Challenges and solutions for recruiting participants for user tests. This is an adaptation of my presentation from UX camp Amsterdam and UX camp Europe (Berlin). Grey text is explaining some of the slides instead of me talking.

1. User recruitment
What doesn't bring you joy
should be automated
Den Tserkovnyi
@dtserkovnyi

3. Photo by Rob Janssen

4. I work at a product company called Studyportals.
We help students to find education abroad.
Most of us studied abroad
and it was amazing!
We want to share that feeling with everyone.

5. Our product
In simple words we have a website.
It’s visited by almost 3 million users a month.

6. We have 6 teams
and we design & build lots of stuff

7. • Monthly tactical research
• Feature based tests
• Strategic long-term
We test a lot

8. 5
design sprints
in parallel

9. 5×5=25 users

11. Observers + no-shows
= loss of credibility

13. BUT

14. Let’s start
from the beginning

15. So you built
an awesome prototype
…

16. But how are you going
to test it?

17. Usability test?
Great idea!

18. Who are you going to invite?

19. Friends?
Relatives?
Colleagues?
That guy?

20. User recruitment
Who likes to recruit users?
Please raise your hand

21. Wait…

22. • Professional testers
• Money
• Available users
• Middleman
let's imagine you don't have unlimited resources for user research...
Why not agency?

23. Lower overhead cost
& pay to the user

24. Students as users
Our users are students, should be easy to recruit?
Well, easier than medical doctors for sure, but…

25. We struggled with it as long as
I can remember

26. Referrals
GDPR

27. Campus visit!

29. Warm
Summer day
True story

30. Great success!
32 students were recruited
in half a day

31. 1
showed up
to the test

32. Remember I mentioned Summer?
Exams

33. How it worked
1. Get users
2. Send invites
3. Send reminders & hope for the best
4. Test

34. And test more
If there are no shows

35. A lot of effort for unpredictable
results

37. Remote users?

38. No user background bias
Based on location

39. Easier to find

40. Closer to real environment

41. Hack day
Day for experiments and learning every two weeks.
When we are not busy fitting dinosaurs inside of the slide we do
projects that make our life easier or more delightful

43. Automating parts of
user recruitment

44. Recruit
Screen
Schedule
Interview
At a glance

45. Recruit
Targeted ad
Email registered users
Previously recruited users

46. Screen
• Critical questions first (Save time for users)
• Consent form (Do not record personal data before consent)
• Personal details
• Contacts (phone number, Skype, email)

47. Phone number
decreased no shows

48. Better screening,
based on personas

49. Schedule
• Repeat technical requirements
• Repeat technical requirements
• Request confirmation via email
• Send reminders

50. User calls from
supermarket

51. Don’t blame the user
Blame your unclear instructions

52. Empathise!
We noticed that people who do not
confirm their participation often do
not show up, that makes user
researchers sad. And we need
them to be happy.

53. Interview
In-house
Mobile remote & in-house
Desktop remote moderated

54. Automate
Connect all services to Airtable
Record users and log sessions
Send reminders
Share with the team

55. Go wild!

57. 148 referrals
16 screener completions
3.32 EUR/conversion
10 students for the test
Numbers

58. Demo
From the user perspective

66. What else?
Recruit more than you need
No-shows are expensive (pay more than participants’ hourly rate)
Experiment with research methods
Don’t forget about behavioral data

67. https://xkcd.com/1205/

68. How are you doing it?
Discussion

69. Ask me anything
@dtserkovnyi