How to Recruit (Almost) Any User
The essential step of recruiting for user testing
You Need Users
At PTL, we recruit users for testing differently than other people. Finding the right users and successfully recruiting them is absolutely essential to the success of a project and cannot be compromised.
So, we have developed a way of recruiting that, when done correctly, can get nearly any user to step up and agree to test.
What’s Different
The biggest difference between how we recruit and how others do is that you need to craft your recruitment message as a personalized, authentic request for the user’s help. PTL user tests aren’t about checking boxes or generating bulk data; they’re about building intimacy with users.
So when we recruit, we don’t use automated or generic messages. We use a deeper, more personal request.
A Good Recruitment Request Will Hit Four Points
Help: We need your help.
Learn: We sincerely want to learn about you and how what we’re testing lands in your life.
Impact: Explain in detail how their feedback will shape and impact what we’re doing.
Exclusive: Explain why they in specific (not as a representative of some category) are the right person for this. When true, you can also say that at this stage only a small number (e.g. 3-4 people) are being recruited right now.
If you can do all of these things in authentically and in detail, you can recruit nearly any user.
Why This Works
We believe the strongest motivator to participate in a test is not compensating users for their time. It is being needed, valued, and having an impact.
A typical ‘scientific’ user test is disempowering: it makes users feel like a number, and like they’re talking into a void.
By contrast, our whole user test experience lets users see, feel, and know that real humans are listening and that their feedback is making a difference. Some of this comes from dynamic User Testing - the prototype actually responds to the user in real time - but a lot of it is showing and telling the users, directly, the impact their feedback will have.
That means we always communicate to a user:
We need you (specifically you; not just anyone fitting a description)
We are ready to be moved by what you have to share
What you say will make a difference
Doing this in a way that genuinely values and centers a user is the most powerful possible motivator.
💡 This approach is particularly good for relationship management with enterprise users. We find that User Testing this way deepens relationships and builds trust, because users can can see and experience the organization listening and responding to their needs.
In fact, sales very frequently come out of User Testing because of the trust and connection that it builds.
Example
Here is an example for inspiration, but again, every recruitment message needs to be personal, in your real voice, and specific to the user and the project.
Dear [name],
I’m writing to ask for your help: our team at Bank of the Redwoods has been working on a project to reinvent our online banking access, and we were hoping that you could help us by giving your feedback on what we’ve developed so far.1
We’d like to invite you to
test a very early version of our new portal and share your insight and experiences on how it works for you. 2
This will be a fun session in which you meet 1:1 with the core strategic team behind the project using a unique experimental and feedback methodology called Prototype Thinking.
Your assistance with this test will have a big impact on the way we reimagine online banking access in the future!3
We have selected a very small number of people to invite in this early stage, and based on our research, you’d be perfect.4
Let us know if you’re interested in participating. It should take an hour of your time and can be done on zoom. If you’re able, we would be deeply grateful for your help.
Thank you so much!
[your name]
Help
Learn
Impact
Exclusive