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What is a Study?

A study in Panel Pro is a container for organizing your research sessions and managing participants. Whether you’re running a single round of usability interviews or a multi-phase research project with screening calls and deep-dive sessions, a study keeps everything in one place — sessions, candidates, participants, scheduling, and messaging.

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Creating a Study

To create a study, navigate to the Studies section and click + Create Study. You’ll provide:

• Name — An internal name for your team to identify the study
• External description — A participant-facing description that panelists will see when they are invited. This should explain what the study is about and what participants can expect.
• Notification recipients — Team members who should receive notifications about study activity (new candidates, scheduling updates, etc.)

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Sessions

Sessions are the scheduled time slots where research actually happens. Each session represents a specific meeting between a host and one or more participants. When setting up sessions, you’ll configure:

• Duration — How long the session will last
• Host — The team member running the session
• Location — Where the session takes place (a video call link, physical address, etc.)
• Max participants — How many participants can be scheduled into this session
• Instructions — Any additional details participants need to know before the session

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Session Defaults

Since most sessions in a study share the same host, duration, location, and instructions, Panel Pro lets you save session defaults so you don’t have to re-enter that information every time you create a new session. When you create your first session, Save as Session Defaults is checked by default. This saves your settings as the study’s defaults, so every session you create after that will be pre-filled with those values. You can always override the defaults on individual sessions as needed — for example, changing the host for a specific time slot.

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Labels (Benchmarks)

Sessions can optionally require a label. Labels are tags that get applied to panelists during a survey (via the Label block). When a session requires a label, only participants who have that label can be scheduled into it. This is a powerful mechanism for gating access to sessions. For example, you might run a screening survey that labels respondents based on their product usage, then create sessions that require specific labels so that only the right participants can schedule into them.

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Gratuity Bonus

Each session can include a gratuity bonus — an additional payment on top of the participant’s standard hourly rate for that session. This is useful for longer sessions, sessions that require extra preparation, or as an incentive for hard-to-recruit profiles. You can also use bonuses to incentivize participants to select higher-priority sessions — add a bonus to the time slots you need filled most and participants will naturally gravitate toward them.

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Invite-Only Sessions

Mark a session as invite-only to restrict who can self-schedule. When a session is invite-only, only participants who have been explicitly invited to that session can schedule themselves into it. Invite-only sessions were designed for pilot sessions — when you want to run your first one or two sessions with specific people before opening things up to the rest of your participants. Set up your pilot sessions as invite-only, invite the specific person you want, and they’ll book into that session. Once you’re confident everything is running smoothly, your remaining sessions stay open for the rest of your participants to self-schedule.

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Multi-Phase Studies

Panel Pro supports multi-phase studies — studies that include multiple types of sessions within a single study. This is ideal for research projects where you need to move participants through different stages. For example, let’s say you’re running a study that starts with a 5-minute pre-screening call to verify participants meet your criteria, followed by a 90-minute deep-dive interview for those who pass. You can set up both types of sessions within the same study. Here’s how multi-phase studies typically work:

1. Create your sessions — Set up sessions for each phase (e.g., “Pre-Screen” sessions at 5 minutes and “Deep Dive” sessions at 90 minutes)
2. Use labels to gate phases — Attach a prerequisite survey to your study that labels participants during the pre-screen phase. Require that label on your deep-dive sessions so that only participants who passed the pre-screen can schedule into them.
3. Participants progress through phases — Participants first schedule into pre-screen sessions. After completing the pre-screen (and receiving the appropriate label), they become eligible for deep-dive sessions.

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Candidates & Participants

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Sourcing Candidates

Before anyone can participate in your study, they need to be added as a candidate. You can source candidates from several places in the platform:

• Panels — Pull from a curated list of panelists you’ve already assembled
• Segments — Pull from a dynamic group of panelists matching your criteria
• Surveys — Import respondents from a survey you’ve distributed
• Other Studies — Bring in participants from a previous study

Navigate to the Candidates section of your study and click Add Candidates. Select your source, choose how many candidates to add, and they’ll be imported into your study for review.

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Approval Workflow

Every candidate goes through an approval workflow before they can be invited to participate:

• Needs Review — The default state when a candidate is added. You need to review their profile and decide.
• Approved — The candidate is cleared to be invited to sessions.
• Rejected — The candidate does not meet your criteria for this study.
• Hold — The candidate might be a fit, but you want to wait before making a decision.

Review candidates using the Candidate Viewer, which shows their panelist profile and — if they were sourced from a survey — their survey responses. The Candidate Viewer also has a Participation tab where you can see all the studies a candidate has previously participated in, along with any notes from those sessions. This is useful for understanding how much experience someone has with your team’s research or checking if they’ve already participated in a related study. Once you’ve approved candidates, you can invite them to participate.

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Participant Statuses

Once a candidate is invited, they become a participant and move through a separate set of statuses:

• Invited — The participant has been sent an invitation but hasn’t scheduled yet.
• Scheduled — The participant has picked a session and is confirmed on the calendar.
• Attended — The session has passed and the participant has been marked as having attended.
• Canceled — The participant’s session was canceled. This can happen for several reasons — the host canceled the session, the host canceled the participant, the participant canceled themselves, or the participant was a no-show.

You can manage participant statuses from the Participants tab. After a session has passed, use the ... menu on the participant’s row to mark them as Participated or No Show.

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Scheduling

Once you’ve sourced candidates into your study, the scheduling flow works like this:

1. Review candidates — Open each candidate in the Candidate Viewer to review their profile and survey responses (if sourced from a survey). Decide whether they’re a fit and set their status to Approved, Rejected, or Hold.
2. Invite approved candidates — When you’re ready, invite your approved candidates. Each person receives an email invitation with a link to your study.
3. Participants complete the prerequisite survey — If you’ve attached a prerequisite survey to the study (e.g., an NDA or consent form), participants must complete it before they can proceed to scheduling.
4. Participants self-schedule — After completing any prerequisites, participants see all available sessions and pick a time slot that works for them. If a session has a label requirement, they’ll only see sessions they’re eligible for based on their labels — no manual management needed.
5. Calendar invites go out — Once a participant schedules into a session, the platform sends calendar invites and reminders automatically.

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Cancellations

There are two types of cancellations in Panel Pro, and it’s important to understand the difference.

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Canceling a Session

Canceling a session removes it entirely from the study. The session will no longer appear in the list of available sessions when participants self-schedule. If one or more participants were already scheduled for that session, they are automatically canceled as well.

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Canceling a Participant

If you want to keep the session but remove a specific participant from it, you cancel the participant instead. Navigate to the Participants tab, find the participant in the table, click the ... menu on their row, and select Cancel Participant. The session stays available for other participants — only that individual is removed. Note that you can only cancel a participant before the session time has passed. Once the session time has passed, cancellation is no longer available — at that point, your only options are to mark the participant as Participated or No Show.

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Gratuity

Participants are compensated for their time at their hourly rate, which typically ranges from $100–$150/hr based on their skills and experience. The total payment for a session is calculated as:

Hourly rate × session duration + any session bonus

For example, a participant with a $100/hr rate attending a 60-minute session with a $10 bonus would earn $100 + $10 = $110. In addition to participant compensation, there is a per-session charge billed to your team. This rate is determined during onboarding — reach out to support@uriux.com if you have questions about your pricing.

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Prerequisite Surveys

You can attach a prerequisite survey to a study. Prerequisite surveys are separate from screening surveys — they are designed for things like NDAs, biometric consent agreements, or other forms that require a participant’s acknowledgment before they can schedule into sessions. Prerequisite surveys support the Legal block, which is purpose-built for consent agreements. When a participant encounters a Legal block, they are required to authenticate via multi-factor authentication (MFA) before they can consent. Panel Pro then captures a PDF of the signed agreement that includes the participant’s information, a timestamp, and their acknowledgment. These consent documents are stored and can be provided upon request. When a prerequisite survey is attached, participants must complete it before they are allowed to schedule. This means once you set up a prerequisite survey with your NDA or consent form, you don’t have to worry about it again — anyone who is scheduled into a session has already signed, and their consent document is already stored. No chasing signatures, no manual tracking.

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Overages

Sometimes participants stay longer than their scheduled session — for example, a 60-minute session runs to 75 minutes. You’ll want to make sure they get paid for that extra time. To handle an overage, create a new session covering the extra time. For example, if the original session was 1:00–2:00 PM but the participant stayed until 2:15 PM, create a 15-minute session from 2:00–2:15 PM and mark it as invite-only. Then navigate to the Candidates tab, find the participant, click the ... menu on their row, and select Manually Schedule. This opens a dialog where you can pick the session you just created and schedule them directly into it — triggering gratuity for the additional time.

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Follow-ups

Sometimes after an initial session, you’ll want to bring a participant back for a follow-up — a second interview, a diary study check-in, or a usability retest. To schedule a follow-up, create a new session in the same study for the follow-up time and mark it as invite-only. Then go to the Candidates tab, click the ... menu on the participant’s row, and select Manually Schedule to book them into the follow-up session. The participant will receive a calendar invite and be paid their standard hourly rate for the session.

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When Participants Get Paid

Gratuity is paid out the night of the session if the participant is explicitly marked as “participated” after the session. If no action is taken, Panel Pro assumes the participant attended and pays them automatically after a 3-day grace period. The only exception is if you mark the participant as a no-show — in that case, gratuity is not paid out.

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Messaging

Panel Pro includes built-in host-participant messaging within the platform. Hosts can communicate with participants directly through the study interface, and participants can message hosts as well. Your email address is never exposed to panelists — all communication stays within Panel Pro. This is useful in a number of situations. For example, if a participant is late for a session, you can message them directly to check in. On the participant side, they might message you if they’re having trouble finding the building or need help connecting to a video call. You can also use messaging to share preparation materials, confirm details, or handle last-minute changes.