It’s now easier and faster to recruit participants for your studies if you’re using our in-app participant recruitment tool.

Image of the in-app recruitment table in Optimal Workshop

There are 3 ways to recruit participants in Optimal Workshop:

  1. Share the study URL with existing contacts, customers or users on your website, email or social media

  2. Use our in-app recruitment feature which allows you to use recruitment credits to source targeted participants

  3. Use our custom recruitment service where our team uses very specific criteria to find participants for you

You can read more about the last two here.

If you’re using our in-app participant recruitment feature, it’s now easier for you to spot participants who may not have completed your study correctly and replace them.

Flagged participant responses

If a participant doesn’t complete your study correctly, their response will be flagged in-app in OptimalSort and Treejack. While it’s not 100% foolproof, we’ve instituted some rules that flag a response if it doesn’t match.

Example of what a flagged participant response looks like

Flag rules for Treejack

Responses that meet any of the following rules will be flagged:

Rule

Condition

What you'll see

The same tree endpoint is selected over 50% of the time, regardless of whether the tree order is randomized or not

Rule does not apply if the study has less than 3 tasks

This participant selected the same answer for more than half of the tasks.

The participant went directly to an answer more than 80% of the time, and more than 25% of those answers were incorrect (failure or skip)

None

This participant chose a direct answer more than 80% of the time, however, less than a quarter of their answers were successful.

Flag rules for OptimalSort

Responses that meet any of the following rules will be flagged:

Rule

Condition

What you'll see

More than 50% of categories are named with an individual character or letter

Applies to hybrid or open card sorts only

Rule does not apply if the participant creates less than 3 categories

This participant used a single character to name over half of their categories.

Automatically replaced participants

If a participant meets any of the rules below, they will be replaced immediately at no cost, i.e. their response won’t even make it into your participant results.

Replacement rules for OptimalSort

Responses that meet any of the following rules will be immediately replaced:

Rule

Condition

What you'll see

All cards are sorted into their own category

Rule does not apply if it is a closed card sort with less than 3 categories

This participant sorted each card into its own category.

All cards are sorted into one category

Rule does not apply if the customer is using the card order indicator

Rule does not apply if it is a closed card sort with less than 3 categories

This participant sorted all cards into a single category.

No cards are sorted (entire card sort is skipped)

None

This participant did not sort any cards.

Replacement rules for OptimalSort and Treejack

Responses that meet any of the following rules will be immediately replaced:

Rule

Condition

What you'll see

EVERYTHING is skipped, including pre and post task-study questions and the entire study

None

This participant did not complete any of the study.

Easily replace participants

If you find yourself with a flagged participant or one that doesn’t provide the data you’re after, you can quickly and easily replace them in-app, instead of having to raise a ticket.

Simply select the participant and click ‘Replace this participant’. Your study will then be shared again and the participant will be replaced within 4 hours.

Example of 'Replace this participant' button

You can replace up to 60% of your participants in-app within 30 days of their response. If you need to replace more than 60% of participants, you’ll need to raise a ticket with our Frontline Support team.

Use screeners to make sure you're recruiting the participants that are right for you

While our flagging and replacement functionality will help filter out participants who may not fit your criteria, we still recommend creating a screener. Screeners act as an added check to ensure you’re getting the right participants for your study.

You can read more about how to create a good screener here.

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