Other criteria

The goal will also influence the profile of participants to recruit. For example, if the goal is concept validation, then new users of the product are preferable to existing customers; if the goal is to identify the status quo and determine what is missing, then existing users of the product should be recruited.

Some other possible criteria include the following:

• Are existing account holders: Only people who are active customers of the product are eligible to participate in the study.
• Have used the competition's products within the last 12 months: For recruitment purposes, the study sponsor will have to provide a list of products that are considered to be competition.
• Will be buying a new car shortly: The timeframe should be clearly defined ("shortly" might refer to: in the next month, three months, or six months, for example), as well as whether the study participant must necessarily be the purchaser or the primary decision maker.
• Are willing to open a new bank account with Acme bank: Eligible participants are required to have a bank account, but do not need to be existing customers of the bank; they can open an account solely for participating in the study.
• Shop at Acme retail at least once a month.
• Travel mostly for business: The UX researcher should try to get more detail for this criteria, such as what the required ratio between business and leisure traveling is, whether any type of transportation is eligible (the morning commute on a train might count), and how many business trips the participant should be taking per year.
• Hold a credit card: Depending on the goal of the study, it might be relevant to also ask whether the participant is the primary holder of the credit card.
• Own a car of brand Acme not older than two years.
• Are news readers: It is very important to specify whether paper newspapers are included or excluded, what news sources are relevant, and with what regularity the participants read the news.
• Interested in buying food locally.
• Own pets: The UX researcher should detail this further, because owning a horse will come with completely different requirements than owning a fish.