Our history and team
People for Research are the UK's leading user recruitment agency for user research, usability testing, market research and more, but we didn't start this way.
The beginning of our history goes back to 1989, when our core team opened Bristol Focus, the South West's first viewing facility, a dedicated space for research to take place where clients can view how participants interact with their physical products or share their opinions in a group setting.
Alongside hosting the research sessions, we also started sourcing participants in Bristol to take part in paid market research, focus groups and depth interviews. As the world became more digital, we started working more and more with the usability sector (and the professionals that make digital products look good and work well) and, in 2007, our services evolved. Since then we have been finding people to review websites, mobile apps, games and many other digital (and non-digital) products.
In 2012, the need for participant recruitment across the UK grew and we expanded our services into London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff, plus a number of smaller locations across the UK. The name Bristol Focus didn't feel right anymore, so we renamed the business and People for Research was born.
After 25 years in Bedminster and with a growing team in our hands, we moved our head office to central Bristol in 2015, where we are still based. We now manage a paid research community with hundreds of thousands of members based in more than 140 countries and have recruited for research projects in over 40 locations around the world.
Something that has not changed is our involvement in hosting research sessions. As part of People for Research, we also run Bristol's only viewing facility, called User Viewing, where our clients can still hold their sessions and focus groups.
Our team
If you get in touch with our team or apply to take part in paid research, you will speak to one of our in-house project managers, who make up the majority of our team. Each project manager is responsible for a small portfolio of live projects and they are the ones that bridge the gap between clients running the research and participants taking part.
If you email our team with a more general question or feedback, then you are likely to speak to our digital operations and marketing team, who are responsible for managing all customer support. If you have any queries, please email team@peopleforresearch.co.uk and they will reply.
In addition to these two teams, we also have our directors and senior business experts, plus our finance team, who make sure the business is ticking over.
