UX Research participant panels are common throughout the research industry and are used as a way to streamline the recruiting process for user research studies. First Look is our own panel of individuals who have volunteered to participate in research at GitLab. When teams generate research questions, the First Look panel is a potential option that can be used to obtain user feedback.
Individuals can sign up for First Look by going to the First Look page and filling out some basic information (for example, contact details, GitLab usage, and so on). We add these individuals to our existing database, which is maintained and updated over time by our UX Research Operations Coordinator.
As of 2022-02-08, the panel currently contains the following types of potential participants (N = 4,238):
| Language | GitLab User | Plan | SaaS Plan | Self-Managed Plan | Org Size | Team Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English: 100% | Yes: 98% | SaaS: 64% | Free: 84% | Starter: 18% | 0-10: 58% | It's just me: 29% |
| No: 2% | Self-managed: 36% | Bronze: 5% | Core: 62% | 11-100: 22% | 1-5: 41% | |
| Premium: 6% | Premium: 13% | 101-500: 8% | 6-10: 17% | |||
| Ultimate: 5% | Ultimate: 7% | 501-1,000: 3% | 11-20: 7% | |||
| 1,000-10,000: 4% | 21-30: 2% | |||||
| 10,000+: 5% | 30+: 4% |
No, there are multiple ways you can obtain participants for a research study. If you have questions about which option is right for your study, contact the UX Research Operations Coordinator or the UX Researcher assigned to your area.
No, the First Look panel is not any better or worse than other options that the UX Research Operations Coordinator uses. Each study is different and may require one or more recruitment methods to obtain participants.
One aspect to consider with First Look participants is that they signed up to provide feedback about GitLab, so they can be more biased towards GitLab (in other words, they may tend to think more favorably about GitLab) than the average user. It is important, as with any research study, to consider using participants from different panels to ensure you receive more balanced and generalizable user feedback.
If you want to use participants from the First Look panel, please submit a recruitment request issue in the UX Research project and contact the UX Research Operations Coordinator within the issue to get started. The UX Research Operations Coordinator will determine whether First Look or another recruiting method best suits the needs of the study.
