Consent forms
Before anyone takes part in a recorded interview, they should know what is recorded, what it is used for, how long it is kept and who will see it, and they should agree to it. Consent forms let you ask for that agreement inside LetsFindWhy and keep a record of it you can show an auditor or the participant later.
You write the forms on a process. Everyone you invite to an interview on that process reads them and signs before they can join. Each signature is stored with the exact text they were shown, so the record stays true even after you edit the form.
How consent works in LetsFindWhy
- A consent form belongs to one process and is written in exactly that process’s languages, one tab per language. A study that wants the same wording elsewhere starts from the same template.
- A form is a draft until every language has text (or a PDF). Nobody is asked to sign a draft, so you can create one on a running study without holding anyone up.
- Once a form is live, a participant can only join an interview on the process after signing it. A process with no live form works exactly as before.
- A process can carry up to five forms, and participants sign once however many there are: one signature goes at the foot of every document.
How to write a consent form
- Open Consent in the project sidebar. Each process has its own list of forms.
- Click New consent form (on a process that already has forms, click Edit first). The editor opens on an empty draft.
- Leave Template selected above the languages and choose a recorded interview, a focus group, or an AI-moderated interview. Every language of the form is filled with the same template, each in its own language, with your organization’s name, your email address and your organization’s recording retention period already written in. To write your own from scratch, choose Custom.
- Read it through and change anything that doesn’t fit your study, such as who will watch or how the interview runs, and add anything it leaves out, such as an incentive.
- Check it with Preview as a recruit, then click Save.
Forms are plain text. The first line is the title participants see, a blank line starts a new paragraph, and a heading is just a line on its own. What you type is exactly what they read: nothing is filled in or formatted after you save, so the text you approve is the text they sign.
Other languages
Each participant reads the tab for their own language. On every tab other than your own language there is a Translate from button that machine-translates your text into that tab, saved or not. The translation is not saved until you press Save, and a banner reminds you to read it first.
The translated text is your legal document, not ours. If nobody in your team can check it, translate it outside the app and paste the reviewed version in.
Uploading a PDF instead
If your legal team has already signed off a document, choose File above the languages and upload one PDF per language (up to 10 MB each). The file name, without .pdf, becomes the title. Participants read the PDF on the page, with a button to view it full screen; they are never sent to another tab to sign.
A form can switch between text and PDF only while it is a draft. A PDF can’t be machine-translated in the app.
More than one document
Put a separate promise in a separate form: a client’s non-disclosure agreement or a sensitive-topics addendum is better as its own document than pasted onto the end of the main one, because editing it later only asks participants to sign that document again.
Participants read the forms in the order of the list. Click Edit beside the list to reorder or remove forms, and Preview what recruits see to read the whole pack the way a participant will. Every extra document is more to read before the interview.
What participants see, and how they sign
The invitation email links to a consent page, and anyone who opens their meeting link without signing is sent there first. The documents are stacked, each ending in an Add signature button. Any of those buttons opens one dialog that lists every document the signature will go on.
Participants sign by drawing with a mouse, pen or finger, or by typing their name if they can’t draw. Either way it is a simple electronic signature, not identity verification. We store the signature, the time, their IP address and browser, and a copy of exactly what they were shown.
There are no tick-boxes for individual clauses. Each template ends with a short section saying what signing agrees to (recording, observers, the right to stop, and being 18 or older). That also means there is no optional opt-in, such as agreeing to be contacted about future studies, inside a form: every live form is required.
Until they first join an interview, participants can redraw or clear their own signature. After that it is locked, and taking consent back is a withdrawal you record.
Editing a form that people have signed
Any change to the text or file of a live form, in any language, makes a new version, and everyone who signed the old one is asked to sign again before their next interview. That includes a typo fix after fieldwork, on purpose: the product doesn’t decide which changes matter. The editor tells you how many people have signed and how many were already interviewed before you save.
Seeing who has signed
Under each process’s forms, the Consent page lists every participant with their status: signed, not signed yet, outdated (they signed an older version), declined, or withdrawn. Expand a row to see each document, or open its menu to view the full record, including the text each signature went on.
Every consent is signed by the participant on this site. There is no way to mark someone as consented or to record consent collected on paper or by a client: if someone is stuck, use Copy consent link and send it to them. Shared respondent links are switched off for a process with consent forms, so invite people by email from the Interviews page.
Participants who decline can change their mind and sign later from the same link; the person who invited them gets an email when they decline.
When someone withdraws
Participants withdraw by contacting you, as every template tells them to. Record it with Mark withdrawn on their row, with a note. They can no longer join interviews on the process. Nothing is deleted automatically: delete their recordings from the Interviews page if they asked you to.
How long consent records are kept
Consent records are kept longer than recordings, on purpose: your retention window removes recordings, never the records of consent they were made under. Deleting a participant removes their name, signature and contact details from the record, but keeps an anonymous proof that consent to that version existed at that time.
A starting point, not legal advice
The templates follow common research-industry guidance, but they are not legal advice. Review your forms with whoever owns compliance in your organization, make sure every promise in them is one you keep (such as how long you keep recordings), and remember that anyone under 16 needs a parent or guardian’s consent.