You can recruit participants via Optimal for moderated research sessions, finding the right people, managing screening criteria, and coordinating sessions in one place.
Optimal’s moderated recruitment helps you find participants who match your research requirements and invite them to join live interview sessions.
Before you start
Before setting up moderated recruitment, make sure you have:
Your target participant criteria defined
Your screening questions ready
Your session availability configured
Automated emails customized, if needed
Participant agreement, if needed
You'll find the automated emails and participant agreement under the Manage tab.
Set up moderated recruitment
1. Define your participant profile
From your Interviews study:
Click on Recruit
Add a participant profile
You can create and recruit for multiple participant profiles in one study,
Give the profile a name (e.g. "Retail banking customers").
Set your participant quota in the top right.
Under Location, add one or more countries and/or cities
Select your B2B or B2C criteria
2. Add screening questions
Screener questions help you identify participants who meet your recruitment criteria before they're invited to your study. You can add a unique set of screener questions to each participant profile, making it easy to recruit different audience segments within the same recruitment order.
3. Customize the participant invitation
This invitation is shown to all participants before screening. You can use the description to include:
Who the study is for (at a high level)
What participants will do
How long it takes
Any requirements, like screen or audio recording
4. Submit recruitment order
When you’re ready, finalize recruitment Manage → Review & launch. On the Review & launch page, you'll get an indication of the recruitment complexity and estimated timing to fulfill the order.
5. Track applicants as they come in
Each profile shows a running count – applied, marked as potential, invited, scheduled, and completed – plus a status (Fully scheduled, Completed, etc.) so you can tell at a glance which profiles still need attention.
Click into a profile to see the full applicant list, organized into tabs:
Applied – everyone who's submitted so far
Shortlisted – applicants you've flagged as good fits
Invited – shortlisted applicants who've been sent a session invite
Scheduled – invited applicants who've booked a time
Completed – finished sessions
Removed – applicants you've passed on
A recruit order progress bar at the top shows completed, scheduled, and remaining counts at a glance.
6. Review, shortlist, and invite participants
Once recruitment is live, head to Manage > Participant management to see your applicants.
Click any applicant in the list to open their profile panel. This is where you decide who moves forward.
Match scores – overall percentages covering their characteristics fit and screener answers, so you can prioritize your review.
Characteristics and Screener tabs – see exactly which criteria they met and which they didn't.
Connections & contact details – linked social profiles and verified contact info.
Session – you'll be able to manage your scheduled sessions directly from this tab.
Messages – communicate directly with an applicant once they've been invited to the study.
From here, use the actions at the bottom of the panel to Shortlist, mark Not a fit, or Approve & invite. No need to go back to the list view.
You can also report a participant and remove them via a participant profile.
Tip: Sort the applicant table by Match to quickly find your strongest candidates, or use the search bar to jump straight to someone by name or ID.
7. Schedule sessions
Once an applicant is approved, you can view scheduled sessions under Manage > Scheduled sessions.
The calendar view shows your sessions across days, with each booked slot labelled by participant name and time.
The bottom of the page groups sessions into Today's sessions, Upcoming, Completed, and Removed.
8. Message participants
Each participant has a Messages tab in their profile panel, so you can communicate without leaving the platform.
Messages are threaded by date, with your team's replies and the participant's replies clearly distinguished. An unread message divider flags anything you haven't seen yet.
Use this thread for things like confirming incentive payments, session reminders, or follow-up scheduling. It keeps the whole conversation attached to that participant's record.
All messages are represented as “from Research team” to participant to keep your organization's anonymity and reduce bias.