Expert Panel Considerations: Personnel

When talking with R & D professionals, a common question I get is, “can you train our team of developers to be an expert panel?” The short answer is - yes! A sensory scientist with panel experience can train nearly any group of people (who have acuity to do so) to evaluate products. The long answer is - yes, and a question back which yields a lot of conversation: “Do you have the resources in place to maintain an expert panel once the training is finished?”

Having an expert panel in-house is an incredibly valuable tool, which will save you time & money, but the panel needs to be maintained and cared for to ensure good performance and robust data; to know your investment in training is worthwhile in the long-term. The training is only the first step in building a panel. The most critical part of maintaining that panel comes from the pratice sessions after the training, the panel validation, the eventual evaluation work and the day-to-day maintenance by the panel staff - long after the trainer is gone.

The graphic above outlines some of the critical work the panel team does to maintain a good panel performance and ensure data is robust and actionable. And, if you have any questions about expert panel trainings, the personnel to maintain the panel, or other panel considerations, feel free to contact me!