Single Financial Guidance Body (SFGB)

User Testing and Qualitative Research Participant Recruitment

2 Incomplete applications

2 SME, 0 large

6 SME, 0 large

Summary of the work: SFGB requires a one year call-off contract for the provision of testing participant recruitment. This will mainly be for development of SFGB’s Pension Wise service but also across the wider organisation. Recruitment will be on a project basis with different combinations of demographics, segments, and locations required.
Location: London
Research dates: May 2019 to April 2020
Organisation the work is for: Single Financial Guidance Body (SFGB)
Budget range: Maximum of £30,000 over the year

Description of your participants: For specific Pension Wise services, participants in research are typically people aged 50+ with an unaccessed ‘Defined Contribution’ pension pot. For wider SFGB services, this will be a broader spectrum and defined by the specific requirement.
Assisted digital and accessibility requirements
Research plan
Research location: SFGB owns its own research lab equipment in London, where much of the user testing may take place. However recruitment for user tests and qualitative research participants could be from across the UK.
Access restrictions at location
Number of research rounds: Approximately 15 rounds over the course of the year
Number of participants per round: Typically 18 participants over 3 days testing or 2 focus groups
How often research will happen: Ad-hoc, with at least two weeks notice given
Evening or weekend research

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

Essential skills and experience: Have proven experience of recruiting participants for user testing and qualitative research.

Be able to recruit sufficient participants to meet requirements in terms of demographics, segments and location.

Be able to recruit participants for user testing and qualitative research requirements including telephone, face-to-face, depths, pairs, or groups.

Have experience in recruiting participants for financial and/ or sensitive topics.

Be able to recruit participants within a two week timescale and provide details 24 hours before user test/research takes place.

Be compliant with the MRS Code of Conduct and GDPR
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Have experience of working with government departments or arms length bodies.

Have experience of identifying and recruiting participants with specific types of pensions (ie defined contribution, defined benefit).

Have a dedicated point of contact for participants and staff during fieldwork of any user testing or qualitative research.

Ability to book venues for research to take place outside of London.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Recruitment of sufficient numbers of participants for different combinations of testing and locations, backed by examples
Quality checks and processes to source participants, ensuring attendance and avoiding professional or repeat respondents
Approach to recruiting harder to find participants, particularly about financial or sensitive matters, backed by similar examples
Management and payment of respondent incentives
Processes that enable ability to meet two week recruiting timescales
Anticipated risks and dependencies and approaches to managing participants, including contingency planning for cancellations or no-shows
Data protection process, including measures to protect the data subject, their rights and deleting participants data

Assessment methods

Written proposal

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

50%

Availability

20%

Price

30%

1. Can you please confirm if the stated budget includes the cost of participant incentives and/or incentive handling fees?: The budget includes all costs, including the incentive and any handing fees.
2. Will all the research happen in-person in the London lab?: No, it could be anywhere across the country, although much of it is likely to be in London. Each project will be specified on an ad-hoc basis which will give details of location and participant criteria.
3. Are there any home visits in London or outside London that are needed?: There could be, although a lot of it is likely to take place at the London Office. Each project will be specified on an ad-hoc basis which will give details of location and participant criteria.
4. How many participants are needed per round of research? The example provide of 18 participants over three days doesn't clearly say 18 participants per round of research.: Each project will be specified on an ad-hoc basis which will give details of number of participants and participant criteria. Often a ‘round’ of using testing would entail 3 days of 6 user tests per day which is why we gave an example of 18.