Recruiting participants
Who to recruit for a study of a BSV product, how to screen for them, how to pay them, and how to keep their financial details out of your notes.
Recruit the people your product is for, not the people who are easiest to find. For most BSV products that means a mix of people who have never held digital money and people who already hold some, screened on what they do rather than what they believe.
Who to recruit
Start from the three groups in Getting to know your users: people who already have BSV, people who have used another kind of digital money, and people new to all of it. Decide which of them your product is for before you write a screener, because the answer sets the quotas.
The five personas make useful recruiting targets, as long as you recruit for the situation rather than the label:
| Persona | Recruit somebody who |
|---|---|
| Musa | Runs a small business and takes card or cash payments over a counter |
| Peter | Is paid by clients in another country, at least now and then |
| Ilse | Has chosen not to create an account somewhere because of what it asked |
| Hugo | Holds savings they intend to pass on, in any form |
| Emma | Builds or maintains a web or mobile app that takes payments |
None of those criteria mention bitcoin, deliberately. The situation predicts what somebody needs from the product; an interest in the technology mostly predicts that they will enjoy the session.
Do
Write recruiting criteria about what people do and what they have, never about what they think of bitcoin.
Do
Set a quota for newcomers in every study of a flow a newcomer will meet, and fill it before you fill the others.
Why recruiting only enthusiasts misleads
The people easiest to reach are already in the ecosystem: they follow its channels, answer its calls for testers, and want it to work. A study made only of them has three problems, and none is the people's fault.
- They already know the words. A test of whether "allowance" or "recovery words" makes sense cannot work on somebody who learnt the term months ago.
- They know the workarounds. They will get past a confusing screen because they have seen one like it, and the confusion never reaches your notes.
- They want it to succeed. Motivated participants try harder and report less, which flatters every design.
Enthusiasts are still worth including when the product is for them, or as a contrast group. The mistake is letting them stand in for everybody else.
Don't
Recruit only through the ecosystem's own forums, groups and channels. Use a general recruiting panel, local community groups, or the customers of the business you are designing for.
A screener
Copy this, cut what your study does not need, and set your own quotas. The questions ask about behaviour. The first one names neither the product nor the technology, so people cannot guess the "right" answer before they have described what they do.
SCREENER: [study name] Target: [n] participants Session: [length], [remote / in person]
1. Which of these have you done in the last three months? (tick all)
[ ] Paid somebody using a phone app
[ ] Paid for something inside an app or game
[ ] Been paid by somebody in another country
[ ] Taken a payment from a customer for a business
[ ] Paid for a single article, video or download, rather than a subscription
[ ] None of these -> check against quotas
2. Do you currently hold any digital currency, in an app, on an exchange or anywhere else?
[ ] Yes, and I use it to pay for things
[ ] Yes, but I only hold it
[ ] I used to, but not now
[ ] No, never -> newcomer quota
[ ] Prefer not to say -> do not exclude for this alone
3. Do you, or does anybody in your household, work for a company that makes
payment, banking or digital currency products?
[ ] Yes -> exclude
[ ] No
4. Have you taken part in a research session about a payment or money
app in the last six months?
[ ] Yes -> exclude, or cap at [n]
[ ] No
5. Which devices could you use for the session? (tick all)
[ ] Android phone [ ] iPhone [ ] Computer with a webcam
6. Are you comfortable being recorded (screen and voice) for the research team only?
[ ] Yes [ ] Screen only [ ] No -> No: note-taking only, or exclude
7. Anything that would make the session easier for you? (access needs, language, timing)
[free text]
Do NOT ask: balances, amounts held, income, account numbers, wallet addresses,
handles, or recovery words. None of them are needed to recruit.Do
Screen on behaviour within a recent, stated period ("in the last three months"), not on habits ("do you usually").
Don't
Ask how much somebody holds or earns on a screener. You do not need it to recruit, and you are now storing it.
Incentives and how to pay them
Pay people for their time, at a rate that is fair where they live, and pay the same whatever happens in the session.
Offer local currency by default: a bank transfer, a voucher, or cash in person. Paying in satoshis is reasonable when the participant already has a wallet and chooses it. For a newcomer, setting up a wallet to receive their incentive is itself an onboarding experience, and if it happens before the session it changes the person you are about to test.
A payment in satoshis also links your organisation's wallet to the participant's. Send it from a wallet used only for research incentives, and record that you paid, but not the participant's handle or address.
Do
Offer the incentive in local currency, and in satoshis only if the participant asks for it or agrees to it after you have explained what receiving it involves.
Do
Pay the full incentive to anybody who turns up, including somebody who stops halfway or cannot complete a task.
Don't
Make any part of the incentive depend on completing a task, finishing a flow, or keeping the test money. A participant paid for success will find a way to succeed.
Keeping financial details private
Everything a participant tells you about money is sensitive, and anything that touches a public ledger can be permanent. Collect only what the study needs.
Do
Store screener answers separately from session notes, linked by a participant code, and delete the screener data when the study is written up.
Don't
Record a participant's real handle, address or transaction in your notes. If one appears on screen, stop the recording and remove it.
See Privacy in research for the rest.
Open questions
- Whether paying an incentive in satoshis changes how a participant behaves in a later session is untested.
- The right ratio of newcomers to experienced participants for a mixed study is a judgement call; nobody has published one for BSV products.
- How many participants per group a study of a BSV flow needs before a pattern is worth reporting is unsettled; say your numbers in the write-up either way.
Related
- Conducting research
- User personas
- Interview guides
- Writing up findings: reporting who took part
- Getting to know your users
Written from: Conducting research, User personas, Getting to know your users, standard screener and incentive practice in usability research.
Checklist
The rules on this page, in a form you can work through.
10 rules