Best practices for participating in Interviews

Participating in moderated interviews can be a great way to provide more in-depth feedback to researchers while earning a little extra cash for your time. They also come with a few more requirements and potential hiccups, so in order to make sure that both you and the researcher(s) have a smooth interview experience, we recommend the following best practices:

When scheduling your session, be sure to select a time to which you know you can commit. The researcher has also set aside time in their schedule so we want to make sure you both are getting the most out of it.

We get it though, things come up. If you're running late or need to cancel last minute, please get in touch with the researcher directly to let them know. Navigate to the relevant session from your email or UserCrowd dashboard, click Contact host, then type your message and send. That's the quickest way to get in touch with the researcher and work out a solution together.

You can also try to reschedule directly from the session confirmation email or calendar invitation. If the researcher has availability left, you'll be able to pick a new time and rebook immediately. If there is no availability left or you can't make any of the time slots listed, you can either cancel the session or get in contact with the researcher and let them know what's going on. However, we cannot guarantee the interviewer will be able to change their schedule and this may result in the session being canceled anyway, in which case you will not be paid for the interview.
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A no-show without communication may result in losing your eligibility to participate in interviews moving forward, as detailed in our Rules for participating in Interviews.

If the researcher needs to get in touch with you before the session for any reason (e.g. last minute changes to the meeting link or because they're running late), they'll send you a message from the chat function on the session page. You'll receive an email notification when this happens, from which you can click into the chat and coordinate with the researcher before joining the session.

Researchers are conducting interviews in order to receive real-time, detailed feedback about their product or service. By providing honest and constructive feedback you're helping the researcher make changes to improve their product or service.

If you are unsure of an answer or don't have a strong opinion, that's okay. Let the researcher know that, rather than telling them what you think they might want to hear.
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Researchers will often ask open-ended questions which may involve getting your opinion on what they're testing, understanding your use cases for a particular product or service, or assessing your thought process as you work through a task. The requirements for responses may vary from interview to interview and the researcher should be clear about what they're looking for, but in general, try to answer these questions as thoroughly as possible and provide specifics.

Pay attention during the interview questions—ask the researcher to repeat or rephrase a question if needed. It's also okay to take some time to think about your answer first, you don't need to rush into providing one unless the researcher has specifically asked for immediate first impressions.

If you run into any technical issues before or during your interview, please reach out to the researcher by using the chat function on the session join page to let them know what's going on. They may be able to provide another link if necessary or reschedule for a different time.

When joining your session, be sure to have your camera and microphone on and ready to go so the interviewer can begin their questions. We recommend checking to be sure these both work properly before your scheduled interview session.

Note that while not all interviews will require your webcam to be turned on, most will. The requirements for each interview will be detailed in the session invitation before you accept. Please ensure that you are able to meet those requirements before accepting.

Make sure you are in a quiet location with no distractions in order to give the interviewer your full attention during the session.