Three questions that changed how I think about volunteers/audience

Guest post and video by Sadie Coffin, 2025 Association for Advancing Participatory Science and NASA Fellow. Originally published in the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences blog on October 16, 2025.

In my time as the NASA Cit Sci Leaders series fellow, I’ve come across advice, lessons, and tools that have already helped improve the quality of our science and my understanding of our audience. In this video, I’m sharing a review of one of the tools I’ve found most useful as a researcher and project leader: the Anticipated Volunteers Reflection Tool. 

This resource helps project leaders think intentionally about who they’re trying to engage, where to find them, what they need, and what motivates them. Understanding and connecting with your audience is about more than just sharing information, it’s about creating welcoming, accessible, and rewarding volunteer experiences in order to deepen engagement and improve the outcomes you can create together.

The full reflection tool includes 8 total guiding questions, and if you’re designing a citizen science project or already running one, I highly recommend exploring the resource for yourself. In my experience, it made me reflect on questions I hadn’t considered in my own project, like: how can I broaden your participation and reach people who may not see themselves in your project yet? 

Explore the full set of Design Thinking Tools: https://participatorysciences.org/2025/03/20/resources-explained-design-thinking-tools/ 

Watch the video for my review of the tool: https://youtu.be/4t_hrjinR3w