The Golden Rule of Screener Surveys: Never Leak the Answer

When recruiting participants, you must screen out candidates who do not fit your target criteria. However, if your screener asks:

• 'Do you manage a cloud infrastructure team of 10+ engineers?' [Yes / No]

Participants incentivized by honorariums or gift cards will instantly deduce that 'Yes' qualifies them for the paid session.

The Non-Leaking Formula: Use multi-select or multi-choice lists where the qualifying criteria are embedded alongside plausible foils:

• 'Which of the following describes your primary daily responsibility?'
  • Sales pipeline management
  • Cloud infrastructure engineering (Qualifying)
  • Digital marketing campaigns
  • Legal compliance & contracts
  • None of the above