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How to Invite Someone to Observe a Session, Individual Finding, or Reel
How to Invite Someone to Observe a Session, Individual Finding, or 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 month ago

🚀 With the update to our new dashboard, the term "Highlight" has been replaced with "Finding" and "Highlight Reels" are now simply "Reels"

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.

🚀 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 Finding or Reel, you'll need to use a Public Link

Table of Contents

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.

🚀 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.

🚀 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 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 on the Round
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  3. Click the Observer Lobby button

  4. 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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      ​🚀 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 (If you are on a Freelance plan and disable this setting, you will not be able to use Observer Lobby Links):

  5. Click Copy link

  6. 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.)

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Inviting someone to observe a single session/finding/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, findings, or 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 findings, or reels. For live sessions, we recommend using the Observer Lobby.

🚀 In order to use Public Links, the option needs to be enabled in Organisation Settings. It is enabled by default, but the Organisation Owner can disable it at any time.

1) Create a Public Link for an individual Session or a Reel (the process is the same whether it's live or after it has finished):

  1. Open the Session or Reel in the Lookback Player

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

  3. Click Create Public Link

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

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

2) Create a Public Link for an individual finding

  1. From the dashboard
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    1. Go to the Findings tab in the round
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    2. Locate the finding you wish to share
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    3. Click on the Share icon
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    4. Click Create & copy Public Link

    5. Share the link with your colleagues/stakeholders

  2. From the player
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    1. Locate the finding you wish to share in the feed

    2. Click on the menu (3 vertical dots)

    3. Click Create & copy Public Link

    4. Share the link with your colleagues/stakeholders

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Accessing Research using an Observer Lobby or Public Link

If you've been sent an Observer Lobby or Public Link to access research, this is how you use the link to access the research.
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When accessing an Observer Lobby or Public Link, this is what the observer will see:

🚀 Note: if the observer already has a Lookback user account - even from a different org - and they are logged in, they should automatically enter the session or lobby without having to log in again

  • Public Link

  • Observer Lobby

Accessing the Research Content

Option 1: The user has a Lookback user account

If the user is are already logged into to their Lookback user account (even if it's not in the same organisation where the research was done), they should automatically enter the Observer Lobby or Session. If not, they can click on the Log in option, enter their username (email) and password to access the Observer Lobby or Session

Option 2: The user does not have a Lookback user account

When the user opens the link, it should default to the Guest option and they can enter their name and email to access the Observer Lobby or Public Link.
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🚀 If the observer wishes to remain anonymous and it's not important for your research to know who they were, your guest observers can enter any information in the fields, so long as the email follows the standard format. For example, they could enter:

Troubleshooting & FAQs

  • I can't create a Public Link for my session

    Please have the owner of your Lookback organisation check the organisation settings to make sure "Allow Public Link creation" is enabled

  • 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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