Recruiting lenders and loan servicers for B2B usability study

CleverX partnered with the client to support recruitment for a B2B Digital Ecosystem Optimization study. The research required lenders and loan servicers who regularly used a specific financial services platform to participate in moderated, remote usability interviews. The engagement involved strict screening criteria, tight timelines, and high expectations for participant quality, requiring sustained collaboration and adaptive recruitment strategies.

The recruitment process presented several constraints:

• Highly specialized audience: Participants needed frequent hands-on usage of the target platform, representation across organization sizes, and specific lending and servicing roles.
• Tight timelines and seasonal impact: Recruitment took place during the festive season, reducing responsiveness while pilot and fieldwork timelines continued to progress.
• Low incidence rates: Despite large-scale outreach, many candidates screened out due to role mismatch, insufficient platform usage, or incomplete screener responses.
• Operational pressure: Early delays combined with approaching deadlines required clear feasibility signaling during a trial engagement phase.

CleverX adapted its recruitment approach to maintain progress and quality:

• Scaled outreach: Expanded sourcing efforts across lenders and servicers, starting with known organizations and gradually broadening the search.
• Screener diagnostics: Analyzed incidence rates and screening drop-offs, sharing transparent insights with the client to align expectations.
• Over-recruitment strategy: Applied controlled over-recruitment to mitigate no-shows and last-minute fallouts.
• Dedicated coverage: Extended effort through weekend sourcing, continuous vetting, and rapid iteration based on client feedback.
• End-to-end coordination: Managed vetting, NDA collection, recruitment grids, scheduling, and interview logistics.

The engagement delivered strong results despite early constraints:

• 9 moderated usability interviews completed with fully qualified participants.
• High participant relevance and preparedness validated the refined screening approach.
• Recruitment momentum stabilized once quality alignment was achieved.
• Fieldwork progressed smoothly after early-stage challenges were resolved.

Several factors supported successful delivery:

• Transparent communication helped manage feasibility expectations early.
• Iterative candidate review improved screening accuracy over time.
• Over-recruitment reduced risk from no-shows and scheduling fallouts.
• Full lifecycle ownership enabled efficient execution under pressure.