5 Ways to Recruit Participants for User Interviews and Testing

Great innovation and product development start with understanding your users and their needs. One of our top recommended first steps for any company developing new products is to talk to their users. But finding the right people to talk to is often the hardest part—and one of the biggest reasons teams skip research altogether. 

At DISHER Engineering, we partner with our customers to help them connect with their target users and gather insights around real pain points and top features. The result gives them clearer insights, fewer unknowns, and the confidence to move forward. 

View a UX research study we did for a leading OEM >>

Here’s how you can take steps to talk with users to also find those impactful insights.  

Before You Begin

Use a screener application survey to filter potential interview candidates

To make sure you are getting legit participants and talking to the right people, you must first create a screener application survey. 

A screener survey is a “pre-survey” conducted prior to your study where recruited participants can fill it out and apply to be part of the study. A screener ensures that you get a good variety of participants and confirms they are the right fit for the study. 

Typically, screeners will ask for information like:  

• General demographics 
• Targeted questions that help you know if they are in your target market 
• Contact information, so you can reach out to them if you want to invite them to participate in your study 

Create a landing page to share information and build trust

When recruiting research participants, it’s important to establish credibility right away, especially if you’re asking people to participate in person. A clear, professional landing page helps potential participants evaluate your study and your company on their own terms, reducing any hesitation they might have about responding to an outreach message. 

This is especially helpful when cold recruiting, where participants have no prior relationship with you and need a reason to trust that your study is genuine. 

On our recruiting landing pages, we typically include: 

1. The study name 
2. Date, location, and timing details 
3. A description of what participants will be expected to do 
4. Frequently asked questions 
5. The incentive amount for participating 
6. A link to apply via the screener survey 
7. A short “About” section for our company, along with photos from past studies to build familiarity and trust 

By giving potential participants a place to do their own research before applying, you reduce friction, build confidence, and increase the likelihood that the right people will engage with your study. 

5 Ways to Recruit Participants for User Studies

Once you have a screener survey and a landing page set up to help share information, you’re ready to start recruiting! 

1. Social Media Postings and Ads

One of the first ways that you can recruit participants is through social media. There are many audience-targeting options through social media ads, allowing you to get specific with who you want your ad to reach and find your target audience quickly. 

In one recent study, we used this method to recruit participants for interviews at our office. Facebook and Instagram ads allowed us to target only a small local area, which helped us get great qualified participants who didn’t have to drive far to participate. 

Pros: Very specific targeting, especially if you are looking for people in a certain location or with specific interests.  

Cons: Ads can be expensive to run and maintain. It can also be a bit confusing and time-intensive to set up correctly.  

2. Online Communities and Groups

Another way you can use social media to recruit for studies is to connect with different communities and groups online. 

LinkedIn groups, Reddit threads, Facebook groups, Slack communities, and Discord servers all have hundreds of thousands of niche audiences. From competitive jigsaw puzzlers to jeep enthusiasts, to concrete professionals, if you’re looking for a specific interest group, you can probably find it online.  

Pros: There are hundreds of thousands of niche communities, and you might find the jackpot in connecting with the right user group you are looking for.  

Cons: The one challenge you may find is that many of these groups have community rules that you need to check to see if they allow you to post and recruit in their group page or thread. A recruiting post could be considered soliciting.  

3. Professional Recruitment Panels or Platforms

Another successful way we have recruited participants for user research is through online services that have their own panels of participants that you can recruit through. Services like User Interviews, UserTesting, and Respondent are all different companies that provide this service.  

Pros: Pre-screened participants, built-in messaging, scheduling tools, and screener surveys can make the management of recruiting participants easy and seamless.  

Cons: These services often have a cost associated with them that can add up quickly. You also may have less flexibility in how you can reach out to participants or have to pay more for extra recruiting resources/features. 

4. Intercept Interviews

Intercept interviews/surveys involve approaching people in the real world and asking them to participate on the spot. This method works especially well when you want to capture reactions in context, such as asking customers about their shopping experience right after they check out at a storefront. 

Pros: Intercepts let you reach people you might never connect with through traditional recruitment methods. Because you’re meeting participants in their natural environment, responses tend to feel more candid and in-the-moment, which can surface insights that a formal study setting might miss. 

Cons: This type of recruitment comes with a few hurdles. First, many people may get caught off guard by unsolicited requests and may decline or feel uncomfortable participating. Second, depending on where you’re operating, you may need prior approval from a business or property owner to do research there. And lastly, because you’re recruiting on the fly, there’s little opportunity to vet participants in advance. This method works best when your study doesn’t require a highly specific participant profile. 

5. Cold Calling and Emailing

Cold calling and emailing are some of the more time-intensive recruitment methods, but they can be highly effective when you’re trying to reach a niche or hard-to-find audience. 

For example, if you want to talk to veterinarians about their exam room furniture, your best bet is likely calling clinics directly and then introducing yourself, explaining the study, and asking if anyone on their team would be interested in participating. After the call, follow up promptly with an email summarizing the key details and including a link to your landing page and screener survey. 

Pros: Speaking with someone directly over the phone helps establish a personal connection, which can build trust faster than a cold email alone. This often leads to better response and conversion rates compared to outreach that starts in an inbox. 

Cons: This approach requires a significant investment of time and effort. People are also increasingly wary of unsolicited calls, so it’s important to be clear, transparent, and concise. 

Need Help with Your User Interviews and Testing?

Recruiting great participants for your study is important to gain helpful insights and meaningful data. Each of these methods has its pros and cons, so it’s important to evaluate which one makes the most sense for the type of users you need to recruit. 

If you’re looking for support recruiting participants or running user research, our team would love to help. Reach out online to get started.