50+ qualitative research questions examples for user research
Open-ended qualitative questions elicit detailed user stories about behaviors, motivations, and pain points to guide product decisions and discovery.!
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7 sourcing strategies to recruit high-quality research participants: panels, support, community, platforms, email, in-product, partners.
Bad participants ruin good research. You can have perfect discussion guides and skilled moderators, but if your participants don’t represent your target users or don’t engage honestly, your insights will be worthless.
Dropbox learned this in 2019 when they recruited “small business owners” through a general panel provider for research about team collaboration. Half the participants turned out to be solo freelancers, not the team managers Dropbox needed to interview. They had to restart the entire study, wasting weeks and thousands of dollars. Developing a comprehensive recruitment strategy and a clear research plan with defined research objectives is essential to avoid these pitfalls and ensure you recruit the right participants for your study.
Good recruitment means finding people who actually match your target users, care enough to show up and engage, and can provide honest feedback based on real experience. Identifying the right participants and anticipating recruitment challenges early in the process is crucial for achieving meaningful research outcomes.
Your existing customers are usually your best source. They already use your product, understand the context, and have opinions based on real experience. Building a user panel is one of several recruitment methods available for recruiting research participants, and it forms a key part of a well-structured recruitment process.
By inviting these customers to join a user panel, you can streamline your participant recruitment process and ensure you have a reliable group for ongoing studies. A clear participant recruitment process helps ensure ongoing access to quality participants.
In-app recruitment: Add opt-in prompts inside your product where engaged users see them. A simple banner or modal asking “Want to help shape the future of [Product]? Join our research community” works. To maximize signups, design recruitment materials—such as banners and modals—that are visually appealing, clear, and include essential study details and contact information.
Notion shows recruitment prompts to users who’ve been active for 30+ days. The timing ensures participants have enough experience to provide useful feedback. They convert about 12% of users who see the prompt.
Post-interaction recruitment: Ask users to join your panel at natural moments like after support interactions, onboarding completion, or feature usage milestones.
Loom adds a recruitment option at the end of support tickets: “Would you be interested in occasional research studies to help us improve Loom?” They convert about 15% of support interactions into panel signups.
Email campaigns: Send targeted emails to customers explaining your research program and inviting them to participate. When crafting email recruitment materials, ensure your message is clear, visually engaging, and provides all necessary information about the study and how to get involved.
Be specific about what participation involves: “We conduct 1-2 short user interviews monthly via video call. Each session lasts 30 minutes and you’ll receive a $50 gift card.”
Store participant information in a database with relevant characteristics:
Contact information
Product usage patterns (power user, casual user, specific features used)
Company size and role
Participation history (when they last participated)
Preferences (availability, communication channels)
Figma maintains an Airtable database of 3,000 panel members with 20+ tags per person. When they need participants for mobile app research, they filter to "frequent mobile users" and get qualified candidates immediately.
Don't over-recruit from the same people. Space out requests to individual participants by at least 3-6 months. Over-using people burns them out and creates professional research participants rather than real users.
Keep panel members engaged. Send quarterly updates about how research influenced product decisions. When participants see their feedback matters, they stay engaged.
Clean your panel regularly. Remove inactive members, bounced emails, and people who've repeatedly no-showed. A smaller, engaged panel beats a large, unresponsive one.
Linear sends quarterly newsletters to their research panel showing features built based on user feedback. This keeps members engaged and reminds them their participation has impact.
Your support team talks to users experiencing problems or confusion. These users have strong context about pain points. Leveraging support interactions as recruitment activities can be an effective strategy for recruiting participants who are already engaged and have firsthand experience with your product or service. By integrating recruitment activities into support workflows, you can efficiently identify and invite relevant users to participate in research studies, optimizing your efforts even with limited resources.
Add recruitment questions to support ticket resolution surveys: "Would you be interested in a 30-minute conversation about your experience? We'd love to understand your use case better."
Zendesk, Intercom, and similar tools let you add custom fields to satisfaction surveys. Add a simple yes/no question with contact info collection for interested users.
Webflow's support team recruits 10-15 research participants monthly through ticket closures. Users who've just struggled with something provide detailed, contextual feedback.
Train support agents to identify users who would make good research participants and offer participation during conversations.
"I see you're using [Product] for [specific use case]. Our research team is studying that workflow. Would you be interested in a brief conversation next week? We'd compensate you $75 for your time."
This works best after support agents have solved the user's problem. Don't recruit when users are frustrated.
Support interactions work especially well for:
Feature pain point research (users struggling with specific features)
Onboarding research (new users needing help)
Workflow research (users with complex use cases contacting support)
Don't recruit from support for general satisfaction studies. These users skew toward problems and might not represent your broader user base.
If you have user communities, forums, or social media followings, they’re goldmines for research recruitment. Expanding your recruitment efforts to include partnerships with community centers and social organizations can help you reach broader or underserved audiences, leveraging established communication channels and trusted community relationships.
Post recruitment messages in your community spaces explaining what you're researching and what participation involves.
Notion's community forum has a dedicated research recruitment channel. When they need participants, researchers post details and interested members sign up. They get 30-50 responses within 24 hours for most studies.
Make it easy: Include a direct link to a screening survey or scheduling tool. Don't make people email you.
Be transparent: Explain the time commitment, compensation, and what you're studying. Vague requests get fewer responses.
Respect the community: Don't spam with constant recruitment. Balance asks with value provided to community members.
Twitter, LinkedIn, and product-specific communities like subreddits work for recruitment. Using both official social media accounts and broader social media platforms helps maximize recruitment reach by tapping into high-traffic online locations where target audiences engage.
“We’re researching how designers collaborate remotely. Looking for 8 designers working on distributed teams for 45-minute interviews next week. $100 Amazon gift card. Interested? [survey link]”
Figma recruits through design Twitter and Designer News. They reach designers beyond their current users, useful for understanding why non-users choose alternatives.
Partner with your community team. They know power users, vocal members, and people with interesting use cases.
Community managers can identify and directly reach out to members who'd provide valuable research insights.
Airtable's community team flags interesting use cases to researchers. When someone shares an impressive setup in the community, researchers reach out for deeper conversations.
When you need participants outside your customer base or in specific demographics you don’t have access to, use recruitment platforms. These platforms are especially useful for finding test participants with specialized skills or for targeting a niche audience, such as professionals from specific industries or those with unique technical expertise.
User Interviews: Large participant pool across demographics and industries. Good for both B2B and consumer research. Pricing: $100-200+ per participant depending on criteria.
Respondent: Focuses on B2B and niche audiences. Great for recruiting professionals like developers, marketers, or executives. Pricing: $150-400+ per participant for specialized audiences.
UserTesting: Provides unmoderated testing with quick turnaround. Less flexible but fast. Pricing: Subscription-based, approximately $100 per participant.
You need non-customers: Researching why people don't use your product or exploring new markets.
You need specific demographics: Finding enough participants with exact criteria (e.g., "healthcare IT directors at 500+ employee companies") through your own channels is difficult.
You need speed: Platforms can fill studies in 24-48 hours versus weeks building your own panel.
Write clear screeners: Specify exactly what qualifies someone. Vague criteria lead to mismatched participants.
Include attention checks: Ask the same question two ways to ensure people are reading carefully.
Screen for recent experience: "Have you used project management software in the past 30 days?" ensures current, relevant experience.
Calendly uses Respondent for competitive research, recruiting users of competing scheduling tools. This gets them participants outside their user base who can compare experiences.
If you have an email list or newsletter, use it for recruitment. Email lists and newsletters are effective channels for reaching prospective participants and potential participants who have already shown interest in your product.
Send targeted emails to subscriber segments that match your research criteria.
Subject line: "We need your input: Help shape [Feature Name]"
Email content:
What you're researching (brief, specific)
Who you need (clear criteria)
What's involved (time commitment, format)
What they get (compensation, impact)
How to participate (direct link)
Superhuman sends monthly recruitment emails to segments of their user base. Each email targets specific use cases: "We're researching email search behaviors and need power users who search frequently."
Add recruitment calls to your product newsletter.
"Research opportunity: We're studying mobile app usage and need iPhone users for 30-minute interviews. Interested? [link]"
This works best for products with engaged newsletter audiences. Dead newsletters won't generate responses.
Don't blast your entire list. Segment by:
Product usage patterns
Feature adoption
User role or company size
Engagement level
For guidance on optimizing these metrics, see our survey design resources.
Targeting relevant segments increases response quality and reduces unsubscribe rates from irrelevant recruitment asks.
Miro segments their email list by primary use case (design teams, agile teams, workshops). When researching workshop features, they only email users who've created workshop boards.
Recruit participants right when they’re using your product and experiencing relevant contexts. In-product intercepts are highly effective for recruiting users for a research session, allowing you to optimize data collection in real time by engaging participants while their experiences are fresh and relevant.
Show recruitment messages after users complete specific actions:
After creating their first project
After using a new feature
After completing onboarding
After accomplishing a milestone
The timing ensures users have relevant, fresh context.
Amplitude triggers research invitations after users create their first dashboard. These users just experienced the feature and can provide detailed feedback.
Run short in-product surveys, then recruit interested respondents for deeper interviews.
Survey asks 3-5 questions about a feature or workflow, then ends with: "Would you be open to a 30-minute conversation about your experience? We'd love to learn more."
Interested users provide contact info and you have pre-qualified participants who've already demonstrated engagement.
Notion uses this approach for feature feedback. They survey users about specific features, then interview 10-15 who expressed interest and showed thoughtful survey responses.
When users are leaving or showing signs of churning, recruit them for retention research.
"We noticed you haven't used [Product] recently. We'd love to understand your experience and hear any feedback. Would you be open to a brief conversation?"
These users provide critical insights about why products lose users.
Find companies serving similar audiences and collaborate on research recruitment. Partnerships can help you reach both your own users and potential users who are not yet familiar with your product, expanding the diversity and relevance of your research participants.
Partner with non-competing companies targeting the same users. You help recruit for their research, they help recruit for yours.
A project management tool and a documentation tool both serve product teams. They could share participant panels, expanding both teams' reach.
If you integrate with other products, ask integration partners to help recruit users who use both tools.
"We integrate with [Partner Product] and are researching how users combine the tools. Could you help us reach users who use both products?"
Partners benefit from better integration research and you get qualified participants.
Zapier occasionally partners with integrated apps for research. When studying specific integration workflows, they recruit users through partner channels for targeted marketing.
Join industry associations, attend conferences, or partner with professional organizations to .
B2B SaaS companies researching enterprise needs might partner with CIO associations or industry groups to recruit participants. These channels are especially effective for reaching working professionals and faculty members, who may be difficult to access through other means.
Partner with universities studying similar topics. Academics need research participants, you need insights. Collaborate on studies benefiting both.
Some companies provide research access to academic researchers in exchange for participant recruitment help or shared findings, which can be especially valuable when conducting usability testing.
Finding people is half the battle. Ensuring they’re right for your research is the other half. Screening for participants with diverse backgrounds and specialized skills is essential to recruit the right participants and gather comprehensive, relevant insights. When considering the number of participants needed, starting with five to seven can serve as a good starting point for most research studies, balancing meaningful feedback with available resources.
Ask behavioral questions: "How often do you use project management software?" (Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Rarely)
Verify recent experience: "When did you last use project management software?" (Today/This week/This month/Longer ago)
Check for relevant activities: "In the past month, which of these have you done: created a project, assigned tasks, used mobile app, invited team members"
Include open-ended questions: "Describe a recent project you managed and how you organized it."
Generic or vague answers to open-ended questions suggest people aren't your target audience or aren't engaged.
Professional research participants: People who do paid research studies regularly. Check their screening responses for mentions of "participating in studies" or being "interested in research."
Inconsistent answers: Responses that contradict each other suggest people aren't reading carefully.
Too perfect: Someone claiming expertise in everything you ask about might be lying to qualify.
No specifics: Vague answers to specific questions indicate lack of real experience.
Linear's screening includes: "Describe the last issue you created in your current project management tool and why." Generic answers like "I create issues for tasks" get rejected. Specific answers like "Yesterday I created an issue to track the bug where mobile push notifications weren't working" pass. For businesses looking to better understand user feedback and improve targeting, market segmentation research can be a valuable strategy.
Appropriate incentives increase participation and show respect for users’ time. Offering incentives is a key strategy in recruiting research participants, as it motivates engagement and helps create a positive experience for participants, encouraging them to take part in current and future studies.
When considering non-monetary incentives, remember that building respectful and trusting relationships with potential participants can sometimes be achieved without incurring monetary costs. Simple gestures, recognition, or access to exclusive content can foster trust and engagement.
When determining payment timing and methods, ensure that incentives are appropriate for the study type and participant profile, and are delivered in a way that avoids undue influence. This helps prevent any perception of coercion or bias, maintaining ethical standards in your research.
Consumer participants, 30-minute session: $50-75 gift card Consumer participants, 60-minute session: $100-125 gift card B2B participants, 30-minute session: $75-100 gift card
B2B participants, 60-minute session: $125-150 gift card Executives/senior roles: $200-400 per hour depending on seniority
These are guidelines. Adjust based on your audience and market.
Early feature access: Let participants use new features before general release. Works well for engaged customers.
Product credits: Offer subscription credits or upgrades. Only valuable for existing paying customers.
Community recognition: Feature participant quotes in case studies or blog posts (with permission). Some users value visibility.
Exclusive access: Invite participants to special events, beta programs, or direct interaction with your team.
Superhuman offers research participants early access to features they helped shape. Users value seeing their feedback implemented.
Pay within 24-48 hours of completed sessions. Delayed payment breeds resentment.
Use digital rewards: Tremendous, Tango, or similar platforms for instant gift card delivery. Avoid checks and PayPal.
Mention payment timing upfront: "Receive your $100 Amazon gift card within 24 hours of completing the session."
Notion sends gift cards via Tremendous immediately after research sessions end. Participants get confirmation emails before leaving.
Even with good recruitment, 15-20% of scheduled participants won’t show up. That’s why it’s smart to keep a waitlist of qualified alternates. If someone cancels or doesn’t confirm, reach out to replacements within the same day to keep your study on track and avoid delays.
Over-recruit: Book 10 participants for an 8-person study. If everyone shows, send extras home with show-up fees ($25-35).
Send multiple reminders: Email at 1 week, 2 days, and 2 hours before sessions to help optimize your survey response rates.
Calendar invites: Send calendar events with automatic reminders.
Confirmation requests: Ask participants to confirm 24-48 hours before. Follow up with no-responses.
Pay everyone something just for showing up, even if you don't need them.
This builds goodwill and increases show rates for future studies. Participants remember being treated fairly.
Figma pays $25 to over-recruited participants they turn away. Those participants respond to future recruitment because they were compensated even when not needed.
Maintain ranked waitlists. When someone cancels, immediately contact the next waitlisted person. To further improve your research process and ensure fairness, it's important to be aware of the types of bias in user research and strategies to overcome them.
User Interviews' platform auto-promotes waitlist members when participants cancel, minimizing scrambling.
Don’t treat recruitment as a separate task you do before studies. Make it ongoing.
Integrating recruitment activities and a structured recruitment process into your workflow ensures you consistently have access to high-quality participants. By making these efforts a core part of your ongoing recruitment strategy, you can streamline participant sourcing and maintain a steady pipeline for your research needs.
Always be recruiting for your panel, not just when you need participants. Add 10-20 new members monthly so you always have fresh participants available.
Monitor:
Response rates by source
Qualification rates (screened in vs. total applicants)
Show rates by source
Participant quality by source
This shows which recruitment channels produce the best participants.
Linear tracks that their customer panel has 85% show rates while third-party platforms average 75%. They prioritize panel recruitment accordingly.
Build reusable templates for:
Recruitment emails for study design in generative research
Screening questionnaires
Calendar invites and reminders
Thank you messages
Templates save time and ensure consistency.
For teams running regular research, dedicate capacity to recruitment and panel management. Don't make every researcher also handle recruitment.
Larger teams often have a research operations person handling recruitment, scheduling, and panel management so researchers focus on conducting studies.
If your recruitment is currently ad hoc:
Effective participant recruitment efforts are crucial for the success of research projects. Addressing recruitment challenges early can streamline the process and help ensure you reach your study goals, even when resources are limited.
Week 1: Start building a customer panel. Add in-app recruitment prompts and support ticket recruitment.
Week 2: Create a participant database tracking basic characteristics and participation history.
Week 3: Develop standard screening questionnaires you can adapt for different studies.
Week 4: Test recruiting from 2-3 different sources for your next study. Track which produces better participants.
Ongoing: Continuously add panel members and track recruitment effectiveness.
Calendly started exactly this way. They added a simple “Join Research Panel” link in their product footer. After six months, they had 500 panel members. Now they have 2,000+ and fill most studies from the panel.
Good recruitment takes effort upfront but saves massive time and money avoiding bad research from wrong participants. Recruiting research participants is often a complex process that is central to effective user research and UX research, as it directly impacts the quality of insights gathered for product and design decisions.
Teams that invest in recruitment infrastructure - panels, templates, processes - can fill studies in 2-3 days. A well-structured research process is essential to conduct user research with the right participants, ensuring that the data collected is accurate and actionable. Teams without infrastructure spend 2-3 weeks scrambling to find participants for each study.
Start somewhere. Pick one or two strategies, implement them, and build from there. Your future self will thank you when you need participants and have a ready pool of engaged users.
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