Recruiting participants

Converge can recruit participants for you from the User Interviews research panel, a pool of several million people. You describe who you want, they apply and pass a screener, you approve them, and they receive the session link. Recruiting is set up per roster group, so a session with two groups can run two recruits.

Launching a recruit

On the agenda page, click Manage Recruit. With more than one group it’s a dropdown, and each group shows Active or Not started.

The recruit page is headed Powered by User Interviews. On a fresh group it shows a How it works panel with the three phases: Setup, Authorize and Launch, and Run and Close. Typical recruit time is one to two days. Click Start.

Criteria. On the Recruitment tab, Manage Criteria opens the audience builder: location, demographics, profession, and so on. Leave it empty to recruit from the general United States population. The panel shows an estimate of how many people match.
Screener. Add Screener builds a short survey applicants answer before they’re considered. Preview shows it as an applicant sees it and Download saves it as a Word document.
Participant details. On the Participant Details tab, Edit Details asks for the Project Listing Name and Project Listing Description applicants will read, Number of Participants, Compensation Amount, and Device Requirements (computer, computer with webcam, smartphone, or tablet). Async sessions add Estimated Time to Complete (Minutes), shown to applicants as the expected length.
Dates. The recruit uses the roster group’s dates. The launch window shows them, with an Edit Group button if they need changing. For a synchronous session that’s the start and end time; for async it’s the open date and the completion deadline.
Authorize. Click Authorize, enter a Billing Email and an optional invoice memo. User Interviews sends a stipend authorization invoice for the participant count times the compensation amount. The recruit sits at Pending Authorization until it’s paid.
Launch. Click Launch and confirm. Once launched you can’t change the criteria or screener, and for synchronous sessions you can’t change the session times either.

While the recruit runs, Pause and Unpause control whether new applicants can apply.

Managing applicants

The Participant Management section is a set of tabs that follow the panel’s funnel: Applied, Marked Potential, Approved, then Scheduled for synchronous sessions or Started and Submitted for async, then Completed and Removed.

Open an applicant to see their screener answers and act on them: Approve & Invite, Not a fit, and later No Show or Completed. Select several rows for the same actions in bulk.

Approved participants receive the roster group’s login link from User Interviews. For async sessions, when a participant finishes every activity Converge reports the task as submitted automatically, and the participant sees a Submit Task button as a receipt.

Messaging

Converge can’t email panel participants directly. Everything goes through User Interviews messaging, which reaches them by email and SMS.

Open a participant’s thread to message them individually, once they’re scheduled or have started.
Select rows on the Scheduled, Started, Submitted, or Completed tabs and click Message to send the same message to up to 300 people.
Message Notifications chooses which of your session leaders are emailed when a participant writes back. If nobody is selected, nobody is told.

Invite past participants, under the Invite dropdown, lists people recruited for your team’s earlier sessions. Select them and click Invite N Selected. They still go through this recruit’s screener before approval.

Recruiting for an interview study

Manage Recruit works the same way on an interview study, with a few differences that follow from participants booking individual times.

Dates come from your availability. Approved participants choose a time from the study’s open slots when they schedule with User Interviews, so there’s no single start time to set. The study’s minimum notice applies to them too. If you use Specific days & times, the launch confirmation lists the upcoming interview windows so you can check them before you commit.
Adding availability later is fine. When you extend the study’s days after launch, the recruit’s scheduling window is extended to match.
Device requirements are fixed to a computer with a webcam, because interviews are video calls with screen sharing.
Bookings land on the Interviews page with the participant’s profile, screener answers, and characteristics attached. User Interviews sends their confirmations and reminders and handles any rescheduling, so those actions aren’t available in Converge.
Status drives payment. Marking an interview Completed triggers the participant’s incentive, and No Show records a no-show. Unlike a group session, nobody is marked complete for you.

See Scheduling and managing bookings.

Closing and billing

When you’re done, click Close Recruit. The button reads Refund & Close or Create Invoice & Close depending on how the numbers work out. The final invoice is the panel’s base fee plus three percent processing on stipends, less any unused stipend credit from the authorization. View Billing shows the running figures at any time.

Good to know

Criteria and screener are locked while the recruit is active or paused.
A Survey recruits the same way as an async session: participants complete it as a task, and its closing time is their deadline.
Changing an async group’s end date after launch updates the panel’s deadline, as long as the new date is in the future.
Synchronous session times can’t be pushed to the panel after launch. If the time changes, message the scheduled participants.
Participants who complete the session are marked complete for you; use No Show for people who didn’t turn up so they aren’t paid.