@Tracy Moss I can't seem to open the PDF.

We just did Christoph's suggestion, THIS OR THAT, in a session for 20 people and it was a good way just to get them warmed up and then we talked about where we saw groups of people on the lines and called out those who were polar opposite. It kept things light but also got them talking. Works well virtually or in person on sticky's :) Is this in person? If so, another large group one we recently did was BINGO. We created a bingo card with random things people facts and they have to try and get a bingo in 10 mins. So it wasn't deep conversation but it got them talking, mingling, laughing. Then we ended with a few people sharing.

We were just chatting this about with some new team members and we laughed cause at the end everyone said "it depends." I agree with what has already been shared. The other thing we discussed is when working with a partner, we can articulate our estimated effort (e.g we want to do 10 interviews at an hour each, I can build a guide in 2 hours, I need to review some data first 2 hours, analysis 2-3 hrs, so I might say 18 hours). But the duration is where lots of variables come in to play - how easily and quickly do they supply us with data and background info; how hard or easy is to recruit end users, etc. So this how we have started breaking down the conversation when discussing an approach.

I also love these two tools! Great share

This might be a silly question, but how are they compensating the customers? Over time we have seen this has an impact on our ability to recruit and whether or not people show up. You need to figure out their sweet spot... we have a segment that will always show up for $100/hr. Another customer segment wouldn't even consider that amount, not enough for them. And a smaller segment that would just take $25 gift card to anywhere they choose. And I'm going to contradict what Gabriel said about the founders being involved, but we have seen that many of our customers are more willing to participate with an unbiased party; they seem more likely to sign up and be more honest when they know the responses will anonymous. It might be worth experimenting with you taking the full lead (if you can). This also seems like an obvious thing but there is fine balance between giving customers too many sign up options and not enough. We have kind of found a sweet spot that we send out a recruitment email 2 weeks before the testing dates, include a link to pick their time and date, and then send a confirmation email the day before. We get way better turnout. Our practices are more mature for sure, so this might not be applicable with your clients. Lastly you know your clients best but on #2 my first wonder is do they have skills and experience to do unbiased testing/research? I have worked with several company founders and they're brilliant but not good at creating an unbiased question set or guide for prototype testing. So if you suspect they are leading the interviews at all, you should definitely offer your support. :)