✦ Task type · Research and checks
Nobody on your team has received your onboarding emails
Sequences are reviewed as a list of drafts in a tool. They are experienced as interruptions arriving over a week, in an order that assumed things about you that were not true.
Email sequences are written as a set and received as a series. The gap between those two is where sequences go wrong, and it only appears when someone lives through the week.
What to put in the public brief
- That the task runs across a week or more
- That they must stay reachable and check regularly
- That they will create a real account with an email they control
- Roughly how many check-ins
- What you will do with their address afterwards
Keep the product and signup link private until a spot is reserved.
What to put in the private instructions
Say whether to use the product or not
And say it firmly. A tester who half-uses it produces a branch you cannot interpret.
Ask them to log each email as it arrives
Subject, time, and one line on whether it felt relevant right then. Retrospective recall at the end of the week loses the timing, which is the whole point.
Ask for the moment they would have unsubscribed
If any. Name it as a legitimate answer so nobody softens it out of politeness.
Ask them not to unsubscribe until the end
Otherwise the test stops at the finding rather than continuing past it.
Proof worth requiring
Ask for
A log of every email with timestamps, screenshots of any that looked wrong, and the unsubscribe moment if there was one.
Do not ask for
Their inbox credentials or a forward of every message. Screenshots and a log are sufficient, and anything more creates an obligation over their mailbox you do not want.
When this task type is the wrong tool
If the emails are not arriving reliably, fix deliverability first. An email rendering check covers placement and display for a fraction of this cost.
If you want to know whether one message persuades rather than whether the sequence fits together, test that message on its own.
Common questions
How long should it run?
As long as the sequence, plus two days. A test that stops on day three cannot find the email on day five that congratulates somebody on a step they never took, which is the classic failure of every branching sequence.
What reward is fair?
Twenty-five to forty-five dollars for a week of intermittent attention. The total work is small; the commitment is spread across days, and that is what you are paying for. Half up front is not possible here, so price the whole thing to be worth staying for.
Should they use the product during the week?
Have some testers use it and some not, as separate campaigns. Divergence between the two is exactly where a badly branched sequence shows itself, and running only active users hides every message meant for the inactive ones.
What am I actually looking for?
Timing that feels wrong, messages that contradict what they already did, repeats, and the point where they would have unsubscribed. That last one is the number that matters and it never appears in an open rate.
Thinking of taking this task?
The same job, from the other side. Rewards are set by the poster, so treat these as the range this task type usually sits in rather than a promise.
- Usually pays
- $25 to $45 for a week
- You need
- An email address you control and daily availability
- Proof expected
- A log of every email with timestamps, plus screenshots
Log each email as it arrives rather than recalling at the end. Note the point you would have unsubscribed, then do not actually unsubscribe until the task ends.
Create a worker accountTest your sequence
Set the reward and how many testers you need. Workers reserve a spot and stay reachable for the week; your signup link stays private until they do.
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