal combination of profile selections, and other than the conclusion I arrived at as the most likely, no other possibilities.
The Wyze team wasn’t disqualifying me on account of something I didn’t have listed, rather I wasn’t being chosen on account of something specific I did have listed. However, when I tried to test this assumption, I was still being flummoxed by what I had included in my profile or infrastructure descriptions that was being perceived by a company I do so love and spread the good word about frequently, and have made sure the Wyze folks in this forum are aware of… And POOF, the epiphany slaps me in the face because the very answer I was looking for was all packaged up nice for me to unwrap and discover what was going on.
In the intelligence community, the logical fallacies which were preventing me from finding the underlying information I was looking for are called “Mirror Imaging” and “Stove Piping”. With mirror imaging, when an analyst (me) observes or seeks to predict the behaviors and motives behind those behaviors (persistent exclusion in Beta testing) of an external entity (Wyze PMs) , but attempts to explain what those behaviors mean or predict when they will be triggered based on values and/or cultural mindsets they the analyst holds, and not accommodating the possibility of other variables. Basically, I was looking at it as though I were picking Beta Testers, based on where I would look and what I would look for, which is not useful. This lead me to stove pipe my potential sources of variables that could be triggering my omission to just the Beta program website and what’s included there, because that’s where I would vet testers if I were running the show, but I’m not.
Suffice to say, I now am quite confident as to the cause of these omission, and I think it’s safe to say that this post had done me no favors in this effort. The fact that the epiphany was triggered only when I circled back to verbal and online behavioral pattern that I’m fine cognizant is appreciated by no one, that being suffocating praise for anything and everything I love, is telling, at least for me and probably a few Wyze employees. I was looking in the wrong place, and not considered that the answer had nothing to do with the Beta portal profile, and everything to do with, well, me.
When I first signed up for a forums account here, no one was more excited about this company called Wyze than I was. You see, I become frustrated of watching the apathetic, “legacy” industries, most of which are dominated by 1-3 entrenched companies who ignore innovation in favor of building barriers to entry, all of which are essentially clones if each other below the surface, all operate the same way, using the same philosophies, regurgitating the same rehashed ‘new features’, and while they can all defend accusations of obfuscated price fixing, all enjoy the same bloated margins which monetized all their R&D investment costs over a decade ago. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING makes me more gleeful then to recognize when a new company is making a go at not just pushing through those barriers to entry, but simply ignoring them because they are based on the legacy industry’s antiquated and outdated practices, and their hubris blinds them to my favorite type of company, the Legacy Industry Disruptors!!
Wyze was essentially a sector disruptor, the consumer deployable in-home wireless remote view security camera sector of the consumer grade Smart Home industry. Who were they disrupting? Let’s see, Nest, Arlo, and a few dozen others all working from the same playbook. Have incredibly inexpensive hardware built overseas, add proprietary software loaded to provide the list of ‘premium’ features, charge 4-7 X COGS for the units (relying on the proven premise that the market will always perceive a higher cost with a higher quality, so long as the marketing strategy is sound), but then, open that spigot of automated monthly account access subscriptions, and charge them $19.99/ per month to be able to access these cameras, which obviously don’t work otherwise.
How did they disrupt? Offer a products that are equipped with 1. The exact same type and performance of ‘premium’ functions as Nest & Arlo, 2. Which offer a superior performance of those ‘premium’ functions, or 3. Offer additional functions that the other brands don’t have, thus, truly ‘premium’ features. Borrow just the first page of their playbook, hardware is manufactured overseas, and if there is an existing unit to avoid the design expenses, that’s even better. Then hire the best programmers available who will be able to leverage every bit of awesomeness from that hardware. Now for the disruption time, instead of fleecing the market with the other companies, let’s see what happens when someone undercuts them by… Let’s try… 400% so instead of $125/ camera, let’s do $24.99! And to really get them squirming, make the software pretty much open source and provide server access with a basic level of video recording server storage for each camera for free, forever, and GO!
Wyze ranks up there with Tesla Motors, Netflix, Cirrus Aircraft, and those whose names aren’t known yet, but wait till they show you what they are offering! So, I can get carried away with this praise, EXACTLY LIKE I JUST DID. But a deliberate shirking of brevity is hardly enough to black list someone, I know. It was the level of comfort I developed here in the Wyze Forums, it caused me to let down my guard a little too much (yes, this isn’t as bad as it can get), and I started to become too casual with my contributions and even my screen name.
Let’s just say, that the sweetest person on Earth, dear @UserCustomerGwen was forced to have a one-on-one, day of reckoning, and had to have a boundary setting PM with me, that was probably not what she wanted to do or a good use of her time. And THAT ladies and gentlemen, is the reason. I’m still in the penalty box because of my over exuberance for brand, and my inability to ratchet it down a few notches. Please note, now that I’m confident that this is the issue, I don’t in any way think that this is unreasonable. Beta testing is not something that can often afford to be handled carelessly. I know because my company designed and built an a few hundred ADS-B receiver modules for DoD, and I wouldn’t have let me near them if all I knew was this ridiculously verbose personality I’ve created here.
I was thrilled to see that Wyze did begin offering an opt-in for those testers who weren’t chosen to be told precisely why they weren’t. I chose to opt in, but we’ll see if the justifications are true to the Wyze corporate culture, and give it to me straight. Don’t hold back, Yo’s, we can’t address an issue if we don’t openly acknowledge an issue and those with the issues take ownership of their shortcomings. I already dun did that, so you don’t need to sugar coat it.
Alright, I certainly feel better. This was like therapy!!! Who do I make out the check to for the $440/ hour emotional therapy rate?
Good talk
Dad, I was thinking about opening a lemonade stand, waddaya think?
No point son, Amazon’s got it covered.
Looks like you’re developing a hemorrhoid. Can we get you some salve?"
Oh, I guess so. Blondie’s been after me about that. Same-day shipping?
Steals your wife.
