Why Participant Management matters and who handles it

“Participant management is so important as a foundational piece for any research practice.” That’s what Crystal Kubitsky, Product UX Ops Lead at MongoDB told us in a recent webinar we hosted on building Research Ops from the ground up.

It’s simple. You have users and you want to talk to them. And Participant Management is the key to doing that — and doing it well.

So, what happens when you invest in Participant Management?

Who handles Participant Management?

“You’re always going to need someone at the base of Participant Management,” said Danielle Cleaver, former User Experience Research Ops Program Manager at Gusto. The question is, who? Here’s the short answer: It varies.

Introducing: The Research Function

It’s become clear that many people are involved in user research and it’s not one specific role that handles Participant Management in an org. When we refer to the Research Function, we are referring to anyone that is involved in research. That could mean someone performing research, enabling research, or merely someone who is an involved stakeholder.

Some specific roles that may fall under the Research Function are User Researcher, UXR Ops Coordinator, Research Ops Leader, Product Manager, and Designer.

Each of these roles looks different depending on your organization, the maturity of your research practice, and the users you serve.

For some organizations, a User Researcher handles Participant Management whereas other organizations may have a dedicated Research Ops lead handling recruitment and Participant Management. And there are dozens of examples that fall somewhere in between.

To be fully inclusive and speak to the wide array of situations within various organizations and industries, we find it best to address the Research Function. When it comes to who should handle Participant Management, there is no one right answer. That being said, we’ve seen examples where Participant Management thrives when there is at least one dedicated Research Ops professional.

To be fully inclusive and speak to the wide array of situations within various organizations and industries, we find it best to address the Research Function.

When it comes to who should handle Participant Management, there is no one right answer. That being said, we’ve seen examples where Participant Management thrives when there is at least one dedicated Research Ops professional.

The Case for Research Ops

“Participant management and recruiting is a specialty. If you want it done well, you need someone specializing in it,” explained Danielle. “Not just your data team.” And not your researchers. The bottom line is this: If your researchers are doing Research Ops, they aren’t spending their time doing research.

Enter: Research Operations.

Now, not every team will have the budget or bandwidth to add a Research Ops role to their org, but if it’s at all a possibility, we highly encourage it. Here’s why:

What if you don’t have Research Ops?

We know we sing Research Ops praises, but hiring a Research Ops person isn’t always an option — and that’s totally okay! There are countless examples of stellar UXRs who run the whole show. One of our favorites is Krista Lipps, Senior UX Researcher at Doximity. Prepare to be amazed…

Think of all the tasks within Participant Management and recruitment and add those to the usual tasks a UXR has and you get Krista’s workload and responsibilities. 😮💨  Basically, Krista was spending HOURS of time on the ops side of research — meaning she was hardly doing any research.

“I’ve saved SO much time with Rally. I can’t even convey how much time I have saved. It really has relieved a lot of the pressure.”

Kristia Lipps

Senior UX Researcher at Doximity

Luckily Krista found a solution that helped her run the whole show AND get back those precious hours: Rally.

The right tool can make a huge difference both for teams with Research Ops and for teams without.

“I’ve saved SO much time with Rally,” said Krista. “I can’t even convey how much time I have saved. It really has relieved a lot of the pressure.”

So, when you find yourself in a situation where you’re wasting hours on the manual ops work and you can’t bring on a Research Ops person — consider adding a new tool to your tool kit (especially one that removes the need for some of the numerous tools you probably already are using).

When should you hire a Research Ops role?

At a webinar in October, Crystal Kubitsky shared some important signals that indicate it’s time to hire Research Ops:

How do you make the case to leadership for a Research Ops hire?

Without leadership buy-in, a Research Ops hire likely won’t happen. It’s important to make a strong case to leadership for why Research Ops is essential to the success and impact of the research team.

The signals Crystal shared are the perfect fuel for your case. Show the numbers and how much time is being taken up by manual admin tasks. Share examples of non-researchers asking to do research and explain the need for processes and systems.

The ideal Research Ops state

The best way to build a thriving Research Ops function is to have a team of Participant Management Coordinators. To give you a real-world example of what this looks like, here are two Research Ops stars:

Caitlin Faughnan

Caitlin is the UX Research Ops Coordinator at GitLab. In her role, Caitlin handles multiple UX Research projects from start to finish, including managing incentives, budget, and procurement of tools. You’ll find more about Caitlin and her role at GitLab later in this ebook.

Agustina Di Clemente

Agustina is the Research Ops Specialist at TravelPerk. In her role, Agustina helps TravelPerk’s teams plan, execute, and analyze their studies. She takes care of participant recruitment, incentives, and administrative tasks, and collaborates with other teams to ensure GDPR compliance. As part of the UX Research Team, she supports all TravelPerk’s two Researchers and Research Manager along with non-researchers to make their lives easier. “I love being the bridge between our users and our Product team. The most rewarding part of my job is when the researcher says ‘this was fast and the users we targeted were just perfect!’” She is passionate about automation and always looking to improve our processes and work more efficiently.