As I was just starting out in research, the consulting firm I was employed with was hired to run a comparative usability study on a client’s e-commerce platform. We were in the process of completing our onsite usability lab, but it wasn’t quite ready to accommodate our study, so we partnered with a local testing facility that provided a lab, participant recruitment, and incentives. Our primary concern was recruitment. We needed to recruit folks from the creative community (graphic designers, art directors, creative directors, etc) and we were hesitant that the facility would have such a niche participant list on hand. They assured us they had a huge database of folks and would have no problems finding matches to our screening criteria.

On the first day of the study, about 50% of the participants actually aligned with our recruitment criteria and our client was less than impressed. We expressed concern to the facility manager who was in charge of recruitment and confirmed that they understood our criteria. Apologies were made and we were re-assured that day 2 would be better. Spoiler—It wasn’t.  Something felt off. After some sleuthing, it turned out that the participant database we were told about was just a generic Craigslist post. We decided not to continue with the facility, but we needed a new plan.

In a pivot, we decide to make do with our lab and had the idea to recruit designers through a local creative placement agency. It was perfect. The recruiters we spoke to had intimate knowledge of the designers on their roster and they had the domain knowledge needed to understand our screener. As a result, our new participants matched our criteria perfectly and we were able to feel more confident with their insights.

Ultimately, everything worked out, and I’ll never forget the “oh crap” moment when we had to pivot, and the sigh of relief when our backup plan worked better than the original. Recruiting is one of the hardest parts of planning research, but being flexible and adaptable opens the door to opportunities that you may never have known to exist. That experience taught me to be more creative and flexible when planning research, and to trust my instincts more when working with external agencies.