The other side of paid research: What the participants don’t see

When a participant is selected to take part in paid market research and usability testing, he or she should experience a smooth process and get rewarded in the end. What the participants don’t see and maybe don’t know – is all the work that has been done by People for Research and our clients prior to the session.

We have been recruiting participants for UX testing and other types of paid market research for 25 years, so you can trust we know this process by heart. If you are thinking about taking part in paid research, but still have some questions about what happens behind the scenes, then you should find the answers below.

Why are we recruiting people to take part in paid research studies?

Because our clients need to test their products, services, visual branding, software or website before sending releasing whatever they are developing in the real world. If they are testing a mobile game, for instance, it’s because they want to know if the game is user-friendly or if it has any bugs that need to be fixed before its release. Testing is just another stage of the process, just like research or development.

Who are our clients?

People for Research’s typical clients are leading user experience (UX) agencies, digital strategy companies and market research organisations, as well as organisations that run their own UX or research department. We are very proud to work with all of them!

What do we need from our clients before starting the recruitment process?

The first thing we need is to find out what type of research we are recruiting for and what will the participants test or evaluate. Our clients then provide us with a ‘recruitment brief’, which can be described as an outline of the kind of people they are ideally looking for us to recruit. If we are working with a client developing a banking website, then we’ll probably need to recruit people who use online banking services.

What happens next?

After finding out more about the type of profile we need, we look in our database and notify the members of our community that might fit the bill. They receive an email from us and can apply directly. However, we also share some of our opportunities on Facebook and Twitter, but the safest way to find out about specific research opportunities is to be a part of our community.

How do we decide which participants to recruit?

This is a tricky question, especially because we sometimes receive messages from participants letting us know they have applied several times, but never seem to be chosen. We understand it can be disappointing, but we like to assure our community members that we work in line with the Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct, which means we endeavour to get as many people as possible involved in paid research. Still, we have a high demand from people who apply to paid research studies up and down the UK, and we also need to follow a set of processes to ensure we only include the participants that fit the requirements of each type of research opportunity. Unfortunately, when you combine all these factors, it becomes really difficult to include every single candidate in market research. Please, don’t give up and keep applying! We might have a paid research study in the near future that is actually perfect for you.

The side of research you get to see happens only after all these steps have taken place! Not as simple as you thought, right? Maybe now that you know more about research, you are ready to browse through our current opportunities and apply to one of them!