How TPXimpact streamlines consent management with Consent Kit

Challenges

Scaling data governance consistently across a team of researchers

Imeh Akpan, the Head of Design Research at TPXimpact has the crucial role of ensuring that her team of researchers complies with the UK’s GDPR standards for obtaining, recording and managing consent.

When Imeh joined TPXimpact, she was relieved to find that the company was using Consent Kit. In her prior work experience, she had seen how managing consent through manual processes was complex, time-consuming and error-prone.

Imeh explains:

Before TPXimpact, I was a lead researcher in an organisation that didn’t have Consent Kit. Participants would be sent a consent form manually, which later had to be scanned and stored in a folder.

This manual approach relied on individual researchers to collect and store consent data consistently and correctly.

It also limited Imeh’s ability to prevent researchers from creating different versions of informed consent forms, which could jeopardise GDPR compliance.

For somebody who isn’t aware of GDPR policy, the small changes that they make might have a larger impact on how the organisation, clients or third parties might use the data.

The manual processes for obtaining consent that Imeh had experienced earlier in her career were also time-consuming. Researchers would need to spend several minutes with every participant reading through the consent form and getting the participant’s signature.

Usually, the first five minutes of the research session would be us reading the consent form and then getting the participant to either sign the form or give verbal consent.

If participants wanted their data deleted from these manual systems, locating that data could be time consuming, especially if researchers didn’t store consent consistently.

I remember a very hard case where we had to go through every folder from the year that a participant had taken part in the research because we couldn’t find their consent.

With this prior experience, it’s no surprise that Imeh was pleased to find that TPXimpact uses Consent Kit to achieve GDPR compliance and data governance across its research projects.

Solution

Consent Kit research operations platform.

Now that Imeh is Head of Research Design at TPXimpact, she’s no longer frustrated by the inefficiencies of a manual consent management process. With Consent Kit, she and her team can send consent forms in minutes and have them returned and automatically filed—without no printing and scanning.

It takes only a few minutes to get the participants’ email addresses and send out a consent form.

Centralized, controlled templates

One of the things that Imeh appreciates the most about Consent Kit is the ability to control templates. She doesn’t have to worry about researchers making changes—whether intentionally or by accident—that could jeopardize compliance.

We have one central template that can’t be changed without my permission.

As a bonus, when TPXimpact updated its branding, it took only a few minutes to update the branding on its consent forms.

No-pressure participant experience

With Consent Kit, TPXimpact research teams send consent forms to participants in advance of research sessions. This gives participants the ability to review consent forms at their leisure and sign at their convenience.

They can read and consider in their own time before the research occurs. We still check in with them on the research date as well, but the digital format is a good option to give participants.

Consistent filing and easy deletion

Should participants ask TPXimpact to delete their personal data, Imeh can find that data in seconds through a simple search.

Consent Kit helps me link a participant to a project. I can look for a consent by their email address or project. That consent then links to the project, which then links to the folder where I can see all the data.

Team collaboration

Imeh also uses the project dashboard to get an overview of every research project. If a researcher is on holiday, she can quickly check to see whether participants have given consent or not to keep the project moving in their absence.

I can quickly check the status of a consent so that the team doesn’t have to wait for the researcher to come back to know whether they can schedule a participant in.

Accessibility for everyone

Imeh also likes that Consent Kit is simple to use, even for participants that are less tech-savvy. Imeh says:

Consent Kit’s forms are intuitive and easy to use, even for low digital literacy individuals.

Results

GDPR compliance without overburdening research teams

Given her prior exposure to the pitfalls of manual consent management, Imeh appreciates all the benefits that come with TPXimpact’s partnership with Consent Kit: most primarily, the ability to ensure consistent data governance across teams and projects.

Researchers have very little time for planning. Taking the burden of compliance off them with Consent Kit makes the process easier.

The contrast with Imeh’s previous experience with manual consent management is particularly stark when it comes to time savings.

With some of my prior teams, we would spend one or two hours managing consent. At TPXimpact, we only need a few minutes to check to see if consent has been approved so we can move forward.

TPXimpact’s partnership with Consent Kit also communicates to its clients how seriously they take data governance.

Some of our clients know about Consent Kit. Many of them use Consent Kit themselves. By having Consent Kit in place, we’re reaffirming to them that GDPR compliance and data governance are an important part of the research process for us.

For organisations that want to scale consent management while adhering to GDPR laws, Imeh recommends Consent Kit.

Consent Kit is an easy way of managing and tracking participant consent.