It can be difficult to find the right participants for user research studies. Normally, researchers must find potential participants, carefully screen them, and then arrange a time to speak with them.
Sometimes respondents are not the best candidates for the study because they are unable to provide insightful feedback. Unfortunately, poor respondents have a negative effect on the study’s research’s quality.
What is Respondent Recruitment?
The process of recruiting respondents for focus groups, surveys, and in-depth interviews involves a number of activities.
What are the differences between participants and respondents?
Participants and respondents are the same thing because they are frequently used interchangeably in practise. If we are being extremely picky, there is a small difference: a respondent is a person who responds to questions (either written or oral). A participant, on the other hand, is a person who voluntarily agrees to participate in a study as a subject.
Most of the time, respondents “respond” to the researcher’s closed-ended, structured questions. On the other hand, the participants engage in more than just answering a series of questions.
A participant, for example, elaborates on the researcher’s questions. If they want to convey an idea, they can even change the topic. As a result, participants in research tend to provide more qualitative data than respondents.
6 tips for recruiting the best respondents for your research
1. Understand your audience
Your respondents should be representative of your target group. To do so, you must first fully comprehend your target audience.
So, consider this:
- Who are your users?
- Who are you hoping to reach?
- What are the behaviours or characteristics of your users?
Then, using the information gathered, you should be able to fully achieve the goal of your user research.
2. Specify your target group
Sometimes you need respondents with a wide range of motivations, habits, and behaviours. However, there are times when you need respondents who will meet specific criteria, such as those who are more likely to order items via mobile phone rather than computer, or those who use specific apps/software on a daily basis. In other words, you must determine your criteria for respondents. The criteria you choose are determined by the specific needs of your product or study.
The question is how many criteria are enough? Isn’t it a little much? Having too many criteria for a participant to meet can result in an underrepresentation of your customers. It is possible that you will lose their interest in your product. However, fewer criteria can result in important information being lost in a pile of garbage. As you can see, testing can be stressful.
3. Use screeners/ screening questions
Consider using a screener (screening questions) to identify the most qualified respondents. This can be accomplished by creating a short questionnaire that assists in determining whether testers are suitable.
However, keep in mind that lengthy questionnaires may turn off your respondents. Remember that a single question can help you determine whether or not you have a suitable respondent. Questions about occupation, age, location, or education etc.
4.Don’t test your colleagues or family members
Because humans are not completely rational, conducting research or testing on colleagues or family members is not a good idea.
Colleagues and family members are more likely to have inherent biases and to become emotionally involved. As a result, will typically lack the objectivity required to provide actionable insight.
5. Pay attention to how you compensate
Simply put, money matters because respondents who believe they are fairly compensated rarely complain. They aren’t irritated by multiple phone calls, lengthy screeners, or not qualifying at times. As a result, they are more engaged and excited whenever they are eligible to participate.
6. The recruiting process can deliver some actionable research insights.
The hiring process can reveal unexpected insights that can be beneficial. As a result, researchers should always be open to learning and retooling the recruiting process to gain better insights.
How to get respondents for an online quantitative survey?
• Organic website traffic- Depending on the nature of your research, you may be able to host a survey invitation on your website’s homepage. Then, allow prospective survey respondents to select whether they are eligible to participate in your survey.
• Device Engagement at Random.
• Make use of online community platforms such as Reddit, Craigslist , Spade Community and others.
• Make your survey available on your website, social media, and blogs.
• Hire a specialised market research firm.
• Make use of your existing customers’ databases because they have first-hand experience with your platform.
• Use email campaigns to distribute surveys.
How Spade Survey Helps to Recruiting User Research & B2B Research Recruiting
Spade Survey’s strategic recruitment approach is more comprehensive, consultative, and collaborative than traditional recruitment. It helps your team quickly agree on the target audience and then employs an innovative set of steps and tools to recruit high-quality participants.
We are experts in recruiting user research roles from SMBs and mid-market companies. Owners, managers, and specialists in buyer or decision influencer roles, as well as users of business software and systems, fall into this category.
We recruit professionals from large organisations in a variety of industries, including finance, health, government, information technology/software, non-profit, travel, education, and others. From front-line employees to C-suite executives, from product newcomers to regular users.
Conclusion
User research is only as good as its participants. More specifically, on the chosen respondents. Finding the right participants is therefore critical to obtaining useful information from your user research.
Remember that participants must be able to accurately represent your end-users. So, before you start recruiting research participants, carefully consider your criteria. For example, when your criteria are broad, such as age and location, it is simple to find participants.
However, when you have more specific criteria for candidates to participate in your study, it can be difficult and time-consuming. However, by balancing extreme and mainstream users, you can increase the chances of obtaining objective and meaningful research results.
