> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://greatquestion.co/support/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Panel Recruitment

> Build your own panel of research participants with a self-serve signup form that grows your candidate database over time.

Panel recruitment lets you publish your own signup form so participants can opt in to future research — building a reusable pool of your own candidates instead of starting recruitment from zero for every study.

## What Panel Recruitment Is (and Isn't)

A **Panel** is a study type you build and own: a signup form that adds people directly to your own **Candidates** database as they opt in. Participants sign up once, consent to future contact, and share details like their role, company, and interests — all searchable and segmentable later.

> **Note:** This is different from **External Recruitment**, which sources participants from third-party marketplaces (like Respondent or User Interviews) rather than growing your own pool. A study can only use one or the other — a Panel study can't also turn on External Recruitment. If you're looking to recruit from an outside participant marketplace instead of building your own list, that's a separate feature.

## Why It Matters

**Recruit without starting over each time.** An established panel gives you continuous access to qualified participants, so you're not repeating outreach or screening for every new study.

**Deeper conversations over time.** Panel members grow familiar with your company and products, which leads to more context-rich conversations than one-off recruits.

**Target the right people, fast.** Because panelist data lives in your candidate database, you can filter and segment for specific personas, product areas, or demographics whenever you need to recruit.

**Anyone can recruit consistently.** Any teammate — not just researchers — can pull the right people from your panel while keeping candidate data consistent.

## Common Use Cases

## Set up panel recruitment

### Step 1: Create your study

1. Navigate to **Studies** in the left-side menu.
2. Click **New study** and select **Panel recruitment** ("Drive opt-ins to participate in future research").
3. Add your core study details — title and research goal, participation limit, participant segments (optional), a screener (optional), consent form, custom study attributes, automatic slot-release settings, and participant language preferences.
4. Review your plan, then click **Next**.

<Note>
  Panels automatically sync with your **Candidates** page — adding new participants who sign up and updating existing candidate profiles with the latest consent and form responses.
</Note>

Segments here are about filtering your **own** candidate database once people are in it — they aren't a way to target or pull from an outside audience. As your panel grows, use segments to group panelists by persona, product area, or demographics for future recruiting.

### Step 2: Set up your screener (optional)

Add multiple-choice, text, or scale questions using the screener editor. Apply logic under **Preferences** or view the full rules under **All Logic**, then review and click **Next**.

### Step 3: Customize your signup form

Use the built-in signup form creator to design your questions and tailor the experience:

* **Add and configure questions.** Add questions in the supported formats (multiple choice, scale, text). Include **helper text** to clarify instructions where useful, and mark questions as **Required** when a response is necessary to proceed.
* **Get help writing questions (optional).** Use AI-assisted question generation to draft questions based on your research goal, then review, edit, add, or remove them before publishing.
* **Enhance questions with media.** Add images to signup-form questions for context or visual reference. Supported file types include PNG, EPS, JPEG, and GIF.
* **Customize logic and data mapping.** Use **Attributes** to map responses back to candidate profiles, and apply **Skip Logic** to control question paths based on responses.
* **Reuse existing content.** Insert saved questions from the **Question Library** or **Templates** to speed up setup and stay consistent.

### Step 4: Review and publish

Check all sections for accuracy. When ready, click **Create** to publish your study.

## Manage your study after publishing

Once your panel is live, the areas you configure and monitor fall into three groups.

### Setup

* **Plan** — Adjust details such as participant limits, incentives, study attributes, or segments.
* **Signup Form** — View your signup form and make adjustments.
* **Screener** (if applicable) — Edit screener questions or update logic.
* **Emails** — Customize participant-facing communications, including screener invitations, study invites, task reminders, and completion emails.
* **Pages** — Update the **Landing Page** and **Screener Disqualification Page**.
* **Automations** — Send invitation reminders to candidates who have not responded within 24 hours, and task reminders to participants who have not completed after 24 hours.
* **Notifications** — Choose which email alerts you want to receive for this study.

### Execution

* **Participants** — Add candidates, track their progress, and take actions such as inviting, removing, or reviewing status. This is where most post-publish activity happens.
* **Stats** — View email performance metrics such as delivery, opens, and clicks.
* **Screener Responses** (if applicable) — Review individual or aggregate responses to determine eligibility.

> **Note:** Stats cover email performance only. There's currently no analytics on the signup form itself — no per-question drop-off, view counts, or completion rate. If signups are low, you won't get a funnel breakdown showing where people are dropping off.

### Results

* **Repository** — View the artifacts related to this study.
* **Summary** — See both a high-level and participant-level view of your **Signup Form** results. Use the **Export CSV** button toward the top right to export.

## Best Practices

**Share the link Great Question generates for your signup form.** Using the intended link (not a bookmarked or modified URL) is what routes participants through your screener as expected.

**Review new candidates periodically.** Panel signups aren't validated for things like duplicate or malformed email addresses today, so a quick periodic check of new candidates helps keep your database clean.

**Keep a large default panel for general use, then create smaller panels for specific target groups.** Short forms complete better, so focus on what matters most, and use reminder automations to keep your panel warm.

**Apply segments after people join, not before.** Since segmentation happens against your candidate database, think of it as organizing panelists for future recruiting rather than a way to pre-qualify who can sign up.

**Test the form yourself before leaning on iteration.** Since there's no drop-off or completion analytics to diagnose a low-converting form after the fact, your best signal is walking through it yourself (or asking a colleague to) before it's live — check length, clarity, and whether required questions feel like a chore.

## Troubleshooting

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr><th>Issue</th><th>What's Happening</th><th>How to Fix</th></tr>
  </thead>

  <tbody>
    <tr><td>Panel study not appearing</td><td>You may be viewing <strong>My Studies</strong> instead of studies created by others.</td><td>Switch to <strong>All Studies</strong> to see panels created by your teammates.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Wrong consent form is used</td><td>The study's Plan settings point to a different consent form than expected.</td><td>Go to <strong>Plan → Consent</strong> and confirm the correct consent form is selected.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Low signup rate</td><td>Long forms and unclear landing-page messaging both suppress completion — but since there's no drop-off analytics, you won't see exactly where people are leaving.</td><td>Shorten the form, refine the landing-page messaging, and test the flow yourself. Check screener responses for patterns if a screener is in use.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Recruitment is live but participation is low, with no clear reason why</td><td>There's no funnel visibility into the signup form — no view counts, per-question drop-off, or completion rate are tracked today.</td><td>Narrow it down manually: confirm the signup link and landing page are correct, review screener responses for obvious friction points, and consider shortening the form.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>New signups not appearing as candidates</td><td>The Candidates page may not have refreshed, or the participant didn't fully complete the form.</td><td>Refresh the Candidates page and confirm the participant completed the signup form.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Participant attributes not saving</td><td>A signup question isn't mapped to the candidate attribute it's meant to update.</td><td>Review <strong>Signup Form → Attributes</strong> and confirm responses are mapped correctly.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Participants not receiving emails</td><td>Automation settings, email configuration, or a bad participant email address can each block delivery.</td><td>Check <strong>Automations</strong>, confirm email settings, and verify participant email addresses.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Can't turn on External Recruitment for this study</td><td>Panel studies can't use External Recruitment — it's one or the other, not both.</td><td>If you need to recruit from an outside marketplace, create a different study type instead of a Panel.</td></tr>
    <tr><td>A returning panelist has to fill out the whole form again</td><td>There's currently no shortcut for returning participants — every signup goes through the full form, including consent.</td><td>This is expected today; there's no way to pre-fill or skip steps for repeat signups yet.</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

***

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