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How to Invite Someone to Observe a Session or Highlight Reel
How to Invite Someone to Observe a Session or Highlight Reel

How to collaborate and share live and completed recordings with colleagues, managers, and stakeholders

Russ Troester avatar
Written by Russ Troester
Updated over a week ago

Having colleagues or stakeholders observe a research session is a great way for them to hear user feedback and understand their experience of your product first hand! Or, it can even be helpful just to invite a colleague to take notes during your session while you moderate so you can concentrate on the participant.


For most of our users it's equally important to keep content private and secure, so there are different ways you can invite someone to a session as an observer. Both methods can be used for sessions that are live and sessions that have already been completed.

πŸš€ While there is some overlap between the Observer Lobby & Public Links, the method you choose depends on what you're inviting observers to:

  • If you are inviting observers to live sessions, we'd recommend using the Observer Lobby as it's the fastest and easiest way for both team members and external stakeholders to join sessions. Observer Lobby links can be used for moderated (LiveShare & Interview) or unmoderated (SelfTest & Tasks) Rounds and can be generated ahead of time so they can be used in calendar invites, Slack messages, etc.

  • If you are inviting observers to review a single session after it's completed, you could use either Public Links or the Observer Lobby. Note that using the Observer Lobby will also allow them to access any other sessions conducted in the same round

  • If you are inviting observers to review an individual Highlight or Highlight Reel, you'll need to use a Public Link



1. Inviting someone to observe a session or multiple sessions in the same Round by using the Observer Lobby

The Observer Lobby allows you to invite your observers to your research session(s) ahead of time and can also be used to invite observers to review any sessions from the same round that have already been completed. You can invite both team members who have been added to your Lookback organisation or external stakeholders.

πŸš€ For team members to join using their Lookback user account, make sure they accept your invitation and finish signing up in advance of the actual session.

πŸš€ Stakeholders may not want to watch hours of raw research footage, so if you're planning to share research from multiple sessions, we'd recommend using our Highlight Reel feature to collect insights from multiple sessions into one video.

Setting up and copying the Observer Lobby link:

  1. Click into the project

  2. Click the Observer Lobby button next to the relevant Round you want to invite your observers to

  3. Under Observer Lobby access, choose who you want to be able to access the Observer Lobby

    1. Organisation members only: they will need to have a user account associated with your Lookback organisation. This option is recommended if all of your observers are colleagues/employees at the same company. Please note: as our Freelance plans only have 1 user account, this option will be disabled for those plans.
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    2. Anyone with the link can enter: they do not need to have a Lookback user account to access the Lobby. This option is recommended if you are inviting external stakeholders to your sessions and don't want to add them to your Lookback organisation.
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      β€‹πŸš€ Please note: this option will work for your guests even if your organisation is using SSO (single sign-on); your guests will not have to authenticate with your IdP (Identity Provider)
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      Note: the option to allow Anyone with the link can enter can be disabled by the organisation owner in Organisation settings. When disabled, you will only be able to select Organisation members only when creating an Observer Lobby link:

  4. Click Copy link

  5. Share the link with your team members you want to invite to the session via calendar invite, email, Slack, etc. Be sure to include any other relevant details (e.g., date and time of the session, our Observer Guide, etc.)


2. Inviting someone to observe a single session/highlight/highlight reel using public links

By using Public Links, you can invite external stakeholders or anyone who you don't want to add as a user to your Lookback organisation. This method can be used for single sessions, highlights, or highlight reels, and will allow the observer to see and hear the conversation between the moderator and participant. In addition, they will also be able to take notes and chat with the moderator and any other observers in the session.

Please note: Public Links can only be generated after a session has started. Therefore, we recommend using Public Links primarily for sharing single sessions that have been completed, individual highlights that have been published to the Dashboard, or highlight reels. For live sessions, we recommend using the Observer Lobby.

To generate a public link for a session (the process is the same whether it's live or after it has finished):

  1. Click on the "Share" icon in the upper right-hand corner of the session feed

  2. Click Create Public Link

  3. Hover over the link and click the "Copy" icon

  4. Share the Public Link with your observer via email, Slack, etc.


FAQs

  • Will Public Links or the Observer Lobby work even if my project is set to private? Yes! Setting a project to private only prevents users in your own Lookback organisation from accessing projects they have not be added to as members; it does not affect Public Links or the Observer Lobby.


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