When scoping an international research project, the brief provides a basis for establishing objectives, proposing participant profiles and estimating the fieldwork involved. During execution, contact with potential participants brings those definitions into sharper focus: differences emerge in people’s experiences, contexts of use and understanding of a product that may call for adjustments to participant selection.
In our experience conducting research in Latin America, qualitative recruitment needs room to interpret these findings together with the client. This is where conditions begin to emerge that influence whom we need to hear from and how we can explore the study’s hypotheses.
From a defined profile to a relevant experience
Panels provide access to participants through previously recorded attributes and are useful for quantitative research involving broad segments. In qualitative studies, selection often requires a more detailed understanding of a specific experience.
Two people may use the same digital wallet, be of a similar age and live in the same city, yet relate to the service in very different ways. One might use it to manage personal expenses; the other, to receive payments for a family business. If we want to understand their mental models or the social dimension of their decisions, those differences may be central to the research.
Access to users of a product category is therefore a starting point. Recruitment must help identify which experiences will contribute relevant perspectives to the questions we want to explore.
Execution helps refine the search
In a project for an international social media company, we worked with candidate lists provided by the client. As our research consultants reviewed their backgrounds and spoke with the international team, it became necessary to refine the participant characteristics and adjust the recruitment approach in relation to the research hypotheses.
This process required successive iterations and more effort than initially estimated. It also demonstrated the value of maintaining a methodological dialogue throughout recruitment: emerging information needed to be interpreted to decide how to proceed.
In Latin America, these differences can occur between countries and within a single market. Sharing a location or belonging to the same consumer category does not guarantee equivalent experiences. Selection needs to consider how much those variations matter to the study, taking care both to recognise them and to avoid adding requirements that contribute little to its objectives.
Flexibility in managing the project
The brief supports an initial estimate that needs to be tested against the conditions encountered during execution. When relevant information emerges, the research team must explain what it means for participant selection and agree with the client on the necessary adjustments to instruments, sources, profiles or planning.
That flexibility requires a shared point of reference: what we need to understand and why particular experiences can help us do so. From there, each change can be assessed and its implications for effort, timelines and scope made explicit.
Qualitative recruitment is part of shaping the research. Managing it requires using what we learn about the context to reach fieldwork with participants whose experiences allow us to explore the hypotheses in depth.
Planning research in Latin America?
Tell us what you need to investigate, in which markets and with which participant profiles. You can attach your brief or any available background materials so we can review how to approach the study.
