Rescuing a stalled home-equity study by widening the target

A financial services research team partnered with CleverX to understand the real journey of home-equity line-of-credit borrowers, from first considering one, through approval, to actually using the funds. The goal was warm, step-by-step interviews with homeowners who had genuinely opened one.

• The first version targeted only one small region and one specific use of the funds.
• That narrow brief returned just 3 candidates, none qualified, and no completed interviews.
• Money topics are sensitive, so participants needed to feel safe sharing detail.

CleverX rebuilt the study by widening the geography and easing the eligibility rules.

• The geography expanded from one small region to the whole state.
• The rule on how funds were used relaxed from one specific purpose to any use.
• The screener still confirmed residency, home ownership, an opened line of credit, and how recent it was.
• A warm, step-by-step interview style walked each person through their story, with clear rules against giving advice.

• Completion went from 0 of 7 on the first attempt to 11 of 10 once the brief was widened.
• The qualification rate rose from 0% to 29% on the rebuilt study.
• The final sample covered a range of recency and uses, giving a full picture from decision to draw-down.

• When a group is genuinely rare, widening the target works better than raising the incentive.
• A first attempt that qualifies nobody is not wasted, it shows precisely what to change.
• A warm, step-by-step structure makes sensitive money topics comfortable to talk through.