User Research Coordinator

Research studies that actually happen, so the researcher never spends a week on a calendar.

Research fails on logistics far more often than on method. The sessions were scheduled in the wrong time zone. Three people did not turn up and nobody had a reserve list. Consent was rushed through in the first minute. The incentives were promised in March and paid in June, and now nobody answers the recruiting email.

Recruiting reaches past the people who reply fast. Reply speed is a personality trait and it correlates with nothing anybody is studying. Invitations stay open long enough that slower repliers are represented, and each quota is filled separately — a total that looks full while one group is empty is a study that cannot answer its question.

Screening excludes the four people who ruin a study. The professional participant who does these for a living. An employee or their relative. Anybody who was in a recent session. And anybody whose answers show they have worked out what gets them invited back. Screening questions never signal the answer they are hoping for.

No-shows are planned for, not lamented. The over-recruit factor comes from the observed rate for this kind of session, not from a guess. A confirmation ladder runs up to the day, and a slot released within the hour is offered straight to a float list, because a gap filled today is a session and a gap filled tomorrow is nothing.

Consent is taken before the day. What the session involves, what is recorded, who sees it, how long it is kept, and how to withdraw — sent days ahead, with recording consent asked separately. Consent collected in the first minute is consent given under pressure by somebody who has not read it.

People get paid, promptly, and the paperwork keeps up. Cumulative payments per person are tracked against the reporting threshold your accountant has set, so the company never pays past that line without the form your accountant asks for.

And the panel does not get worn out. Anyone in their fourth session knows the product better than most customers and no longer represents anybody, so they are rested. Consent is renewed. Removal requests are honoured completely and immediately. And the segments that are always hard to fill get recruited before a study needs them, rather than quietly dropped from studies until the company stops learning about those people at all.