We’re excited to announce that you can now bring your own external participants to an Express mission! We’ve compiled a list of anticipated questions below for you to learn more—read more below or click the links below to jump to a specific question.

• How do I screen external participants to a BYO Express mission?
• How do I invite my participants to my BYO Express mission?
• Which devices can participants use to complete a BYO Express mission?
• Can I invite participants outside the United States?
• Is there a participant limit?
• Can I add additional documentation that I may need my participants to complete before participating (informed consent, Figma consent, etc.)?
• Does my BYO Express mission need to be submitted for review? 
• How long will participants have to complete their BYO Express mission?
• Can I reopen my BYO Express mission to allow more participants in after I’ve deactivated my mission?
• How will my participants be paid?

How do I screen external participants to a BYO Express mission?

There will be no screener questions or targeting attributes in BYO Express missions, so researchers should only invite pre-screened participants. You’ll note that when selecting BYO from this screen, the first tab on the platform will say Invite instead of Recruit.

How do I invite my participants to my BYO Express mission?

You have two options to invite your own participants to an Express mission:

• Invite via share link.
• Invite from Private Panels.

You’ll select your recruitment method when setting up your Express mission. If you choose to invite using a share link, the link will become available as soon as you launch your mission. If you choose to invite participants from Private Panels, you’ll do so directly in the builder. For more information, see Private Panels.

Which devices can participants use to complete a BYO Express mission?

Express missions can be completed via a desktop or laptop computer, or via mobile device. You will set this specification at the mission level. For example, if you set the device type to desktop, all participants will be required to complete the mission on a desktop or laptop computer.

Can I invite participants outside the United States?

Yes! As you’ll be pre-screening your participants and sharing the URL to your BYO Express mission directly with them, you can invite participants from all over the world and gain perspectives from multiple global markets.

Is there a participant limit?

No! You can invite as many participants as your budget and bandwidth allow.

Note: you’ll need to monitor how many participants have completed your mission and manually “deactivate” your mission once you’ve reached your target N-size, so as to not have overages. You can work with your dscout Research Advising team to help you with best practices.

Can I add additional documentation that I may need my participants to complete before participating (informed consent, Figma consent, etc.)?

Yes, you’ll have the ability to add these documents to your BYO Express missions just like Express missions with our dscout pool (learn more here).

Does my BYO Express mission need to be submitted for review? 

No! You can launch your BYO Express mission whenever you’re ready. You do not have to submit a review request from a member of the dscout team. However, we’re always happy to review your mission before you launch if you’d like.

How long will participants have to complete their BYO Express mission?

Once they have started, participants will not have any set time limit to finish the BYO Express mission. Participants will be able to start the mission as long as they have access to the shared link (and the researcher has launched and activated the mission from the builder).

Note: Any participants that have started the mission before you deactivate the share link will still be able to complete the mission. Deactivating only prevents new participants from starting the mission, if they haven't already done so.

Can I reopen my BYO Express mission to allow more participants in after I’ve deactivated my mission?

Yes! You can simply toggle your BYO Express mission back to “active” if you’d like to allow more participants the chance to complete your mission. You’ll likely want to re-share your mission URL again to ensure that traffic is coming to your mission. The URL will remain the same regardless of how many times you activate/deactivate it. 

How will my participants be paid?

The way your BYO participants will be paid is dependent on the way they were brought into dscout:

• Private screener - If you screen your participants in dscout through a Private screener in dscout’s Recruit tool, dscout will automatically pay your participants.
• Share link - If you bring your own participants to the dscout platform through a share link to complete an Express mission, you will be responsible for facilitating payments directly to your participants. These participants will not be auto-paid through dscout, but you will be able to add your incentive in a custom text field as you build your mission. Amount, currency, and type of incentive are up to your discretion.

Read more about bringing your own participants to express here.