Grounded in Collaboration: Seattle’s Journey to Building a Human-Centered Honoraria Policy

Background

Government teams frequently grapple with the complexities of compensating participants for user research. Challenges range from managing budget constraints to navigating ethical considerations, and ensuring equitable access to research opportunities. The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) experienced these hurdles firsthand, particularly during the pandemic, when budget shortfalls highlighted the need for more sustainable, in-house research operations. We spoke with Jenna Stenson, Jared Bigelow, Jeffrey Chen, and Lisa Rutzick—product managers from the SDCI Customer Experience (CX) team—to learn more about their thoughtful process of getting to know stakeholders in order to create an equitable honoraria policy.

Moving beyond external consultants for user research 

Until recently, the SDCI team relied on external consultants to conduct user research. While this approach brought in helpful expertise, it limited the department’s ability to control the full end-to-end research process in a sustainable way. Reflecting on the challenges of this model, Stenson shared: “With budget shortfalls during COVID, we realized we couldn’t be as reliant on consultants and needed to understand what it would look like to do research in-house.”

Without a dedicated framework for compensating participants directly, the team realized they would struggle to recruit voices from underrepresented communities—particularly those who could not afford to take unpaid time off to participate. As Chen said: “Before [the policy], we mostly talked to the most upset customers, because they were willing to talk. It was hard to get others to sign up.” The lack of a formal compensation policy also hampered research efforts like surveys, which often suffered from low response rates. Together, these barriers limited SDCI’s ability to reach and learn from a diverse cross-section of the city residents.

Laying the groundwork for an in-house user research process focused on equity

The SCDI team recognized that establishing an approach for paying research participants would be an important foundational step in developing a comprehensive in-house process for user research. They began working on developing a honoraria policy with a clear vision in mind. As Stenson explained: “We wanted to make sure we weren’t only tapping into folks who could step away for an hour or two without it impacting their bottom line. Equity was a big part of our vision.”

By integrating compensation into their user research process, the team aimed to eliminate barriers that disproportionately excluded individuals from underserved communities. Beyond fairness, the policy also fostered deeper and more authentic engagement. Stenson elaborated: “Even something as small as offering honoraria for an hour-long interview can give us so much deep insight into [people’s] lived experiences.”

SDCI’s honoraria policy was guided by three ambitious yet clear goals:

1. Building internal capacity: Transitioning from a reliance on external consultants to sustainable, in-house research operations.
2. Advancing equity: Ensuring meaningful representation by including diverse voices, particularly those from underserved communities.
3. Adhering to ethical and financial standards: Aligning compensation practices with the City’s ethical guidelines while working with tight budget constraints.

By prioritizing these goals, SDCI sought not only to elevate the quality of their research, but also to foster trust and inclusivity in their engagement process. The honoraria policy was designed as a critical step toward ensuring that the City’s services reflected the diverse needs of its residents.

How SDCI developed their honoraria policy

Step 1: Collaborating with partners.

Developing the honoraria policy was a collaborative effort involving ongoing discussion with the finance team and support from external consultants and internal partners, including the Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Performance. Through these collaborations and by building on the compensation efforts of other cities, the team iteratively created their honoraria policy.

Step 2: Pitching the policy.

Gaining stakeholder buy-in, particularly from the finance team, was one of the things that took the longest time. As Bigelow explained: “Our finance director had a lot on his plate, so we approached him incrementally, addressing questions about compliance, fairness, and logistics over time.”

Our finance director had a lot on his plate, so we approached him incrementally, addressing questions about compliance, fairness, and logistics over time”

Jared Bigelow, Product Manager, City of Seattle

To build trust and minimize resistance, the team started by proposing modest compensation amounts and cited industry best practices and other cities’ policies. By presenting their plan in stages and consistently addressing concerns, they gradually won over key stakeholders.

Furthermore, Chen explained that previous audit findings underlined a common challenge—the need for collecting comprehensive customer feedback. This was a helpful connection to make to build out an honoraria policy, he said: “We had audit findings on our permitting process and one [recommendation] was to incorporate feedback from customers directly, using customer research. Yes, we would love to do that. We need to do that. But to do that, we need to get something in place that would get them to talk to us.”

Building on the idea of collecting customer feedback, Bigelow highlighted the department’s focus on making decisions that relied on data and customer engagement instead of what was “politically expedient.” For example, he discussed how an honorarium to reward users for their time investment was “a good way to not only be equitable, but also to drive engagement.” 

Finance Director Shane Muchow was in agreement with the proposal: “[Our] reimbursement is aligned with similar efforts by the City of Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA), the Innovation and Performance Team (IPT) within the Mayor’s Office, and UX honoraria reimbursement policies at the federal level and across the county. This reimbursement is at a level where it is attractive for customers to participate and contribute in a full capacity to share their lived experiences—akin to advice sought from a consultant in improving a service.”

Step 3: Establishing the policy features and necessary tools.

Significantly, the three-page honoraria policy clearly outlined its purpose, ethical considerations, and distribution methods. Stenson highlighted the importance of grounding the policy in the team’s core values: “We spent almost a page and a half on the ‘why’ to make sure future readers understood this is about equity and acknowledging participants’ expertise.”

We spent almost a page and a half on the ‘why’ to make sure future readers understood this is about equity and acknowledging participants’ expertise.”

Jenna Stenson, Permit Services Manager, City of Shoreline

The team also adopted tools like Great Question, a user research platform, and its integrated payment system, Tremendous, to streamline operations. By leveraging these platforms, the team enabled secure and efficient virtual gift card distribution, eliminating risks associated with physical cash or gift cards. The detailed record-keeping functionality provided an additional layer of accountability, which reassured stakeholders about the policy’s integrity.

Furthermore, Bigelow highlighted a vital feature of the research software platform that notified the CX team whenever the compensation was opened, used, or even pending usage. Such visibility was particularly valued by the finance team as they collaboratively built out their user experience research compensation process. Thus, these tools not only simplified participant recruitment and engagement but also ensured a secure and transparent compensation process.

Rutzick noted how important it was to finalize the policy and procedural steps upfront: “Taking the time to be thoughtful and work through these details early on, putting everything in place, and documenting the work not only saves time and effort later as research projects arise, but it also gives our team confidence as we grow our research operations.”

Honoraria policy in action

The introduction of SDCI’s honoraria policy has already made a significant impact, supporting two key projects, including the Pre-Submittal Conference Redesign. This project aimed to streamline the City’s permit process by improving user interactions and addressing longstanding frustrations with an increasingly burdensome workflow that was dependent on a combination of paperwork, emails, and phone calls. Drawing on previous customer complaints and conversations with first line staff, the team created a prototype to test a new pre-submittal flow using the Zendesk platform.

The honoraria policy played a crucial role in recruiting a balanced mix of participants to test out the prototype. The ability to compensate participants ensured that insights were not limited to those with time and financial flexibility, resulting in richer, more representative feedback. Moreover, Bigelow noted that within just a week of disclosing the honoraria option for customer feedback, the team was able to recruit a sufficient number of people for their study.

Feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Bigelow: “Engagement was high, no one cut our meeting short. We had maybe an hour and a half for each meeting. People were even available for follow-up emails, even though there was no additional honorarium offered. Everyone said they’d be willing to participate again in the future for other studies, if it aligned with their expertise. People were surprised and impressed by the ease of accepting the honoraria.”

Overall, the policy has had a positive ripple effect on the quality of SDCI’s user research, yielding several key outcomes:

1. Improved Inclusivity: The honoraria policy enabled participation from a diverse array of residents, including those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and individuals less familiar with technology.
2. Enhanced Research Quality: With compensation in place, participants were more engaged and invested in the process, leading to actionable insights that informed the redesign of the permit system.
3. Operational Efficiency: Leveraging a research platform that allowed the team to manage recruitment, scheduling, and compensation seamlessly, significantly reducing administrative overhead and enabling a transparent process from end to end.

The success of the Pre-Submittal Conference Redesign demonstrates how a well-implemented honoraria policy can transform user research, making it both equitable and effective.

Lessons learned 

The implementation of the honoraria policy provided the SDCI team with valuable insights that can guide other government teams in developing  efficient user research practices that center equity. Key lessons include:

1. Ground policies in equity.
   Rooting the honoraria policy in equity and fairness proved essential for success. By aligning the policy with the city’s broader equity goals, the team built stakeholder trust and fostered greater inclusivity in who participated. This streamlined the approval process and reinforced the value of compensating participants as an integral part of ethical research.
2. Engage stakeholders early to foster collaboration.
   Engaging cross-functional stakeholders—such as finance, legal, and innovation departments—early in the process created a space for open conversations, addressed questions, and ensured all parties understood and supported the policy. Starting early not only facilitated alignment with organizational standards but also demonstrated the integral role of user research in project design, fostering trust and deeper collaboration.
3. Leverage tools for transparency and efficiency.
   Selecting user-friendly tools simplified participant recruitment, compensation, and record-keeping for the team. These tools reduced administrative burdens, improved transparency, and enabled small teams to balance multiple roles effectively. Ensuring secure and efficient processes supported compliance while empowering teams to focus on delivering impactful results.

The SDCI team’s commitment to equitable engagement was more than a moral imperative—it was a strategic necessity to ensure that their services reflected the needs of all city residents, not just those with the time and privilege to participate. Through their honoraria policy, SDCI set out to redefine how they could approach user research by centering fairness, inclusivity, and sustainability. By sharing these insights with the DSN community, the SDCI team highlights the importance of equity, early stakeholder engagement, and leveraging digital tools to create effective, inclusive, and efficient user research practices.