A qual screener is a unique kind of document. I’ve often thought of it as a cross between a survey design and a purchase order. After all, it isn’t just a set of instructions for programming a survey; screeners often contain information that has more to do with procurement than anything.
They are often the document whose delivery signals the acceptance of a quote and authorization to commence work. In this role, the screener often serves as the final definition of scope of work between the recruiter and their client – simple queues like “Recruit 32 Respondents” in the header can signal that the scope of a project has increased or decreased.
Conversely, a screener that contains just this kind of commercial information and no guidance for developing the survey questions ultimately used to qualify a respondent would be of equally little value.
Done right, a screener is the foundation of a successful project. Its acceptance by the end-client, research agency, and their field partner creates alignment around what a successful end-state for recruitment looks like. In other, it is a kind of agreement between all parties that spells out their mutual obligations in the course of doing business. Like any agreement, it can be a recipe for successful collaboration, or a recipe for acrimony.
With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of 6 key tips for creating a screener that will help keep your projects on course for success.
Remove Ambiguities – Especially Around Quotas
The screener drafting process is an opportunity to head off disagreements before they happen. The less you leave to interpretation the less room you leave for different interpretations to come to light when it's too late.
For example, it is a common convention of screener drafting to use the words “Good Mix” to signal the existence of an as-yet-undefined quota. Though this might help complete a screener under time pressure; resist the temptation! Unless it’s a quota that you really don’t care about don’t roll the dice on the assumption that you, your client, and the recruiter you’re working with will all define a good mix the same way.
We always recommend clients spell out desired mixed in terms of numerical maximums and minimums in the drafting process. If your client comes back and disagrees with the quotas you’ve written, great! You just resolved that disagreement before it blew something up.
Indicate Priorities
If the recruiter in charge of your project only has the screener to go on, every requirement in the screener looks equally important. However, this is often not the case. From time to time a quota or qualification requirement in a screener will be a nice-to-have but not something worth derailing a project over. Having some sense of project priorities, can help the recruiters responsible for your project differentiate between must-haves and hills not worth dying on. While these differences can be teased out over email remember that recruitment often unfolds quickly and under intense time pressure. Equipping your recruiter with the knowledge to make game-time decisions that will align with your research needs is a great way to remove bottlenecks before they happen.
Write for the audience
Write your screener questions with 4 characteristics of qual panelists in mind:
- They signed up for this
- They want to get into the study
- They don’t have a sophisticated understanding of any category
- In a few hours, they won’t remember having done this survey
That means:
- It is ok for screener intros and outros to assume some degree of familiarity with what’s involved in participating in a study. We don’t always need to tell respondents we’re not planning to sell them something. Most of them know how this works; that’s why they do surveys for free.
- Screener questions should always assume a desire to qualify on the part of the respondent. Accordingly, they should obscure the intent of key qualifying questions. If it’s essential to qualifying, don’t make it a YES/NO question!
- Remember that respondents don’t have any of the refined language that we use to talk about the consumer world in intricate detail. They don’t know what P3M means. They go to the bank, not their financial institution. It’s a chocolate bar, not a flavor experience. In drafting a screener, your job is to filter the rarefied language you and your client use to get at business priorities into plain talk anyone on the street can understand.
- Think of taking a survey like brushing your teeth – it is such a non-event that it cannot be recalled a week later, no matter how hard you try. Asking respondents to remember and elaborate on answers they gave at a later date, without reminding them what of what they said, is guaranteed to backfire every time
Version Control is Key
As a rule, screeners undergo several rounds of revisions before being approved to launch. Some simple version control best-practices can prevent potentially disastrous errors from slipping in during this process:
- Label versions of your screener with meaningful consistent identifiers (i.e. v1.0, v1.1, v2.0)
- Always clearly identify which screener version is the source of truth for the project. Including the word final in the filename is a great start – linking to it from the profile grid (like QualRecruit does) is even better
- Don’t number questions until after signoff. This prevents changes to question ordering (like the insertion and deletion of new questions) from breaking internal references to question numbers.
Use Visual Queues to Highlight Priority Areas
Remember, your screener will be reviewed by humans. Just missing something is a surprisingly common cause of serious errors. Color coding can go a long way to making the intent of the screener unmissable. For example, this could mean calling out answers that a respondent must not mention in red or answers they must mention in blue. The amount of visual attention each section of the screener demands should be commensurate with its importance to the study.
Bonus: following this tip can boost the visual appeal of your screener and help it stand out for your client.
Take a Hit-By-A-Bus Review
Imagine that you, your client, and the project manager responsible for your project are hit by a bus. Can uninitiated strangers inside of each of your organizations pick up your screener and understand what needs to be done to recruit the project successfully?
If the answer is no, you haven’t included everything that needs to be said in the screener. Remember (though we hope nobody gets hit by a bus) people can go on vacation, have family emergencies, or just generally be unable to respond with clarification in the needed amount of time. If your screener is a self-contained document that spells out all the key needs of the recruit, it can serve as a more effective north-star to all involved, even if there are transitions with the teams supporting a project.
