Even Further In-Context: Better Recruiting and Collaboration Through dscout

We developed dscout to make in-context research an organization-wide habit. And we’ve been hard at work to make unearthing innovation-driving insights easier than ever.

At our People Nerds event in San Francisco on May 1, we announced a series of product updates, features, and tools that should expand your team’s qualitative research capacity.

Here’s a quick summary of what we shared: both what’s live now and what’s coming next.

Now:

• New collaboration tools—more easily bring your stakeholders and colleagues into the dscout platform with:
• @ mentions within scout entries
• Slack integration
• Public share links with secure sharing

• A scout participant video editor and playlist in dscout's Media View
• A revamped Recruit—the same scouts you love, presented in a cleaner, more powerful tool:
• Use bulk actions to select multiple scouts for next steps
• Put scout applications into groups
• Filter by screener questions from Recruit inside a Diary mission
• Launch web screeners, so scouts can apply from any device

Next:

• Live for mobile—conduct 1:1 interviews with scouts on their phones

Easily share what you’re seeing across your team

Collaboration in your qual work fosters buy-in, improves user-centricity, and (hopefully) makes your job easier. Working together effectively starts with making sure the right people see what you want to share with them. We've created three features designed to make it easier for key collaborators and stakeholders to check out your work.

Notify your collaborators quickly with @ mentions (LIVE!)

What’s new:

Easily alert anyone in your dscout account when there’s something you want them to see. @ mentions ping a stakeholder or collaborator over email—and link them directly to the submission you want to share. From revelatory quotes to eye-opening videos, working with your team inside dscout is easier than ever.

How it works:

@ mentions in dscout work like other collaborative tools you use. Just hit the @ symbol in an entry’s notes section, and start typing the name or email address of your stakeholder. Click to select, and they’ll be notified by email, with a direct link to open the entry.

More on @ mentions within dscout.

Get your data to anyone, anywhere with public share links (LIVE!)

What’s new: 

Create links for dscout media and put your insights in front of anyone—no login required. Public share links make it easy to get data to your stakeholders, without them logging into the platform, or you exporting large files.

How it works:

Users with a member role or higher can generate links by clicking the “Share” button in Recruit applications, Diary entries, Live sessions, and clips. You can add a descriptive title to contextualize your media. Protect your data by setting access codes and expiration dates.

More on generating public share links.

Keep your stakeholders in the loop with our Slack integration (LIVE!)

What’s new:

If you and your team use Slack to communicate, you now can receive instant updates about dscout activity inside the platform. Once you authorize a workspace through dscout, you can select specific events you’d like to send to a public Slack channel. You also can manually share media in Slack channels to engage collaborators and stakeholders where they already are.

How it works:

dscout account managers or owners can enable the Slack integration on the dscout Account page. From the Integrations tab, you'll have an option to "Add workplace" and connect dscout to your Slack environment. Enable the updates you want to send automatically, or for individual sharing click “Share” on media in Diary, Live or Recruit, then “Share it to Slack” and add an optional message.

More on integrating Slack with dscout.

Find the right participants for your research

Our Recruit tool quickly sources real, qualified humans for your human-centered research. It works in conjunction with our Diary and Live products to help you find the right people for your research projects. We’ve improved Recruit to better connect throughout the dscout platform through the following updates.

Integrate your screener data with Diary using the new Recruit: (LIVE!)

What’s new:

You don’t just qualify people in your screeners—you also collect useful data along the way. Now, you can use that data to fuel your analysis. Filter your mission entries in Diary with questions programmed in your screeners. Use those initial segments, personas, and demographics to see trends across your Diary work.

How it works:

The left-hand sidebar on Entries and Management views displays your filtering options, which now include closed-ended questions, demographic info, scout groups, tags, bookmarks, and screener data. You can use your filters in each of the viewing modes (Grid, Summary, Analysis, and Map), as well as on exports.

More on the new dscout Recruit.

Bring new scouts into your study seamlessly with web screeners. (LIVE!)

What’s new:

Need to reach difficult audiences, including potential recruits who may be unwilling to download an app? Potential participants can now complete your entire screener process online, on mobile or desktop, without initially downloading the dscout app. By dropping a link to a web screener, you can easily reach your ideal scouts where they are—whether they’re coming from social media, forums, Craigslist, or a customer list...they can apply from wherever you share.

How it works:

If you’ve set up a screener in dscout before, web screeners should be familiar to you. Just make sure you turn on the “Create a Public Splash Page” option. After your screener is launched, dscout will generate a share link. New-to-dscout applicants will create an account from the screener splash page, while current scouts who are logged in can hit “Apply now” on the splash page to begin a screener from any device.

More on setting up web screeners.

Looking ahead

We announced two exciting updates planned for this summer. One focuses on enabling you to create video playlists from within dscout, and the other brings our popular Live tool to mobile devices. Both should supercharge (and scale) your qualitative research practice. Read on!

Use the Media view to make video storytelling simple: (LIVE!)

What’s new:

Turn your favorite scout videos into highlight reels, without ever leaving the dscout platform. Quickly cut, remove, duplicate and split entries—or trim a video by highlighting the text from a transcript. Share the resulting playlist easily with your stakeholders without exporting to a third-party tool.

How it works:

Media view is a new tab within the Entries section of Diary that lets researchers create playlists for viewing, editing and sharing. Quickly create impactful videos with duplicate, remove, split, set in point, and set out point commands.

More on Media View.

Interview participants 1:1 from their phones with Live Mobile: (Target release: August 2019)

What’s new:

From factory floors to the grocery aisle, now you can reach participants on their smartphones. Interview scouts where they are, and ask for guided tours, walkthroughs, or close-ups. Want to watch them tackle a task digitally? With Live Mobile, scouts can share their screens with you and narrate their experiences—making it an ideal way to capture app usability.

How it works:

While setting up your Live mission, you’ll be able to specify whether a Live session should be available on desktop, mobile or both. If mobile is enabled, scouts will be able to join Live calls from their own devices, sharing with your research team from their smartphones.

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Curious about any of the new features, or just want a refresher on the dscout platform? Request a demo and you’ll hear from our team.