As industries evolve, so do the responsibilities within them. Today, it's common to encounter participants with hybrid roles like "growth product owner," "AI strategy manager," or even "digital workplace architect" – titles that didn’t exist just a few years ago. This shift in how work gets done creates a very real complexity for market research recruiting.

The challenge isn't just finding someone with a particular job title – it's understanding their actual behavior, influence, or decision-making power. A traditional recruitment screen might ask for a job title or function, yet miss the critical qualifiers that define who the participant truly is in context. This means your study could unintentionally target the wrong audience, putting insights at risk.

What’s behind the rise of undefined or emerging job roles?

• Digital transformation: New technologies constantly reshape how work is done, creating roles that blend disciplines or tools.
• Organizational restructuring: More companies adopt agile teams or matrixed reporting, redefining traditional departments like marketing or IT.
• Startup and scale-up culture: Flatter hierarchies and flexible job scopes mean employees wear multiple hats under one title.
• AI and automation adoption: As technology handles repeatable tasks, human roles shift toward strategic thinking and tool orchestration.

For market researchers, these shifts make participant recruitment less about job labels and more about the behaviors, tasks, and decisions that indicate relevance to your study. This isn’t just important – it’s essential. Misidentifying a participant’s fit can skew your results and miss key insights.

Behavior over title: What you really need to know

Let’s say you’re developing a digital platform for internal collaboration. You don’t just need someone labeled “IT Manager” – you need someone responsible for selecting and implementing collaboration tools, even if their title is “Business Analyst” or “Ops Lead.” Titles alone won’t tell you that.

This is where experienced market research professionals shine. They know how to interpret evolving roles and identify behavioral tipping points that matter for accurate sampling. By asking the right questions – and knowing how to read between the lines – they help capture the right nuances and recruit credible participants.

As roles continue to blur across industries, finding participants based solely on pre-set lists will fall short. Instead, recruiting for undefined roles requires adaptability, human judgment, and often a more qualitative intake process. These skills are foundational for SIVO's On Demand Talent professionals – people who’ve worked in the field, understand organizational complexity, and know how to navigate ambiguity to deliver strong research results.

DIY recruiting platforms have become an essential part of the modern research toolkit. They promise speed, scalability, and cost-efficiency. And for many standard research projects, they deliver. However, when it comes to niche audiences and undefined job roles, DIY tools start to reveal some serious limitations.

It’s tempting for insights teams to plug in a few screening questions and let automation do the work, especially when budgets or timelines are tight. But when those screens rely heavily on job titles or industry tags, they can inadvertently miss – or misclassify – the very participants you’re trying to reach.

Here are some of the most common DIY recruiting pitfalls:

• Over-reliance on job title as a filter: Many platforms require exact matches. If a qualified participant describes their unique title differently, they’re excluded – even if they hold the same responsibilities.
• Lack of context in screening: Without follow-up or clarification, nuanced roles appear more alike or more different than they really are. Roles that sound similar may have totally different scopes of work.
• Limited ability to filter for behaviors: DIY tools often focus on demographics and surface-level data. But identifying someone who influences purchase decisions or implements new tools requires behavioral criteria.
• Rigid logic in participant screening: When logic gates (e.g., “must answer yes to X and be in Y industry”) are too strict, they can disqualify insightful participants who fall slightly outside predefined buckets.
• Low-quality or self-reported data: Participants may misinterpret questions or try to qualify by chance, especially if screened without moderation. For niche or high-level professional roles, the risk of misfit increases considerably.

Let’s take a fictional example: You’re researching purchase behaviors for enterprise-level collaboration tools. You enter a screen for “IT decision-makers in companies with 500+ employees.” A DIY tool may deliver someone with this title – but that doesn’t guarantee the participant actually influences or selects that type of software. Someone in operations or HR transformation may be far more relevant, but never turn up in the results due to narrow filters.

That's where the human lens matters. On Demand Talent from SIVO aren’t just users of tools – they know how to enhance and interpret DIY recruitment inputs, fill in the gray areas, and ensure the audience you engage is genuinely aligned with your research goals.

These professionals also help internal teams build better screeners, ask better questions, and define the criteria that matter. So rather than replacing DIY tools, they enhance them – helping teams use their investments more strategically, without sacrificing research quality or relevance.

The takeaway? DIY recruiting platforms can be powerful, but only when paired with human expertise. When audience profiles are vague, internally inconsistent, or behavior-driven, expert support helps your team avoid missteps and move forward with clarity.

Recruiting Participants Based on Behaviors, Not Just Job Titles

When conducting market research in today's fast-evolving work environment, job titles alone don't tell the full story. As roles become more fluid—especially in tech, UX, and cross-functional roles—a title like "Product Strategist" or "AI Project Coordinator" might look different from company to company. Traditional DIY recruiting tools often rely heavily on filtering by titles or industries, which can miss core participants who actually perform the tasks and behaviors you’re looking to study.

This is why behavioral criteria are essential, especially for studies targeting emerging roles or new organizational structures. Looking at what a participant actually does—their day-to-day tasks, decision-making responsibilities, and collaboration patterns—yields more accurate insights than relying solely on job labels.

Examples of Behavioral Criteria to Target

• Software used regularly (e.g., Figma, Salesforce, ChatGPT)
• Responsibilities like budget decision-making, vendor selection, or consumer testing
• Experience launching new products, managing hybrid teams, or experimenting with AI
• Team role—collaborator, final decision-maker, evaluator, etc.

For instance, if you’re studying how organizations evaluate generative AI tools, you might assume you need to target “Innovation Managers.” But the people evaluating tools could be data scientists, IT managers, or even early-adopter marketers. Without behavioral screening, these critical users get missed.

DIY platforms often lack flexibility to screen for nuanced behaviors, leading to lower relevance and missed targets. In contrast, working with recruiting professionals or integrated On Demand Talent allows you to define more precise screening protocols—combining behavioral, demographic, and psychographic variables—and adapt based on real-time findings.

The SIVO approach focuses on understanding the full participant profile to reflect not just their title, but the meaningful tasks driving their work. This behavioral lens helps teams find the true influencers, users, and decision-makers shaping your research outcomes.

Why On Demand Talent Are Essential for Hard-to-Define Recruiting Needs

Recruiting participants for qualitative research is never one-size-fits-all—especially when roles are new, niche, or evolving. Whether you're exploring UX roles shaped by AI, cross-functional growth strategists, or emerging tech innovators, you need someone who can cut through ambiguity and find the right people. That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent (ODT) comes in.

ODT professionals are experienced consumer insights experts who quickly grasp complex research needs and translate them into smart, efficient recruitment strategies. Unlike general freelancers or consultants, ODT professionals offer deep-market research expertise combined with real-time adaptability.

Why They Make a Difference

• Interpret Unclear Criteria: When job titles are vague or evolving, ODT professionals help interpret objectives into actionable screening logic.
• Access Niche Networks: Through years of experience, they often know where to source hard-to-find participants—beyond pre-populated panels.
• Navigate Ambiguity: ODT isn’t discouraged by undefined roles—they thrive at working through unclear briefs and shifting research scopes.
• Bridge DIY Limitations: Tools are great, but they need human guidance. ODT professionals make sure tech-enabled recruiting stays on strategy and human-centered.

For example, say your company wants to study “AI Implementation Leads” across mid-sized organizations. That exact title might barely exist—yet ODT professionals know how to screen for operational behaviors (e.g., people managing AI tool pilots) and identify participants using flexible screening workflows.

Additionally, these experts help build long-term capabilities—not just fill short-term gaps. While freelancers might complete a task, On Demand Talent frequently collaborate with your internal team, teaching stakeholders how to refine screeners or leverage platform filters more effectively. You’re not just solving a recruiting need—you're building stronger insight muscles.

SIVO’s On Demand Talent solution connects you with the right professionals fast—often within days—so you can keep your research efforts moving without sacrificing relevance or depth. When speed, precision, and credibility matter, they’re the bridge between research goals and real-world participant stories.

Tips to Improve Recruitment Accuracy in Emerging Job Spaces

Recruiting participants for research tied to new or undefined job roles doesn't have to feel like finding a needle in a haystack. While these spaces can be inherently ambiguous, there are clear strategies to boost alignment, relevance, and speed—especially when working with or alongside DIY platforms.

Here’s how to improve recruitment accuracy, even in complex or fluid job categories:

1. Start with Business Objectives, Not Job Titles

Instead of starting with assumptions about who holds the right title, clarify what business behaviors or outcomes you’re exploring. This shifts your screeners toward capturing the real drivers rather than surface-level matches.

2. Use Behavioral Screening Questions

Add specific, action-based questions that uncover what the participant actually does. “Do you manage AI tool vendors?” or “Have you led a hybrid team in the last 12 months?” garners stronger matches than generic career filters.

3. Test and Tweak as You Go

In undefined spaces, early recruits can serve as helpful reference points. Test participants early, and adjust targeting criteria mid-stream. This is easier with human guidance than automated workflows alone.

4. Blend Tech with Human Oversight

DIY recruiting tools can be powerful, but don’t leave screening fully automated. Augment with expert oversight from insights professionals (like SIVO’s On Demand Talent), who can interpret nuances, flag mismatches, and fine-tune the pipeline.

5. Validate with Stakeholders

Bring internal team members or clients into the participant profile development process. Their buy-in ensures alignment and helps avoid surprises related to fit or relevance.

Let’s say your team is researching mid-level decision makers shaping customer experience in subscription tech companies. That group probably spans across marketing, product, and support titles—but behavioral screening for “renewal strategy involvement” or “ownership of CX KPIs” can narrow in on the critical few.

The most effective teams recognize that recruiting for emerging job roles isn’t about perfection on the first go—it’s about staying flexible, informed, and responsive. With the right mix of tools and expert leadership, even the most undefined targets become reachable and reliable.