Testing Automations

Before you setup any kind of automation, it's important to verify it will work right. We don't want the robots doing anything unexpected, after all. There are two basic ways to test automations in Pool.

Take Note: screener, question, and answer

Before you begin testing, the most important thing to do is note down or memorize at least one question, screener that contains that question, and "correct" answer for triggering your automation. This will give you the formula for filling out a screener and then seeing if your automation runs correctly in either testing format below. See below where you can take a screenshot or note down the following: 1) Question 2) Screener 3) Answer

Quick Test: Simulation 

In the process of creating or editing an Automation, there's a test step. This gives you a simulation where you can select a screener, question, and answer to see if they will run an action or not. Think of this as the quick test because it doesn't actually result in modifying your Pool records. 

Using the screener, question, and answer you noted from the very beginning of this help article, you should see this kind of success state for Action:

Real test: fill out a screener

After you've saved and closed the automation, we'd recommend the following steps to run a full test of your new automation.

Before you Begin: Open Screeners in a new tab

To make testing easier, open up Screeners in a new tab, and leave Pool open in the first tab.

Step 1: Find screener 

From Screeners >> Overview, tap S to search for the name of the screener you noted in the beginning of this article, from the triggers & conditions step of creating your Automation 

Step 2: Preview Screener

From the search results, find the screener you noted down, rollover the blue pencil icon, and  click the white globe icon to preview the screener  from Again, this has to be  the screener you noted down from the beginning of this help article so that it contains at least one question you can use to test the automation. Using Preview ensures that even if the screener is turned off, you can still fill it out.

Step 3: Fill it out "correctly"

Fill out that screener using the question and answer you noted down from the beginning of this article and make sure to enter an email - if you don't then it won't appear in Pool or work with the automation. It's not important to use a real email at all, and you can always delete this new Pool Member after you've run the test.

Step 4: Check Automations Activity (up to 1-2min)

Head back in your first tab to Pool >> Automations >> Activity to see if the automation worked, and you should see the email you used at the top of the activity page. Please note the following tips for this page:

• You may need to reload this page if you don't see the response
• Emails may take up to 1-2 min, but generally tags only take 1-2 seconds to appear, but can be up to 5min if there's a ton of activity 
• Double check you filled out the screener "correctly" according to your saved automation and that you used an email (can be fake, but has to seem valid)

Step 5: Click the participant email

In the table above, click the email of any row you see appear successfully to get a little more detail about how the automation was applied. This takes you to the  Pool Member Detail page with Automation activity in the feed:

Hopefully that worked, and the test gives enough confidence to leave the automation running. If you couldn't see any activity in Automations, head back to edit the Automation and triple check you had the correct 1) Question 2) Screener and 3) Answer from the triggers & conditions step: