Anatomy of a Strong User Panel
Summary
User panels are one of the fastest ways to connect with your audience and extract valuable insights—when done right. In this session, Sydney Lawson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Rally, dives deep into real user panels—tearing them up, not down—to uncover what top research teams are doing well and what’s worth stealing for your own panel. From sign-up to participation, she’ll break down what makes panels effective and how to optimize every step of the experience.
Key Insights
-
•
Every successful user panel has a dedicated landing page with a clear call to action and explanation of participation benefits.
-
•
Keeping screener questions between five to ten helps maintain low friction and improves sign-up rates.
-
•
Using single-select, closed-ended questions for job functions avoids messy and unusable data compared to open-text fields.
-
•
Including questions about AI usage and interest helps target relevant participants for specialized research.
-
•
Large companies like Google can afford more extensive screener forms with conditional logic due to their broad user base and resource availability.
-
•
Separate FAQ pages linked from the landing page reduce clutter and provide potential panelists with detailed sign-up information.
-
•
Panel engagement improves when participants see study results and understand how their feedback influences product decisions.
-
•
Creative incentive models like digital badges (from Outsystems) can gamify participation when budgets for monetary rewards are limited.
-
•
Including fake tools or options in screening questions (Genesys example) helps identify and filter out insincere panelists motivated only by incentives.
-
•
Tracking participant location enables compliance with regional incentive regulations and data privacy laws.
Notable Quotes
"Every single one of these companies has a landing page on their marketing website with a call to action to sign up."
"The most successful way to ask about job function is a single-select question, not an open field."
"We love to see questions around AI and even asking if participants want to join AI studies specifically."
"Incentives are a benefit but should not be the number one reason people join a panel."
"Google’s sign-up has a progress bar which is really helpful so participants know how far they are along."
"If you ask accessibility questions, it’s so important to actually respect the answers."
"Outsystems gamified their research panel with badges because they didn’t have budget for monetary incentives."
"Genesys includes a fake tool in the software list to stop incentive-driven participants from checking all boxes."
"You want your panel to be representative of your customer base, not exactly all your customers."
"Sharing the results of studies with panelists gets them excited about contributing and keeps them engaged."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"You might be thinking about accessibility backwards; start with mobile first, then extend to desktop."
Sam ProulxMobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
September 8, 2022
"Design thinking can feel like a magical black box or utterly overwhelming; it has to be made immediately usable and valuable."
Erin HauberDesign is Not the Frosting on the Scaled Agile Layer Cake
October 24, 2019
"Political capital is critical; good strategy without support will be crushed in large organizations."
Simon WardleyMaps and Topographical Intelligence
January 31, 2019
"You have to give oppressed groups tools to fight discrimination, or you leave them in a place of victimization."
Yolanda RankinBlack Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design
March 11, 2021
"Analytics and research should work closely to explain what is happening and why it is."
Renee BouwensLanding Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products
December 15, 2023
"You cannot do design today, even product or service design, without being systemically engaged."
Paul Pangaro, PhDSystems Disciplines: Table Stakes for 21st Century Organizations
June 6, 2023
"Sometimes you need to view your career like an investor, where you invest your time for the kind of impact you want."
Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah WickesAssessing UX jobs for impact in climate
August 14, 2024
"DPMs can get overwhelmed quickly because they want to say yes to everything; managers must help say no."
Courtney KaplanTaking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
November 8, 2018
"If you don’t continually check whether people are benefiting, the system’s reputation can quickly suffer."
Dan DonaldDesign Systems as a Vehicle for Systemic Change
June 1, 2023
