How to Find and Recruit Amazing Participants

Talk at Rosenfeld Media's URFE conference on Oct 11th, 2016. http://www.userresearchforeveryone.com/

1. (for user research)
2. thx
3. The Recruiting Spectrum Someone in Your Office Live User Intercept Recruiting Agency Realness Friends & Family Facebook Ads / Twitter Literally The First Person You See Panel Craigslist #1 #3 #2 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8
4. Mainly Because of… Attachment to Your Interface Someone in Your Office Live User Intercept Recruiting Agency Friends & Family Literally The First Person You See Panel Craigslist #1 #3 #2 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 Facebook Ads / Twitter
5. Mainly Because of… the moment of use Someone in Your Office Live User Intercept Recruiting Agency Friends & Family Literally The First Person You See Panel Craigslist #1 #3 #2 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 Facebook Ads / Twitter
6. Unless It’s Top Secret Shhhh Someone in Your Office Friends & Family #3 #2
7. Or When It’s Complicated Employees Recruiting External Participants LOL
8. User Research vs. Design Research vs. UX Research vs. Insights Recruiting Participants For…
9. Watching people use interfaces in order to design better interfaces
10. 60 YEARS AGO
11. LET’S RECORD HUMANS USING INTERFACE S 30 YEARS AGO
12. Vs. 10 YEARS AGO
13. 1% 
 Humans observing humans 99% 
 Data
15. Analytics Data Science Quantitative Research User Research UX Research Usability User Research 1:1 Observation Lean Research
16. TEXT Recruiting & Team Geography
18. Btw I’m Nate Bolt
22. PLEASE BUY THIS BOOK
24. ethn.io
25. Let’s Start With The Recruiting Checklist
26. What are you testing? Where in the design cycle are you? Method(s)? Number of participants? Target audience for the interface? Targeting vs Screening Incentives Scheduling? Stakeholders / Scrutiny? Recruiting Checklist 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
27. 1. Literally The First Person You See 2. Someone in Your Office 3. Friends & Family 4. Craigslist 5. Recruiting Agency 6. Panel 7. Facebook Ads / Twitter 8. Live User Intercept The Best Methods For Recruiting
28. 1. Literally The First Person You See
29. Literally The First Person You See #1 • Little or no budget • Time pressure • Broad Audience • No skeptical stakeholders • Direct collaboration with designers/developers/PM When to use
30. • Broad Audience • Easy • Fast • Free • Dynamic Screening • Logistics • Don’t need a screener Literally The First Person You See #1 • Broad Audience • No targeting • Perceived as informal • Geographically limited • No attachment Pros Cons
31. Targeting vs. Screening
32. 2. Someone in Your Office 3. Friends & Family
 
 They already love you
33. • Shhhhh top secret - world can’t see • You are the user • Bob the builder culture • Very early in the design cycle • Complete game-changer • No budget or time When to use Someone in Your Office / Friends & Family #2 / #3
34. • Attachment • Easy to find • Fast • Free • It’s their job • Bias • Can be hard to schedule • No incentive • Not seeing external use of your interface Pros Cons Someone in Your Office / Friends & Family #2 / #3
35. What is a Screener, Exactly?
37. 4. Craigslist 
 Or similar sites/concepts
38. • Only need a bit of screening - something more targeted than methods 1-3 • Just enough budget for incentives • Very little scrutiny on participant sourcing When to use Craigslist #4
39. • All walks of life • Can be fast • Inexpensive incentives • Habit-forming #4 • No attachment • Sometimes slow • Cheaters • Kind of a pain • Embarrassing to admit • Habit-forming • Requires extra vetting Pros Cons Craigslist
40. 5. Recruiting Agency 
 Money Bags
41. • $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ($150/user) • When you have more budget than time • The kind of targeting you need is demographics (income, location, age) When to use Recruiting Agency #5
42. • Hands down the least work • They can write the screener • Fairly fast • Someone in charge of no-shows, scheduling, etc. #5 • Expensive • No attachment • Professional tester alert Pros Cons Recruiting Agency
43. 6. Panel 
 Your own, a tool like usertesting.com, etc
44. Panel #6 • You’re using an online research tool that provides users (dScout, etc) • Repeat testing • Other methods not allowed by your organization When to use
45. • Vetted • Any technology has been tested • Known entity • Demographics Panel #6 • Limited targeting • No attachment • Professional tester alert Pros Cons
46. 7. Facebook Ads / Twitter 
 Or Social Media, or Anything Similar
47. Facebook Ads / Twitter #6 • You need to reach a population you have zero contact with. Triathlete mechanics. • There’s some budget • You have the patience to learn ad targeting When to use
48. • Can be incredibly targeted • Fast • Geographically diverse • Access to populations even agencies might not have access to • Attachment (potentially) • Gets expensive • Professional tester alert • Difficult to learn Pros Cons Facebook Ads / Twitter #6
49. 8. Live User Intercepts 
 Time-Aware Recruiting, In the moment, etc
50. • Decent traffic web site or app 
 (> 50K pageviews/ month) • Moments matter • In-depth screening and targeting • Some budget When to use Live User Intercepts #8
51. • Attachment • The moment • Fast • Targeting or Screening #8 • Scary • Can be Expensive • Requires some engineering resources or high traffic • Totally new users Pros Cons Live User Intercepts
53. Let’s All Try Out This Live User Intercept
54. ethn.io/77226
60. Recruiting Pitfalls And Now Some Common
61. No Shows
62. Solution: Schedule Backups
63. BIAS
64. Solution: Behavior.
65. Quiet Users
66. Garden Variety Demographics
67. The Quant(s)
68. • No Shows • Bias • Quiet Users • Garden Variety Demographics • The Quant(s) Summary of Recruiting Pitfalls
69. Scheduling + Recruiting = ?
70. (for user research) The Amazing Part
71. • Open-ended questions • Attachment to your interface • Extreme scenarios - generative vs formative • Phone calls • Involving stakeholders • Online Consent • Staged Incentives The Amazing Part of Recruiting Participants
73. If NASA can do THIS from 153 million miles away, we can meet our users where they are, even if we’re a couple thousand miles away.
74. Thanks for listening Recruit Like The Wind
75. fin.
76. And also the ethn.io code for 20% off is ROSENRAD Participant Recruiting Take-Aways remoteresear.ch/urfe
78. nate@ethn.io @ethnio Nate Bolt