Help with Incontinence Research

[jely]

 

Hi!  We are two women doing research on urinary incontinence and looking to chat with women about their experience with leakage.

Let us know if you’d be willing to have a brief (30 min max) phone chat, by replying to this post or emailing us at hello@drypantsclub.com

For your time, we'll give you a $25 Amazon gift card.

Many thanks in advance for helping us improve the lives of women with bladder leakage!

[rusty pins]

Pardon me but it sounds a little (lot) fishy to me.  You will give everyone who participates a $25 Amazon gift card for chatting with you for 30 minutes?  Your profile states very little information.

1.  Do you work for an organization, and if so, what is it's name?

2.  Does it have a web site and board of directors?

3.  Who is financing your organization and funding these Amazon gift cards you will be giving everyone?

4.  Will you be publishing the results of your phone survey, when, where and how?

Excuse me if I sound sceptical about a new member who has no location or basic profile information other than being 2 women doing research on urinary incontinence.  This is the internet, this is a fetish website and there have been so many people who claim to be someone who they are not just to get information and harrass people.  In this case, it seems worse because you are inviting people, women specifically, to send you an e-mail if interested in talking with you (and I assume you will then be sending them a phone number they can call you at) and if you plan on giving all of them this $25 Amazon gift card, you will need their address to send it to.  Now you have a lot of women's phone numbers (Caller ID) and addresses who you have spoken to about their wetting problems.  That sounds to me like one very unsafe situation for any member here.  If you are really serious about doing a study or research, I would expect a questionair on your organization's website that people can respond to and also type in their comments.  I get calls and phishing e-mails from scammers all the time, and this whole thing raises a lot of flags for me.  Last thing I would ever do is call someone I don't know out of the blue and talk to them for half an hour giving out my personal information.  Do you want to take the chance of having some perverted creep show up at your door?  I suggest you don't do it.

[DailyDi]

I have reason to believe their inquiry is legit and is related to a new business startup with products for women.

[jely]

Hi rusty pins, 

Totally understand your concerns and can see from your point of view how this can appear on the internet.

Happy to address your questions and hopefully take any concerns away, please see below  

1.  Do you work for an organization, and if so, what is it's name?

We are two women co-founders of an organization called, Dry Pants Club that is focused on positively changing the feminine incontinence product space. We are on a mission to empower women from all around the world to take charge of their health by enabling them to feel as comfortable as possible with quality products, while also removing the stigma and inconvenience of the purchasing process. 

2.  Does it have a web site and board of directors?

Sure, our website is here. Please feel free to check it out! We're just starting out and are pretty small, so no board of directors just yet  

3.  Who is financing your organization and funding these Amazon gift cards you will be giving everyone?

We are a self-funded start-up for now and we will be funding this out of our own pockets. We know incontinence is a very personal issue and believe it is of the utmost importance to talk to as many users as possible to make sure our product and service can help women who have incontinence in the best and most useful way possible. We will be emailing these gift cards, so just an email is required.

4.  Will you be publishing the results of your phone survey, when, where and how?

We will not be publishing publicly the results of these user interviews as we believe in the importance of keeping it confidential for all of our participants. 

However, if a phone chat does make anyone uncomfortable, we also have an anonymous questionnaire here up and running. We invite all women 18+ who have incontinence to participate!

We hope this addresses all your concerns (and thanks DailyDi!), let us know if you have any questions! Our company email is: hello@drypantsclub.com

[jely]

Hi Kinsy -

We hear you on your concerns and am glad that the anonymous survey format (no personal details required) can help women feel more comfortable sharing their incontinence experience with us.

However, as we are looking to make the best products and services possible for our users, we do believe that voice conversations are a much better format to get more context and richer information regarding each woman's personal experience with incontinence. While emails and surveys are more anonymous, we worry that some folks might not want to type as long of answers and there is also less chance for a back-and-forth conversation hence why we are offering the extra incentive for a real-time chat. 

We have an email (hello@drypantsclub.com) as well as a phone number that participants can directly call us on (from any number, personal or blocked) so hopefully that can also make folks more comfortable. We promise our inquiry is coming from a totally legit place (please feel free to check our site) and am definitely open to suggestions from the community on how we can make everyone feel as comfortable as possible. Also happy to address any other red flags, just let us know!  

 

[rusty pins]

If I am wrong, so be it.  i respect DailyDi when he says he believes it is legit and is related to a new business startup with products for women.  What I will say is if true, you may have rushed into your message here.  What I would have done first is explain that yes, you do have a website, this is it, this is what you are planning on doing and why.  Basically answer the questions I noted before I had to ask them.  Personally, if I was planning on getting people I don't know to call me and discuss their incontinence, I would want them to have as much information about me and my organization right from the start so they don't wonder, "This sounds fishy!  Is it some kind of scam?"  Especially with all the scams going around these days and in the news.

 

[jely]

Will definitely be sure to do in the future, rusty! Sorry, we are pretty new to these boards and really appreciate everyone taking the time to share all of your tips and pointers!

[Bettypooh]

It's up to the individual whether or not they participate and how they do that

As a trained communicator, I assure you that the best method of communication is always a personal conversation when there is sufficient time to do it that way Nuances and intonations can lead to a deeper inspection of concerns which might not have been otherwise noted, and it's faster to be able to instantly cover questions which arise in a conversation than it is to address them via any text format. Conversation is natural whereas all other forms of communication take a greater effort which often leads to them being foreshortened, thus missing what could be an important point.

If this is legitimate then I wish them well for it is a more widespread problem than many people realize and it deserves such a personal approach.

Bettypooh

[jely]

Exactly our thoughts Bettypooh, thank you for articulating so well!

Great suggestion Xander, noted and we are on it