How to find people for user research

Your friends may be happy to try your app. But if they don't have the problem you're trying to solve, their feedback can only take you so far.

For useful research, you need people who have dealt with that problem themselves.

Look for a recent experience

Say you want to understand how tutors arrange lessons with parents. You could ask ReacherX:

Find independent tutors who have talked about arranging lessons, handling cancellations, or chasing confirmations from parents. I'd like to interview people who manage their own schedule.

That gives you something more useful to look for than “people interested in education.” ReacherX can search X/Twitter and LinkedIn and help you inspect the people it finds.

Read the original posts. You may discover that the issue you wanted to study isn't the part people find difficult.

Explain what you're asking them to do

Keep the invitation simple:

I'm researching how independent tutors arrange lessons with parents. Would you be open to a 20-minute call about how you handle it? This is a research interview, not a product demo.

Include whether you'll pay for their time, whether you want to record, and how you'll use the conversation. Give them those details before they agree.

You can use a separate outreach plan for each person, but don't let the invitation turn into a sales pitch. If you said you're there to learn, stay there to learn.

Check one thing before booking

Ask a simple question to make sure they're the person you need: “Do you arrange the lessons yourself, or does someone else handle that?”

Avoid asking them to agree that your proposed solution is useful. “Wouldn't an app make this easier?” tells you less than “What happened the last time a parent changed a lesson?”

Use the conversation to answer questions and arrange the next step.