dscout Review–The Good and Bad

dscout is a great tool for doing qualitative user research, like live interviews or diary studies. But it isn’t the best choice for everyone. 

If you’re managing research at a mid- to enterprise-level company and have a large budget, definitely put dscout on your short list. Solo researchers or those at small companies may find dscout’s pricing too big of a hurdle.

And if your focus is on quantitative data or you want a single solution that does both qualitative and quantitative research equally well, there are other options out there that are a better fit.

How Does dscout Compares to its Closest Competitors

When researchers start looking for UX research tools, a few names besides dscout tend to show up. These include Optimal Workshop, UserTesting, and Lookback. The ultimate tool a researcher chooses depends a lot on their testing priorities. 

Here’s how the three stack up against dscout.

Optimal Workshop vs. dscout

Optimal Workshop brings together both qualitative and quantitative research tools in a singular toolkit. It offers a robust selection of quantitative tools, including card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing, and surveys. Hands down, Optimal Workshop’s offerings in this regard are far more robust than what dscout offers.

Optimal Workshop also wins with the size of its participant pool of more than 80 million study participants compared to dscout’s 100,000. 

However, while Optimal Workshop’s Reframer tool manages the full user interview process with ease, dscout offers more bells and whistles when it comes to interviews. 

UserTesting vs. dscout

UserTesting is another all-in-one toolkit for conducting both qualitative and quantitative user research. Its Live Conversations feature lets you schedule and conduct user interviews with your existing customer base, the UserTesting pool of participants, or both. 

UserTesting edges out dscout in a couple ways. First with its more robust quantitative testing tools. Second is how it handles participant engagement. Unlike dscout, UserTesting doesn’t require participants to download any software or app to complete tests or interviews. This eliminates one of the barriers that may cause participant hesitation or to fully opt out.

Lookback vs. dscout

Lookback is another tool to consider if you’re focused on user interviews. It offers a lot of the same functionality that dscout does, but falls short in one key regard. It is a standalone tool for conducting user interviews. To manage things like recruiting, scheduling and managing incentive payments, you’ll have to pair it with a tool like User Interviews.

dscout does not have these limitations. Its platform provides a holistic approach to the entire interview process, plus offers other research tools to gather both qualitative and quantitative data.

dscout: The Good and The Bad

dscout handles the qualitative side of user research well. It has a number of unique features, including multi-media participant feedback options, plus a well-designed user interface for both researchers and study participants. Where dscout falls a bit short is with pricing (it is expensive) and the requirement for participants to download software or an app to join a study.

What dscout Is good at

Flexible participant pools: First things first, dscout refers to its study participants as scouts. The studies these scouts participate in are called missions. It’s a gamified approach to conducting qualitative research.

dscout claims to maintain a pool of more than 100,000 scouts from around the world. Access to this pool is available for dscout customers with a subscription membership. You can use the dscout Recruit tool to screen, review, and add scouts to your mission.

If you already have your own list of study participants, you can invite them to your mission with an invite link instead. Recruiting is easy to do, whether you want to lean into dscout’s pool of scouts or recruit your own outside the platform.

Diverse research approaches: There are three different approaches dscout offers for conducting research. 

• Express – this is the fastest way to get research results, combining usability testing tools with multi-media surveys to generate results within 24-48 hours.
• Live – the platform offers built-in functionality to schedule and moderate live interviews, invite silent observers, issue incentives, manage NDAs, and conduct pre-session checks to avoid technical difficulties during the interview. Interviews are also automatically transcribed, which saves time.
• Diary – this gives you an omnichannel approach (mobile and web) to capturing authentic user data at every point of their journey. You can also modify your designs in real-time based on research results.

You can focus on a single approach or use any combination of the three in the same study.

Rich qualitative results: Besides the usual user interviews, you can also design studies that require scouts to upload asynchronous audio, video, and photos. This gives you a unique set of data captured in a more natural setting than a formal interview might. You can use this data to better understand user behavior and intent, and even glean information you might have missed in a structured interview.

Increased participant engagement: Offering scouts the option to provide data via a mobile app makes it easier for them to give you the data you want–in a way that is comfortable and convenient for them. 

Whether it is creating videos, sharing photos, or responding to survey questions, when you remove the hurdle of having to sit in front of a computer to participate, you get more engaged study participants.

Easy to use: dscout makes it easy for both scouts and researchers to use the tool. For scouts, the mobile app is well-designed and easy to navigate. For researchers, a streamlined and intuitive dashboard lets you automate some of the most time consuming tasks related to research, including scheduling sessions, issuing incentive payments, and managing consent forms. You can even chat with scouts from the dashboard.

Good customer service: While dscout may have done away with its live chat customer support, it still offers a chatbot to manage routine questions and a live agent team that is helpful, friendly, and responsive. Users consistently call out the quality of the support offered by dscout. Of course, since support is offered at varying paid levels, your mileage may vary depending on the package you choose.

In-depth analysis tools: Machine learning and AI research tools help speed up the analysis phase of your research project. Automated transcripts, word clouds, and tools to understand tone and emotion can help you quickly surface themes and trends. All AI-generated content is clearly labeled and linked to the original source material, to help you validate on the fly.

Very shareable research results: dscout makes it easy to get (and keep) stakeholder support. Highlight reels, thematic word clouds, public share pages, silent observation during interviews, and data export options are just some of the ways you can keep people across your organization updated with real-time research results. 

Privacy is ensured with features including facial blurring in videos and password-protected share links. There are also integrations with popular tools including Figma, Miro, and Slack that open up even more ways to share findings in real-time.

Potential dscout drawbacks

Participants must download software: It may not be a dealbreaker for some participants, especially if you choose to exclusively use dscout’s participant pool who have already self-selected in. But according to at least one enterprise level research professional, the download requirement can present a challenge when you are targeting high-level professionals, especially those you invite. 

These people are often hesitant to download software or apps due to workplace restrictions or confidentiality concerns. Asking them to do that can mean the difference between gaining qualified insights or hearing no before the study even begins.  

Participants voice concerns…often: As a researcher, you want the most engaged participants in your studies. For various reasons, many scouts report difficulty using the platform in reviews on sites like TrustPilot and G2. Whether it is delays in getting paid, trouble uploading videos, or technical issues interrupting live interviews, scouts–and even some researchers–express concern with the reliability of the platform.

Limited quantitative data: If you want to run both qualitative and quantitative user research in a single tool, you may find dscout too limiting. While it excels in qualitative research like live interviews and diary entries, its quantitative data collection tools are limited. There are surveys and card sorts, but If you want equally robust quantitative data to analyze, you may want to choose a different solution.

Expensive: We’ll dive deeper into pricing next, but the general consensus across review sites and other sources is that dscout is best suited for mid- to enterprise-level customers. The kind that have big research budgets. If you are an individual researcher or only conducting occasional studies, dscout may not be the most affordable option.  

Dscout Pricing, Plans, and Add-Ons

No pricing is available online. To get pricing information from dscout, you’ll need to speak to a sales agent. The same is true for seeing the product in action. There are no demos available to freely view online. Both require you to hand over your personal information to get information.

What the company does mention on its site is that pricing is based on “the number of researchers in your organization, the amount of research you run, and the level of support you’d like.” It offers both project-based and subscription services. The company uses a combination of seats, activity credits, and support levels to generate a customized pricing plan. 

• Seats – various options, including admin, collaborator, viewer, and researcher.
• Activity credits – each credit represents a unit of qualitative data (e.g. live interview, diary entries). You pre-purchase a set number of credits. There are different subscription plans to accommodate a variety of research study sizes.
• Support – various pricing options depending on the support level you want or need.

External research suggests the average costs for dscout services is just over $60,000 per year.

Existing or past dscout customers call out minimum credits and long-term commitment requirements as things that make it difficult for smaller businesses to justify the costs. 

Is dscout Right for You?

dscout delivers a great qualitative research experience with robust live interview and diary study options. It also offers some quantitative research tools that include multimedia functionality, which is unique among its competitors. Where it loses traction is with its pricing and the requirement that participants must download an app to join a study. 

If you have the budget, dscout can be a good solution for qualitative research. But if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution to handle in-depth qualitative and quantitative research, it may be better to look at options like UserTesting or Optimal Workshop.If you want to see if dscout is right for you, you can stream a free demo of the platform. You’ll need to hand over personal information to get started, though.