Recruitment best practices
When planning user research, one of the critical decisions you'll face is whether to recruit participants from your internal database of users or from an external panel. This choice can significantly impact the quality and relevance of your insights. Here’s a guide to help you navigate this decision, along with some best practices for effective external recruitment.
What’s the difference between an internal and external panel?
An internal panel is a group of users or customers that know, use, and are active within your platform or use your product. They may have been collected via opt-in forms and email campaigns, or selected by your Data team based on behaviors or criteria. Until today, Rally users have only been able to recruit from their internal database of participants.
An external panel is a group of ready-to-go participants that span many, many different areas, such as location, demographics, skills, seniority, and more. Experience with your platform or product is not guaranteed with these participants, but for some studies, that is a benefit.
Questions to Consider Before Starting Recruitment
1. Research Goals and Objectives
Begin by clarifying the goals of your research study. Are you looking to gather feedback on a new feature, product, or service that your existing users are familiar with? Or do you need insights from a broader audience that may not know your product? Understanding your objectives will guide your recruitment strategy.
2. Target Audience
Identify your target audience. Are they current users of your product or potential users? Do you need a specific demographic or psychographic profile that might be more readily available in an external panel? Knowing who you need to talk to is crucial.
3. Bias and Representativeness
Consider the potential biases that may arise if you only recruit from your internal database. While existing users can provide valuable feedback, their familiarity with your product might skew their responses. If representativeness of the broader market is important, an external panel might be a better choice.
4. Recruitment Speed and Cost
Evaluate your timeline and budget. How quickly do you need to recruit participants? Is your internal database large enough to provide a diverse and sufficient number of participants? External panels can often provide quicker access to a broader audience, but not without recruitment fees.
5. Engagement and Incentives
How likely are your internal users to participate in research right now? Think about if your panel feels fatigued and check in on automatic governance statuses and cooldown periods in Rally. Engaged participants are more likely to provide high-quality feedback.
👉 Good to know: Participants in Respondent's panel are highly engaged (since they have signed up for Research!) and have a >95% show rate.
6. Quality of Feedback
Determine the type of feedback you need. Are you looking for deep, qualitative insights that would benefit from participants' familiarity with your product, or fresh perspectives that external participants might provide?
Recruitment Best Practices For Rally’s External Panel
1. Define Clear Criteria
Clearly define the criteria for participant selection based on your research objectives. Make sure these criteria are communicated effectively and linked in your Rally study for transparency.
💡 Tip: Rally's Research Operations Platform allows you to link your study plan and criteria in study builder to increase visibility.
2. Use Conditional Logic in Screeners
Deploy detailed screeners to ensure participants meet your criteria. Include questions that filter out those who may not provide the quality feedback you need. Easily determine who should be added to your study at a quick glance by using Rally’s conditional logic to automatically label participants that should be invited or rejected.
3. Diverse Sampling
Aim for a diverse sample to avoid biases and ensure a broad range of perspectives. Consider demographic, psychographic, and behavioral diversity in your recruitment process.
💡 Tip: Check out our Panel Book to view the profile of the 3 million+ diverse participants in Respondent's panel.
4. Communicate Expectations
Set clear expectations by communicating the purpose of the research, time commitment, and any incentives. Ensure participants are fully informed and committed from the outset.
5. Offer Appropriate Incentives
Provide fair and motivating incentives to encourage participation. The nature of the research and the time required should guide your decisions on incentives.
💡 Tip: Use our Incentive Calculator to get a baseline idea of what to incentivize for which participants.
6. Compliance and Privacy
Rally complies with data protection and privacy regulations including SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA compliance - read more here. In your terms and conditions, you have an opportunity to be transparent about how participant data will be used and stored to build trust and confidence.
Should you incentivize differently between internal and external panels?
It depends! To build trust with your participants, you’ll want to establish an incentive structure across all studies, and stick with it.
Check out our incentive calculator that helps you understand what Respondent’s panel expects, and what has been established as a best practice based on the audience and the type of research you’re conducting.
If you’re looking to upskill your incentive structure, explore our guide on research incentives: boost participation, enhance data quality, and navigate ethical practices for optimal results.
By considering these questions and following best practices, you can make a well-informed decision about whether to recruit from your internal database or an external panel. Each approach has its advantages, and the right choice depends on your specific research needs and objectives. Happy recruiting!
Rally’s User Research CRM enables you to do better research in less time. Find out how you can use Rally to allow non-researchers and important cross-functional partners to responsibly take part in User Research. Explore Rally now by setting up a demo.