In this article, we'll show you how to create a project to recruit your own participants, for example, your existing customers or email list subscribers.
If you want to create a project to recruit participants from Hotjar's participant pool, see this guide: How To Create A Research Project For Hotjar's Participant Pool.
Log in, and navigate to 'Interviews'
Log in to Hotjar Insights and click 'Interviews' in the left sidebar.
Create a new project
Select New project.
Fill out the project details
Fill out the Project name - public with a brief overview of your project.
Next, you can choose whether to set a Project name - internal (optional), for example, a project code.
Then, write a Project description - public to give more details about what your project is about. The more detail here, the better.
Select your recruitment method
Choose Your own participants.
This option means you'll get a unique URL to share with the people you want to participate in your testing, and you won't be recruiting people from Hotjar's participant pool.
Note: Participants from your network, that don't come from Hotjar's participant pool, do not need a Hotjar Engage account to participate in your testing.
Fill out the interview information
Choose how long you want the interviews to last and how many participants you'd like to speak with.
If you want to, you can choose to compensate your participants for their time with the Participant compensation toggle.
When recruiting your own participants, it's only possible to use the Engage call platform.
Set your availability
Choose the time slots that participants will be able to book. You can also connect your calendar at this stage to avoid scheduling issues.
Choose how you'll select participants to interview
This step gives you control over how participants will book their interviews with you.
You can choose between Automatic scheduling if you'd like to allow participants to book their own interview once they pass the screening questions.
Alternatively, you can choose Approve before scheduling to handpick participants based on their answers to the screener questions.
Create your screener questions
Screener questions let you ask potential participants for more details related to your project to make sure you find the best match.
This gives you more information to help you make the right decisions in developing your software, product, or other digital experiences.
You can choose from:
- Text input: this provides a free text field for participants to type their answer
- Multiple choice - single answer (radio buttons): participants will be able to select one answer, no more
- Multiple choice - multiple answers (checkboxes): participants will be able to select as many answers as they like
If you need participants to give a certain answer, i.e., there is a right and wrong answer, check the Accepted (qualify) checkbox next to the correct answer.
Review and confirm your project
You'll see an overview of the project so that you can confirm the details are correct before you create it.
Confirm once you're happy with the setup.
Share the link with your participants
You're ready to go! Share the link inside the project with your participants so they can take your screening questions.
