Part 1: Um, I think my research participant is a FRAUD
Nod your head yes if you’ve had this experience as a moderator:
You kick off the interview, and immediately, something just feels off. It’s nothing you can put your finger on, but your spidey senses are tingling.
You run through the standard housekeeping and introductions, and second guess that feeling. Maybe I was wrong, you think, we all have the right to be a little quirky.
You start the discussion, and within a few minutes, you realize that you absolutely were not wrong. The “expert” you’re talking to is not at all who they claim.
For fun, I thought that I’d share a few memorable experiences.
💻 The overly impressive developer: My first question covered app developer and deployment tools. The participant recited an impressively long and very comprehensive list of developer tools. Two red flags immediately came up. First, it became very clear that he was just reading a list (bad acting skills). Second, a single developer would almost never use such a diverse toolset in their environment. I messaged the back room: “So, what do you think? This doesn’t feel right...” A few minutes later, my colleague messaged: “Hey! You can see all of the tabs he’s moving between reflected in his glasses!”
✔️ Lesson: don’t be so obvious, fake developer.
💻 The snarky IT guy: I ran through my standard pre-interview housekeeping items (NDA, recording, backroom, etc.), concluding with “do you have any questions for me before I start asking you questions?” Yes, yes he did. I sensed the snark before he even asked “why do you call this an interview when it’s not a job interview?” Once the interview kicked off, it was clear: he was reading AI prompts that provided half-baked answers about his org’s IT environment.
✔️ Lesson: never try to outsnark someone who excels in snark, fake IT admin.
There are too many stories to tell in one post, so this is a two part post. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, what memorable participant stories do you have? What steps are you taking to spot fraud before you get too deep into the interview? DM me or book a time slot here: https://lnkd.in/gyB4nyMu
