Summary
Oftentimes companies rely on recruiting agencies to handle finding participants for their research. While there are some advantages to this approach, and cases where outsourcing is the best option, nowadays bringing research in-house can be simple, flexible, cost-effective, and fast. Learn more about how and why to bring your recruiting in-house.
Key Insights
-
•
Recruitment agencies typically require a two-week quoting and setup process before starting data collection.
-
•
User Interviews allows immediate project launch with a median first participant arrival time of just three hours.
-
•
Researchers gain full transparency on who applied, qualified, and confirmed directly via a dashboard with User Interviews.
-
•
User Interviews includes built-in fraud detection to prevent professional testers and scammers from skewing data.
-
•
Recruitment fees via agencies can range from $100 to $400 per participant plus administration fees; User Interviews fees range from $40 to $80 without upfront costs.
-
•
User Interviews enables direct messaging with participants throughout the recruitment and study process, reducing no-shows and enhancing troubleshooting.
-
•
Researchers can flex screening criteria on participants in real-time within User Interviews when necessary.
-
•
Scheduling integrates with Google and Outlook calendars, allowing researchers to set availability and avoid double bookings.
-
•
User Interviews supports various study types: 1-on-1 interviews, focus groups, diary studies, moderated and unmoderated research.
-
•
Pilot studies are recommended and easy to conduct on User Interviews to test screener questions and study protocols before full launch.
Notable Quotes
"When working with an agency, the quoting process takes about two weeks before recruitment even starts."
"With User Interviews, you can launch a project immediately and get your first qualified participant as fast as three hours."
"You get a dashboard that shows who applied, who qualified, and even who didn’t qualify—all in real time."
"Professional testers are very crafty; one even changed her name repeatedly to get recruited multiple times."
"You only pay for successfully completed sessions on User Interviews—no upfront cost, no fees for no-shows or cancellations."
"I message participants regularly during studies to reduce no-shows and troubleshoot any issues immediately."
"If I forgot a critical screener question, I just messaged all qualified participants to confirm they meet the criteria before approval."
"Scheduling syncs with your Google or Outlook calendar so you only book participants at times that work for you."
"User Interviews offers multi-country recruitment at the same price, supporting Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, and South Africa."
"Pilot studies are a must; I always run a pilot session the day before full launch to refine my discussion guide."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If you’re doing research with people with disabilities, consider using the Accessible Usability Scale to get more accurate insights."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
December 9, 2021
"The biggest bottleneck is the bureaucracy, like the Paperwork Reduction Act, we have to creatively navigate that."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"Going from 100 to 200 people, suddenly product managers started hearing from a dozen people a week with conflicting requests."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"Innovation is about being fearless, breaking rules, and refusing to stop at the way things have always been done."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"If you’re managing over 100 design practitioners, it makes sense to start looking at a chief of staff role."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
"What if product and business actually manage designs and deliver digital communications?"
Amy EvansHow to Create Change
September 25, 2024
"We are stronger when we work together towards a unified goal – that’s our super healing power."
Kate Koch Prateek KalliFlex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
September 30, 2021
"People don’t share their beliefs; you have to search for and understand them to get true buy-in."
Dave GrayLiminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
May 14, 2015
"You have to push against 200,000 years of human evolution to get researchers to create reusable knowledge."
Matt DuignanAtomizing Research: Trend or Trap
March 30, 2020
