Social QA Bootcamp
The Wall of Winners
The Sales Page
https://stevenboutcher.thrivecart.com/social-qa-bootcamp/
Table of Contents
I created Social QA Bootcamp to help testers create unique career opportunities by combining QA skills with business strategy – something rarely taught together in tech education.
Most tech courses focus solely on technical skills, completely ignoring content creation, marketing, social dynamics, and community building. Yet these social skills give you more leverage in your career than learning any single technology ever will.
This gap in the market inspired me to create a different kind of learning experience, one that intertwines technical and social skills to build truly future-proof QA careers.
The Vision
A Different Kind of Tech Education
After years of mentoring QA professionals through ADPList (2000+ minutes with mentees in 11 countries), I noticed most struggled with the same challenge: they knew how to test software but didn’t know how to position themselves for better opportunities.
I wanted to create a course that taught both the technical and the social aspects of building a successful QA career.
Social QA Bootcamp was born from the realization that the combination of strong technical skills and the ability to showcase those skills in public offers an unbeatable advantage in today’s market.
Why “Social” QA?
The “social” in Social QA represents two essential components:
- Building technical skills worth sharing
- Learning how to share those skills effectively to create opportunities
This approach resonated with students who were tired of traditional tech education that left them with technical knowledge but no guidance on how to leverage it for career growth.
Course Curriculum
Social QA Bootcamp offered a unique combination of technical training and social skills development:
Technical Skills
- Setting up and configuring Playwright test automation projects
- Writing, debugging, and optimizing Playwright tests for web applications
- Implementing CI/CD with GitHub Actions for test automation
- Using AI tools (like Cursor) to accelerate development and testing
- Docker fundamentals for local test environment management
- Practical exploratory testing techniques
Social & Career Skills
- Creating engaging LinkedIn content about technical projects
- Building in public to showcase skills and attract opportunities
- Meaningful community engagement strategies
- Using AI tools to enhance content creation
- Bug reporting skills that demonstrate QA expertise
- Personal branding for QA professionals
Community Service Project
The capstone of the bootcamp is a community service project where students are asked to:
- Identified a need in the QA community
- Created a solution that provided real value
- Documented their process and learnings
- Shared their contribution publicly
This project is meant to cement the technical skills while demonstrating the power of building in public.
No student has gotten this far in the course yet, but I’ll report back when the first student has.
Launch Strategy
I launched Social QA Bootcamp using a four-phase approach that gradually built momentum:
Phase 1: Free Beta (Limited to 10 People)
- Offered to select newsletter subscribers
- Gathered initial feedback on course structure
- Identified improvement opportunities
- Built anticipation through limited access
Phase 2: Paid Beta ($25)
- Validated willingness to pay
- 6 sales confirmed market interest
- Refined course based on paid beta feedback
- Created testimonials for full launch
Phase 3: Early-Access Waitlist
- 25 people joined the waitlist
- 5 waitlist members purchased during early-access (November)
- 3 more purchased during full launch
- 33% waitlist conversion rate
Phase 4: Full List Launch (New Year’s Day)
- Launched to 497 email subscribers
- 3 additional sales
- Final cohort size: 11 students
- $1,100 in total revenue
Student Outcomes
The bootcamp has produced remarkable results for students so far:
Technical Growth
- Students built complete Playwright automation frameworks from scratch
- Successfully implemented CI/CD for their test projects
- Created professional documentation for their technical work
- Identified real bugs in production applications
Career Development
- Some students landed their first QA roles while taking the course
- Students built valuable professional connections through community engagement
- Participants created professional content that showcased their expertise
Community Impact
No students have reached the capstone project yet, but they’ve been out in the community helping to test applications and contribute to conversations about testing and test automation.
Business Impact
Social QA as a business achieved significant milestones during its one-year operation:
Newsletter Success
- 500+ email subscribers
- 173 emails sent over one year
- 50% average email open rate (industry average is ~20%)
- Built a highly engaged audience of QA professionals
Product Portfolio
Successfully launched three paid products:
- AWS Cert Smasher - Study guide for AWS certification
- QA Job Magnet - Job hunting guide for QA professionals
- Social QA Bootcamp - Flagship course combining technical and social skills
Revenue Streams
- $3,600+ in total revenue across all sources
- Diversified income from courses, digital products, affiliate partnerships, and client work
- Sustainable business model with minimal overhead
Industry Recognition
- Featured in Software Testing Weekly multiple times
- Recognized as an innovative approach to QA education
- Established as a unique voice in the QA education space
Tools & Tech Stack
The bootcamp was built using a carefully selected stack of tools:
Course Platform
- ThriveCart Learn ($495 one-time payment) - Course hosting and sales
- YouTube (Free) - Video content hosting
- SoundCloud (Free) - Audio narration hosting
Community & Communication
- Telegram (Free) - Student community and discussions
- Kit (Free) - Email marketing platform
- Google Workspace ($6/mo) - Professional email hosting
Project Infrastructure
- Jira (Free) - Bug tracking for student projects
- Notion (Free) - Shareable bug report templates
- GitHub (Free) - Code reviews and project hosting
Development Tools
- Firebase (Free) - Backend for the app I built for the students to test
- Cursor ($20/mo) - AI-powered code editor
- Docker (Free) - For teaching how to debug CI/CD workflows locally
- Cap (Free) - Screen recording for tutorials
Marketing & Social Proof
- Senja ($29/mo) - Testimonial collection and display
The entire course infrastructure cost approximately $600 to build and launch, demonstrating how effective education can be delivered at a reasonable cost.
Though Social QA Bootcamp is currently in-progress with its first and only planned cohort, the impact continues through the ongoing success of its students and the resources created during the program. I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished together and the unique approach we pioneered in combining technical excellence with social strategy.
While I’ve since moved on to pursue new passions, the lessons learned from building and running Social QA will continue to influence how I approach education and community building in the future, and the 1st cohort continues to receive support from me as they make their way through the course.
When the first student completes the course, I’ll have more to share. Stay tuned until then!