Spend 15 minutes with an applicant, review public evidence, score the work, and pass or fail the check-in with a clear next step.
Board Members
Experienced builders can join the HighBar board as paid or volunteer reviewers, challenge applicants during monthly check-ins, and make the pass/fail calls that give each HighBar credential its credibility. The work is evidence-first, policy-bound, and designed to protect applicants, reviewers, employers, and HighBar's reputation.
What board members do
You are not there to rubber-stamp a pitch. You help applicants face the kind of expert scrutiny that makes a HighBar credential worth trusting, while using the same boundaries described on Demo Day.
Watch the live defense, test claims, and decide whether the work clears the 75% pass/fail cutoff.
Your judgment can turn scattered effort into a credential, a job conversation, or a more serious internship.
Use the same evidence standard
Board members should expect applicants to show real work, honest failures, and one public YouTube video. The goal is to review the evidence, not charisma.
The official evidence, presentation, and artifact format is one public YouTube video, 30-60 seconds long, posted within 24 hours before the check-in or Demo Day.
The applicant's voice should walk through that one video, with webcam on for 100% of it, plus screen sharing and live footage of the project.
Watch for polished claims with no working demo, hidden helper work, copied code without attribution, or AI-generated explanations the applicant cannot defend.
Challenge evidence, assumptions, and trade-offs. Do not grade accent, background, confidence, or presentation polish as a substitute for skill.
Score the same six signals
Every check-in is scored from 0-100% across the same core metrics. Demo Day is a bigger check-in with more pressure and a broader audience. 75% is the pass/fail cutoff.
Working artifact
Evidence quality
Failure analysis
Stakeholder signal
Safety and ethics
Readiness next step
A taste of the work
Board service is intentionally lightweight, direct, and evidence-first.
1
Choose a domain. Tell us where you can evaluate real work: robotics, AI, healthcare, design, operations, or another practical specialty.
2
Take a check-in. Meet by phone or Zoom. Cameras on or off is fine for the meeting, but the official artifact still needs one public YouTube video with voice, screen share, webcam, and live footage.
3
Join Demo Day. When a candidate is ready, serve on a panel and make a clear pass/fail decision with other experts.
Payment and volunteer options
Some experts volunteer. Some are hired. Both paths help applicants get serious feedback from people who know what real work looks like. Compensation details come after fit, availability, and scope are clear.
Flat fee per 15-minute check-in visit. Phone call or Zoom is fine, and cameras can be on or off. Every extra check-in still costs the applicant $100 or one qualified check-in credit.
Flat fee per Demo Day appearance, negotiated when you are hired for a panel or specialty track. Demo Day should happen only after a passing fourth check-in.
Boundaries protect everyone
Applicants control their cadence, but any monthly check-in or Demo Day can only be delayed up to 30 days without consequence; after that, the consequence is minus one check-in credit. After 3 failed check-ins, the applicant waits 6 months before the next check-in. After 6 failed check-ins, the wall is 1 year. These boundaries protect applicants from spending before evidence is ready, protect reviewers from repeated low-signal meetings, and protect employers from trusting a credential too early.
Example board view
| Applicant | HighBar area | Board signal | Next decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ava Chen | Computer Vision | 82% pass | Invite to Demo Day |
| Jonas Eriksson | Energy Systems | 68% revise | 15m retake check-in |
| Priya Nair | Biomedical NLP | 61% fail | Revise public video evidence |
| Lucas Moreau | Robotics | Credit available | Mentor-sponsored check-in |
Bring your standards to the board
Volunteer, accept paid check-ins, sponsor applicant credits, or help us build a stronger expert panel in your field. You can be generous without weakening the standard.