Let’s be honest. Screeners don’t get much love.
They’re not as glamorous as campaign presentations. They don’t have the magical allure of insights. But ask any seasoned fieldworker and they’ll tell you: a screener can make or break a project.
At Acumen, our screeners aren’t just another tick box, they’re carefully written, frequently refined, and full of the type of questions that are going to separate the wheat from the “you clearly googled that just now.”
A screener is the gateway of your research. It’s the series of questions that help us identify who qualifies for a study, and just as importantly, who doesn’t!
It’s more than just ticking boxes. It’s about knowing what to ask, how to ask it, and when to raise a sceptical eyebrow.
Screeners are used to sniff out:
So, now we know what a screener is and why we’re using it, let’s talk about the difference between a good screener, and a great one.
Good: “Do you have asthma?”
Great: “Can you name the inhaler you currently use, how often you use it, and what colour it is?”
Good: “Are you a GP?”
Great: “Roughly how many patients do you see per week with chronic pain? And which treatments are you prescribing most frequently?”
Good: “Are you available on Tuesday at 2pm?”
Great: “If selected, would you be willing to speak for 60 minutes via Zoom and complete a short pre-task the day before?”
Every question should give us something: clarity, confidence, or cause for concern. That’s how we find the right participants and keep projects bulletproof.
But screeners aren’t just for filtering, they also help set expectations for the participants, support fairness and save time. It’s a multi tasking hero, a researcher, recruiter and quality control officer all in one!
But.. Why should you, as a client, care?
Simply put, insights are only as good as the people giving them.
All too often screeners are treated like admin; an eye roll and pass it straight to the junior member of the team. But the reality is, a strong screener can protect a study and a bad screener can ruin it before it even begins.
At Acumen, we obsess over our screeners. We write them with input from strategists, moderators, recruiters, and even the client themselves. We test, refine, and tweak until it’s watertight.
Because to us, a screener isn’t just a first step. It’s the foundation of everything that follows.
So next time a screener lands in your inbox, don’t glaze over. That humble Word doc is doing the heavy lifting. And when it’s done right, it’s magic.
At Acumen, we’re not interested in performative pride, or pride-washing during June. We believe inclusivity should be part of the everyday, not just the calendar moments.
That’s why we’re proud to support the launch of our very own LGBTQ+ Collective, a grassroots, team-led initiative designed to make our workplace safer, braver, and better for everyone.
We caught up with Rachel Pound, the brains behind the idea to dig into what sparked it, what it hopes to achieve, and why it matters to the work we do, not just in our offices, but in the wider world of fieldwork too.
What inspired the creation of the LGBTQ+ Collective?
Generally, I wanted there to be something structured and visible that supported LGBTQ+ people in work and something that people knew existed right from the beginning of starting to work at this company. This idea was shaped by a couple of moments, over the last few months that led to the LGBTQ+ Collective.
Inside work, I felt encouraged by the words said by SLT at the last All Company meeting, about really showing up for the staff this year, and by the ideas behind the new Culture Book and beyond. Outside of work, I was motivated to get the LGBTQ+ Collective started at this specific time period because of the recent UK Supreme Court ruling around the legal definition of ‘women’ contributing to increased transphobia in the UK. The timing of this felt even more important to give people a chance to speak up about how we can make sure work is more inclusive and is a safe working environment.
What are the main goals of the Collective, both short-term and long-term?
A mix of some easy fixes, and some bigger long term challenges to face! Here are some things I had in mind:
How do you hope it will help improve inclusivity in the day-to-day work life?
The LGBTQ+ Collective will hopefully encourage people to speak up on topics they otherwise may have felt they weren’t able to. This works for LGBTQ+ people who, for example, weren’t clear on LBGTQ+ friendly company policies but also allies who, for example, weren’t confident on inclusive language.
It’s also a chance for us to be consistently forward thinking in our workplace but also with our recruitment practices. Our aim is to hear the opinions of as many different people as possible, so the more inclusive our practices are, the more chance we have to hear from everyone. This makes recruitment more successful, of higher quality, and more interesting!
The LGBTQ+ Collective is still in its early days, but like all good ideas at Acumen, it’s built on action, not just intention. By creating space for open conversations, challenging the status quo, and championing diverse voices from the inside out, we’re shaping a workplace (and an industry) where everyone has a seat at the table.
Because better fieldwork starts with better people work. And we’re just getting started. 🌈
