​​How to recruit healthcare professionals for discovery no matter your budget

Demanding schedules leave little time or priority for participation, and while discovery incentives do motivate many people, many healthcare professionals—such as doctors or health system executives—are well-compensated, making monetary rewards less enticing. 

Product discovery with healthcare professionals takes real grit—something we take great pride in at ZoCo. Our team has spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears learning how to secure time with this population and we want YOU to benefit from our learnings, no matter your research budget. 

Make friends with your customer facing teams (account management, sales, support): low effort, free

Begin by meeting with people in your organization who interact most frequently with end-users and customers. Don’t be concerned about potential biases in their perspectives; they are valuable data points, and they offer insights you may not have access to otherwise. Build relationships with these individuals and take the opportunity to shadow them in their jobs. Spend a full day with the customer support team to hear them interact with users. Accompany your field services team on site visits to provider offices as they train staff on your product, gaining invaluable insights along the way. Participate in sales calls and quarterly business reviews with current clients to further enrich your understanding of their needs and pain points. Keep your top three research objectives in mind, along with a few key questions to guide your exploration. Look for opportunities to weave these questions into existing conversations.

Establishing trust and credibility with these teams can open doors to direct access for customer interviews. Approach this request thoughtfully; these team members value their relationships and need assurance that your involvement won't jeopardize their accounts. Instead of asking for access right away, focus on nurturing these connections by appreciating their insights and demonstrating your commitment to supporting their efforts. This collaborative approach will make them more likely to facilitate introductions when the time is right.

Use every healthcare experience of your personal life as a discovery opportunity (low effort, free)

Healthcare is a part of our everyday lives.  Use real-world healthcare encounters as a chance to gain insight, even outside the office. Whether you’re accompanying a family member to a doctor’s visit, receiving treatment yourself, or chatting with healthcare staff, treat these moments as low-stakes opportunities for discovery.  Respectfully ask questions about common pain points or needs, observe workflows, and note any frustrations or workarounds that healthcare professionals may mention in casual conversation. Some of my favorite go-to questions for this type of low-stakes discovery include:

• How do you typically do X?
• That sounds like it can be challenging…pause….they’ll respond with their pain points
• What would make [challenging workflow/process] easier for you?

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Harness the power of 6 Degrees of Separation (high effort, free)

Your network is likely closer than you think to someone with valuable insights. Ask your friends, family, and colleagues if they know anyone with relevant experience you could speak to. Tap into your professional network by posting about your discovery needs on LinkedIn and ask your connections to share it with people they know that could participate. This can be an especially helpful strategy when you need to speak to specific populations that don’t tend to sign up for research panels—for example—those that work in market access for major pharmaceutical companies.

This works better when you include an incentive, but it doesn’t have to be monetary—providing access to a summary of your findings is a valuable way to thank participants for their time. Many people are eager to contribute to the development of products and services, especially in high-stakes fields like healthcare.

Informally track your new connections, as those willing to share insights now may become valuable contacts for future research. Think of them as your own customer research panel, a resource you can tap into for ongoing learning, fresh perspectives, and informed feedback as you continue your discovery journey.

Know which self-service recruiting tools are likely to include your target population (medium effort, paid)

There are some really amazing self-service tools out there that allow you to connect directly with research participants that meet your specified criteria. You create a screener survey that people answer and then have the ability to review and approve people before scheduling time to chat with them. 

Our favorite self-service panel for healthcare professionals is User Interviews. Their panel boasts over 76,000 healthcare professionals including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, speech pathologists, and more. Better yet, over ⅔ of those are senior level or higher. The best part? You only pay for participants you actually connect with, so you can launch a study with your specific criteria and see if the right healthcare professionals are available, risk-free.

Expect to spend up to $5/min to compensate healthcare experts for their time plus recruitment fees per person (when recruiting professionals through an online platform like User Interviews)

Partner with a specialized recruiting companies (high effort, paid)

Sometimes a self-service online panel just doesn’t cut it—we get it. In these cases, we partner with recruiting services companies that specialize in connecting teams with the right healthcare professionals. These partnerships ensure access to targeted, high-quality candidates tailored to your needs. This option is also ideal if your legal team restricts direct outreach to potential participants. If this route sounds like the right fit for you, here are a few companies worth exploring. While this is often the most expensive option, connecting with companies like these can better guarantee the population you need.

• GLG
• Prescribe+ 
• MDisrupt 

You’ve got options!

Reaching healthcare professionals for product discovery can be challenging, but with the right strategies, it’s entirely achievable. And remember, you don’t have to go it alone—ZoCo Design is here to help! If wrangling healthcare professionals still feels like herding greased-up cats, just give us a shout. We'll bring the grit needed to make your discovery process a success. 🐾