Recruiting the right set of users while conducting UX Research
How do you recruit users while conducting UX Research? What are the things you should keep in mind? How does it affect the course of the study and the insights you derive out of it? In this article, we’ll go through the work that goes behind the scenes while recruiting users.
As a UX researcher, some of the things that you could keep in mind while recruiting users are:
- The users should be actual users of the product (unless you’re testing a new user sign up flow )
- Users should belong from different user segments (based on age-group, background, gender, etc.)
- Avoid bias while recruiting users (try to cover different user behaviours and patterns while recruiting users)
User recruitment is one of the most critical stages in UX research, as:
- It gives a better understanding of the user group/behaviours your product caters to
- It helps you identify the user segment you want to create an impact on
- It helps define the user segment in certain quantifiable parameters
The process of recruiting users can vary from study to study for different products. I recruited users for a few in-depth studies we conducted at Myntra. The studies aimed at understanding user behaviour and patterns while shopping fashion on Desktop and Mobile-web. Based on these exercises, I’ve documented the following process that may be useful for other researchers.
The task of recruiting users involves the following four stages:
- Collaborate with stakeholders
- Analyze data
- Create user segments
- Shortlist and recruit
Collaborate with the stakeholders
You could start off with sitting down with your team and going through the research plan. Going through goals and objectives in the research plan will help you understand:
- The user group you want to impact through the study
- The metrics you are looking to improve in the long run e.g. conversion, engagement, etc.
Analyze the existing data
Next, you could go through the existing data for a substantial duration (3 months or more) to get a better understanding of:
Current user demographics:
- Age-group split: The % split across different age groups that engage on the platform
- Gender split: Understanding the affinity of a gender towards the product
- City split (tier-wise): What’s the % of users coming from different cities/tiers. It helps to understand the opportunities in respective cities/tiers.
- Other demographics: Tech-savviness, occupation, spending behaviour, etc.
Current metrics:
- What’s the average session duration for which users’ engage on the platform
- The average number of sessions users make in a given duration
- What’s the retention and new users’ percentage on the platform
- Average transaction value and the frequency of transactions
Create user segments
Post analyzing the user demographics and metrics, you could use them to build following cohorts:
Users who engage enough but don’t transact:
These are the set of users that spend a lot of time browsing and yet are very unlikely to make a transaction. Recruiting this set of users will help us understand:
What are the user’s needs and frustrations in the user journey
Why don’t they engage further in the user journey to make a transaction
Users who engage and make transactions:
These are the set of users that are loyal to the platform and make regular transactions. Recruiting users from this bucket would help us understand:
User’s needs and motivation to make the transaction. Also, insights into what makes them loyal to the platform.
Users who don’t engage much on the platform post first session:
These are the set of users who bounce off/don’t engage much on the platform post their first session. Recruiting these users will help us understand:
Gaps betweeen user’s mental model and the implemented model, user’s expectations and which platforms do they prefer using and why.
Post finalizing on user buckets, get the list of users across different demographics.
Shortlist and Recruit
Reach out to the following users over the email with a short survey asking about their:
- Age group
- Brief background
- When was the last time they engaged
Try to keep the survey short and crisp. You can probe further while scheduling the session with the interested set of users.
While shortlisting users for the study keep a good mix of people from different backgrounds (housewives, students, working professionals, etc), age-group, gender and the area (cities) you are conducting the study in. This will help you understand how user behaviour and patterns vary across the user’s demographics.
Good luck recruiting users for your next study!
Until next time,
Cheers!
Special thanks to Gaurav Mathur, for encouraging and guiding me to write my first medium article.
