Article · 20 min read
How to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies
Nielsen Norman Group Freemium Beginner
Recruiting is often the actual hard part of this problem, not the conversation itself. This gives you the tactics NN/g uses across hundreds of studies for reaching people who use a specific product, including how to screen for the right participant without tipping your hand about why you're asking.
- Write screener questions that don't hint at the answer you want
- A small, well-targeted sample beats a large, loosely qualified one
- Expert or frequent users of a product reveal edge cases casual users miss
