screener-designer

name	screener-designer
description	Build participant screening questionnaires with inclusion/exclusion criteria and quota management
allowed-tools	["Read","Write","Grep"]
effort	low

When to activate

• Recruiting participants for user research studies
• Defining inclusion/exclusion criteria for studies
• Building screener surveys for recruiting platforms
• Managing participant quotas and diversity targets
• Evaluating screener quality and no-show rates

When NOT to use

• For survey research questionnaires
• For customer satisfaction surveys
• For market research segmentation studies

Instructions

1. Define target participants. Who represents the user population for this study? Behaviors, not just demographics.
2. Set inclusion criteria. 3-5 must-have characteristics: product usage, frequency, role, experience level.
3. Set exclusion criteria. Who to exclude: competitors' employees, UX professionals (for some studies), recent participants.
4. Write screener questions. 8-12 questions, mix of open and closed. Use indirect questions to avoid gaming ("Which of these tools do you use?" not "Do you use Tool X?").
5. Add red herring options. Include plausible distractors to prevent participants from guessing the "right" answer.
6. Set quotas. Target breakdown: e.g., 4 power users + 4 casual users, balanced by platform (iOS/Android).
7. Pilot test. Run screener with 2-3 people to check clarity, completion time (<5 min), and criteria accuracy.

Example

Screener: Onboarding Study

Inclusion:
- Signed up for [Product] in last 14 days
- Used mobile app at least once
- Has NOT completed onboarding flow

Exclusion:
- Works in tech/UX/design
- Participated in research in last 6 months

Screener Questions:
Q1: "Which of the following apps have you used in the past month?" (multi-select, include 8 options including our product)
Q2: "How often do you use [category] tools?" (Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Rarely)
Q3: "When you signed up for [Product], what were you hoping to accomplish?" (open-ended)