How to find user research participants on Digital Marketplace
Find a supplier who can provide user research participants to test your service with.
You will need to write requirements to tell suppliers about the types of participants you want. They’ll then tell you what they can do and how much it will cost through the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework.
1. Before you start
Write your requirements
The requirements template (ODS, 12KB) shows the information you’ll be asked to provide when you specify work for research participants.
Your requirements should include:
- a title
- organisation the work is for, for example Lewisham Council
- the area, town or city where you want to do your research
- access restrictions at the research location, for example: stairs-only access or no car parking space
- the skills, experience and attributes your research participants should have
- any assisted digital or accessibility needs your research participants should have
- when you will require research participants (start and end dates)
- how many research participants you want
- how many rounds of research you expect to do
- when the sessions will take place, for example weekdays, evenings or weekends
- budget range
- the importance you place on each criteria, for example: 30% on price, 40% on technical expertise, 30% on availability
You should also think about including:
- which of your criteria are must-have and which are nice-to-have
- how long suppliers will have to respond to your requirements
- how you’re going to assess suppliers
- how and when you’ll run an optional question and answer session (so you can talk to suppliers and quickly answer any questions they have about the requirements)
Read about how to write requirements.
Talk to suppliers
You can talk to suppliers before you start to help you refine your requirements. This is sometimes called early market engagement or pre-tender market engagement (PTME).
Email cloud_digital@crowncommercial.gov.uk for the current list of supplier contact details.
Get budget approval
You must get budget approval before you start the buying process. If you’re buying for central government, you have to go through the digital and IT spend control process before you publish your requirements on the Digital Marketplace.
If you’re buying for a public sector organisation outside of central government, you must get any internal approval you need.
Set evaluation criteria
Tell suppliers:
- how you’re going to evaluate them
- the weightings you’ll use for evaluation
You must evaluate on technical competence, availability and price.
Read about how to set evaluation criteria.
2. Find research participants
Publish your requirements
Publish your requirements and evaluation criteria so suppliers can apply for the work. This information will be published on the Digital Marketplace where anyone can see it.
Answer supplier questions
You must:
- post all supplier questions and answers on the Digital Marketplace
- remove any reference to the supplier’s name or any confidential information about the supplier
- give an individual response to each question, even when questions are similar
- answer all questions at least one working day before the closing date for applications to give suppliers time to decide if the work is right for them
- get commercial or legal advice if you do not think you’ll be able to answer, or have not answered, all the questions at least one working day before the closing date for applications
- keep a record of all questions and answers for your audit trail, for example save emails
Read about how to answer supplier questions.
Shortlist interested suppliers
Review all supplier responses after the closing date. You cannot review any responses before the closing date.
Create a shortlist and evaluate suppliers responses on:
- how they meet your essential and nice-to-have requirements
- when they can start work
You can exclude suppliers that:
- do not meet all your essential requirements
- cannot start work by the latest start date you gave in your requirements
Read about how to shortlist suppliers.
Tell suppliers if they have not been shortlisted and explain why they did not meet the requirements.
Invite shortlisted suppliers to the assessment stage
Evaluate shortlisted suppliers using the assessment methods and criteria you published with your requirements.
Calculate an overall score for each supplier based on technical competence, availability and price to identify the winning supplier.
The buying process should take around 4 to 6 weeks. This may be longer depending on the scope of your requirements, internal governance procedures and the availability of evaluators.
Read about how suppliers have been evaluated.
3. Award a contract
Notify the successful supplier
Tell the successful supplier you’ll award them a contract.
Read about how to award a contract.
Notify unsuccessful suppliers
Suppliers need to know if and why they weren’t successful so they can plan for other work and improve any future applications they make. You must:
- tell unsuccessful suppliers that you won’t be awarding them a contract
- give feedback explaining why a supplier was unsuccessful, including the advantages of the successful bid compared to the unsuccessful bid
- give positive feedback where appropriate
- give the scores of the winning supplier
- not share details of other unsuccessful suppliers’ scores
- give only the final agreed scores, not individual evaluator scores
If you don’t find the right supplier
You do not have to award a contract if you cannot find a suitable supplier. You should tell all remaining suppliers that:
- you have not found one that meets your needs
- you are not going to award a contract
You should update your Digital Marketplace account to cancel the requirement.
Publish the contract on Contracts Finder
You must publish details of all completed contracts on Contracts Finder.
You need to sign in to your account first. If you do not have an account, register as a buyer on Contracts Finder.
You should also update your account on Digital Marketplace to let suppliers know the contract was awarded.