FAQ

THE HEARD is the backbone behind the consumer research firm FieldGoals.US. Members of THE HEARD receive emails about upcoming research studies. Some studies require you to show up in-person and participate in a small group or one-on-one discussion; some studies are conducted online; and sometimes we even conduct research in your local grocery or retail store!

Consumer research allows ALL members of a community to BE HEARD. You can directly impact the next generation of product and service development. Get paid to share your stories, experiences, and insights!

You’ll engage with a small group of participants led by a professional facilitator who will ask questions about a specific topic or product. Many companies and organizations conduct focus groups to get feedback from everyday consumers, constituents and professionals about the products and services they offer.

Most online focus groups take 90-minutes to two hours to complete. During a group session, you will be asked to join a video conference call like Zoom.

It’s probably safe to assume that you will need:

• A WiFi connection
• A reliable computer
• A microphone
• A web camera

This is the best part! Anyone who participates in our focus groups, interviews, or online studies will receive a monetary incentive for sharing their opinions. Our studies typically pay $75-$250 depending on the length of the discussion and whether it is in-person or online.  Of course, you must meet the requirements and attend or complete the study in full to receive an incentive. You typically receive your incentive the Friday after you successfully complete participation and you will be able to choose from PayPal, a variety of gift cards, or a mailed or digital Visa gift card.

You will be asked to complete a questionnaire BEFORE you are invited to ANY study (see “Why Do I Have to Qualify for Some Studies?”). There is no incentive for completing the screening questionnaire – that’s just how we get to know a little bit more about you!

Our researchers may have a particular consumer in mind when they design their study. This is because sometimes companies conduct research to find out how they can better suit the needs of their active customers, and other times they want to figure out how to reach consumers who aren’t using their products or services. Additionally, to ensure opinions of people from all backgrounds are represented, we must achieve a demographically representative mix of participants in all of our studies.

This is what makes being a member of THE HEARD so interesting! You never know what type of discussion you’ll have the opportunity to join. And the more diverse the backgrounds and interests of our members, the better our products and services will be at meeting the needs of everyone in our community.

We ask you to provide your mailing address so we only send you emails about studies in your geographic area. Many of our studies are conducted in-person and we don’t want to junk up your inbox with studies that you won’t be able to attend. We need your phone number so we can get in touch with you to schedule you to participate and, of course, your email so you can get our study notifications!

The additional demographic information is used so we are better able to only send you studies we think you’ll be interested in.

The confidential nature of our member information is of utmost importance to us. When you participate in a study, our clients are only able to view your first name and last initial and we never share your information with third parties. This protects the integrity of our studies and ensures that you will never be contacted after your participation is completed. ​

Our purpose is collecting consumer opinions and we will NEVER attempt to sell you anything. We are a non-partisan, unaffiliated, independent research firm and follow best practices in accordance with the Insights Association and the Association for Public Opinion Research.

When a child or young adult fills out our screening questionnaire and is under the age of 18, we require a parent name, phone number and email to be provided. Our initial contact is always with the parent and only speak with the child or young adult if the parent allows and is present in the room.

A parental informed consent form is required in all child and youth research -accompanied by a photo ID of the parent.

Our participant information is protected by our proprietary and fully secure database stored in an encrypted format on our private server. Only the parent name is available to our fully vetted recruitment team.

Our team members and moderators have all passed CAC and FBI Criminal Background checks. All Zoom meetings are through our proprietary account denying access without a specific passcode issued by our team. Most importantly, no identifying information is shared with any client and all contact information is kept anonymous.