This user research setup document serves as a starting point for every research campaign we do. It provides general information about why we conduct research, our target audience, which hypotheses we'd like to test, and our interview questions.


I expected all of these goals to be covered in each interview, and it was possible in a 30-minute conversation.


The most surprising discovery was in the Brazilian market: Parents search for a sitter to essentially embed into the family for a long-term engagement, and so they usually have a trial session when they observe the babysitter's behavior and spend some time together before hiring. In addition, in Brazil specifically, a photo of a Babysitter is one of the most important first filters used to pre-select candidates; parents don't want a babysitter to look sexy.

In my experience, this part is the most often overlooked. People don't always put their Hypothesis as a separate block, but it's a great thing to document so you can reflect after the research on whether you were right or wrong.


Olena Avramenko

I created this research plan to understand how parents in different markets search and select babysitters on Sitly.

 Behavior of parents before meeting offline and while selecting a sitter

We want to understand the way how parents Search and Select babysitter

 [what criteria they use] and what flow they have to select the relevant one, in order to know how relevant “XXX” functionality will be for them, and also what filters/actions we need to prioritize on a Search screen;

Only Parents, who messaged at least once and received a reply in the last 2 weeks

How many profiles they look before messaging;

How many screens/scrolls they do on a listing page;

On the profile preview what they look at most

Do they favorite profiles for the future or they message immediately

What is important in a Sitter profile before they message them [photo, reviews, personal description etc.]

How they message sitters - do they message many Sitters or only one;

How do they communicate with a sitter before they meet [in Sitly messags, or move fast to WhatsApp, or have an audio call etc.];

Do you use other tools/platforms? or used before?

If you could change one thing about Sitly, what would it be?

Parents messaging 3-5 babysitters to get 1-2 replies

They send the same message for all and wait for reply

The major criteria for parents to select a babysitter 

Parents prefer to message the sitter via an external messaging tool

 [ e.g. WhatsApp] or have a Phone call, but not a Video-call.

We ask questions connected with the research goals in conversational format.

Here is some examples how to ask conversational questions:

Tell me about the time you decided to registered at Sitly, what was the reason and situation for this? Why babysitting was a good job to consider?

Tell me about the last time you find a job with the Sitly platform.

[ goal - to collect a story of a person's behavior, set the scene for us, and what happened first and 

how did you select parents and what you have done till you met

👀 Listen and hear their unmet needs, pain points, friction and desires

* - Always go deeper into what they tell you - 


E-mail Message to send for Parents to invite:

Subject: Have you recently selected your babysitter at Sitly? Help us to improve your experience!

I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am a member of the Research team at Sitly. We are currently in the process of conducting user interviews for our product discovery and development, and I wanted to reach out to see if you would be interested in participating.


We value your insights and feedback, and believe that your experience and perspective would be incredibly valuable as we work to improve our products and services. The interview will take approximately 30 min. It will be a video interview through Google Meet and will consist of a series of questions about your experience selecting a babysitter in Sitly.

In appreciation of your time and participation upon completion of the interview, we will send you a €25 Amazon gift card.


If you are interested in participating, please let me know your availability by replying to this e-mail.

 I will do my best to accommodate your schedule.


Please note that by participating in the interview, you are giving your consent for the recording and internal use of the data collected during the interview. If you have any concerns or questions regarding this, please let me know and I will be happy to address them.

Thank you for your consideration and I hope to hear from you soon.

Every interview summary should be placed on the board in a separate interview card

User Research Setup Document at Sitly

User Research: Behavior of parents before meeting offline and while selecting a sitter

Research goals:

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