Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

People, not Petri Dishes: Stories from a Research Recruiter (Videoconference)
Monday, September 23, 2019 • DesignOps Community
Share the love for this talk
People, not Petri Dishes: Stories from a Research Recruiter (Videoconference)
Speakers: Sarit Geertjes
Link:

Summary

Less than a year ago, we opened an in-house participant recruitment service at Atlassian, a 3,000+ employees tech company, for anyone who wanted to do research. During that year, the Research Recruitment team grew to two people and serviced over 150 people who do research. In this talk, I share what our main learnings were, the pitfalls of opening a free-for-all recruitment service, and some of my top participant recruitment tips.

Key Insights

  • Manual recruitment processes using tools like Qualtrics and spreadsheets are time-consuming and inefficient for scaling research participation.

  • Offering participants a choice between swag boxes and e-gift cards improves engagement and accommodates different preferences and legal constraints.

  • Implementing a Jira service desk ticketing system helped track recruitment requests but created a perception that recruitment is a simple 'service,' which it is not.

  • Collaboration between recruiters and researchers is critical, as recruiters lack deep product knowledge and require researchers to help refine screener questions.

  • Research leadership’s involvement is essential to prioritize requests and decide when to decline recruitment, balancing resource constraints and research quality.

  • Moving from a fully managed service to a highly supported self-service recruitment model empowers researchers and improves organizational scalability.

  • Careful communication about incentives as 'thank you gifts' rather than payments helps maintain ethical and legal standards and improves participant perception.

  • Managing participant data carefully with anonymization and privacy safeguards is vital, especially under GDPR and other local legislations.

  • Building community and engagement with research participants enhances their experience and may improve long-term panel quality.

  • Capacity planning can be improved by scoring recruitment complexity, considering factors like international reach and participant accessibility.

Notable Quotes

"If you want a unicorn, ask for a unicorn — and so lo and behold, Street got in touch and she indeed turned out to be a bit of a unicorn."

"Participant recruitment is not a one-stop shop or online shopping — these are people we’re dealing with and there’s a lot of nuance."

"We always say thank you gifts instead of incentives or payments because it’s a way to reimburse people without making it feel like a job."

"When you just feed the beast — the requests keep coming in and it’s unstoppable without clear boundaries."

"The Jira ticket system made recruitment feel like a service desk you just put a ticket in and expect results quickly, but it’s much more complex than that."

"Collaboration between recruiters and researchers is critical because recruiters don’t know all the details of each product or study."

"Research leadership, like Lisa, has the wider view to know what’s already been done and to help filter requests effectively."

"Offering swag boxes globally had its challenges but was worth it for participant engagement alongside e-gift card options."

"We don’t want participants to feel like they’re just petri dishes to be used and discarded — quality and respect matter deeply."

"Moving towards a highly supported self-service model is a watershed moment that makes everyone happier and research better."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dane DeSutter
What co-speech gestures reveal about users’ thinking during interviews (Videoconference)
2023 • Rosenfeld Community
Adam Cutler
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Amy Gawronski Zuccaro
Advice for DesignOps Employee #1
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Nancy Douyon
We'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Greg Petroff
The Compass Mission
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Uday Gajendar
The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Dalia El-Shimy
So You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Cheryl Platz
Merging Improv with Design (Videoconference)
2019 • Enterprise Community
Jorge Arango
AI as Thought Partner: How to Use LLMs to Transform Your Notes (3rd of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Anna Avrekh
User Research, Design, and Product - A Love Story
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Zariah Cameron
Streamlining an Inclusive Design Practice
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Laura Smith
Embedding Service Design and Agile Practice within UK Planning Teams to Create Services that Last
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Jeff Gothelf
Innovation Studios: the Engines of Enterprise Experimentation
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Michelle Morrison
Practice What You Preach
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Holly Cole
Panel Discussion: Growing People and Teams
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Nicole Aleong
What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series] (Videoconference)
2023 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

"If design didn’t move the needle, we wouldn’t be having this conversation."

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Simon Wardley

"You can mine metadata from your platform to spot emerging patterns and commoditize new components."

Simon Wardley

Maps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)

January 31, 2019

Sandra Camacho

"The Reflexive Compass helps us discern bias patterns early, take accountability, and measure impact."

Sandra Camacho

Creating More Bias-Proof Designs

January 22, 2025

Darian Davis

"Taking responsibility starts with an apology and seeking regular feedback."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Fisayo Osilaja

"Timely engagement helps stakeholders make faster, more informed decisions that lead to better business and product outcomes."

Fisayo Osilaja

[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist

June 4, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"Craft cultivates customer satisfaction, loyalty, and even forgiveness when functional issues arise."

Uday Gajendar

The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX

May 13, 2015

Davis Neable

"Trust is often underestimated but is critical when designers face public critique and feedback."

Davis Neable Guy Segal

How to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team

June 10, 2021

Eniola Oluwole

"People were very adverse to changes because a small 0.5% conversion increase meant millions in revenue."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Aurobinda Pradhan

"Design Ops people want to standardize processes and reuse organizational knowledge for clarity and confidence."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022