What is participant recruitment and how to overcome the challenges?

Ask the nearest researcher about their most persistent pain points in usability testing, and we can almost guarantee that recruiting participants is near the top.

In one of our State of UX in the Enterprise surveys, we asked researchers which phase of their UX team’s process is the most challenging. The number one answer, with 47% of the votes was recruiting user testing participants.

To understand this problem a little better, let's look at some of the most common recruitment problems as well as some proven strategies in doing recruitment right.

What is participant recruitment?

Participant recruitment is the act of defining, finding and inviting representatives of your target audience into your user research or usability study. 

Why is participant recruitment important to get right?

The insights and results from a poorly-recruited study may come from individuals for whom your product was never intended. 

For example, if your product targets home buyers, input from those unable to purchase a home can lead to misguided and costly redesigns. 

Accurate and relevant participant recruitment from the start ensures faster, easier, and cheaper product development, capturing valuable insights early in the process.

Why is participant recruitment so difficult?

Participant recruitment can be challenging for various reasons. 

If your product or service is niche, the general population may not include many of your target users. Stakeholders might not see the ROI of investing time, effort, and money into recruiting. You might be a one-person team lacking bandwidth or working in agile sprints without time to source the right participants. 

Five pro tips to remember when recruiting participants

There’s plenty to take into consideration when recruiting for user research so we thought we’d share these five tips to bear in mind during the process.

1) Over recruit

If you need 10 qualitative think-out-loud sessions and recruit 10 people, at least one will likely drop out due to unforeseen circumstances. This can derail your plan to meet sprint deadlines. Therefore, we recommend always having a few extra participants ready to step in if needed. This ensures you can still achieve your research goals within the time constraints, maintaining the integrity and timeline of your project.

2) Account for recruiting time in your planning

At some point in your career, you’ve likely experienced a research planning session where the time required for recruiting was underestimated. It’s crucial to account for typical recruitment challenges in your planning, as this affects how long it takes to find and invite participants to your study. 

Proper planning ensures smooth recruitment and timely research results.

Start by asking questions such as: 

• Is our target audience rare? 
• Do we have existing contacts? 
• Are we targeting live users from our site? Is this a new segment? 
• Should we handle this in-house or use a panel vendor? 

3) Always use a screener

Use screeners for all your research recruitment. Screeners help safeguard your data by ensuring participants meet the necessary criteria, preventing wasted effort in vetting, re-recruiting, or parsing data. This practice ensures the quality and reliability of your research outcomes.

4) Is there technical knowledge that’s needed?

It's easy to assume participants have certain technical knowledge or expertise. For remote prototype testing, clearly explain what participants need to access and interact with it. This is especially true if hardware or physical equipment is involved.

Check your bias regarding participants' technical expertise. If technical experience is essential, include it in the screener and provide clear instructions as needed. This ensures participants are well-prepared and your research data is reliable.

5) Take compensation into account

Respect participants' time by ensuring that longer, more in-depth studies and technically complex tasks are adequately compensated. If you're not meeting your completion targets, reassess your study requirements and compensation. Make sure your expectations are reasonable and aligned with what you’re offering in return. This balance helps attract and retain participants, ensuring the success of your research.