Filter answer options and group participants by their earlier answers

Routing in Conveo has always worked on whole questions and sections. Two jobs still needed workarounds. A follow-up like "Which one do you watch the most?" listed every option, including services the participant had just said they don't pay for. And a profile such as "watches more than 10 hours a week and pays for more than one service" had to be rebuilt as a rule on every question, section and quota that used it.

Short on time? Watch the one-minute version.

How it works

Row-based filtering works on the answer options of a structured question, such as a single or multi-select question.

• Give each option a routing rule. Show a streaming service only if the participant selected it in question 1.

• Participants see a shorter list. Someone who pays for two of five services chooses between those two.

Hidden variables turn a combination of answers into a group.

• Add a hidden variable yourself, under your screener questions, for example Viewer type with Superfan, Casual viewer and Regular viewer.

• Give each value a rule. Superfan applies when someone watches more than 10 hours a week and selected more than one service. Regular viewer catches everyone who matches no other value.

• Participants never see it. Each person gets the first value that matches, or switch on Allow more than one value when groups overlap.

Define a group once, use it everywhere in the study

• Routing. Show a question to casual viewers only, or a whole Superfan deep dive section to superfans.

• Quotas. Set targets per value: 60 superfans, 20 casual viewers and 20 regular viewers out of 100.

• Analysis. Filter question coding by the variable, or ask Talk to your data how superfans answered question 11.

Change the Superfan rule and every route, quota and filter that uses it follows.

Research teams asked for it in five situations

These come from conversations with research agencies and teams in consumer goods, food and drink and home goods. We kept them anonymous.

• Follow-ups about what people actually use. Ask which brand they buy most, from only the brands they buy.

• One deep dive instead of one per brand. Write the questions once and let the earlier answer set the options.

• Loyalists and lapsers. Build each group from several screener answers and send it to its own questions.

• Balanced samples by consumer type. Fill quotas on a profile instead of a single screener answer.

• Survey logic they already program. Option filtering and computed groups in the same place as the interview.

What this means for your research

Each video conversation stays about the person in it: no padded lists, no questions written for another group. The logic behind "Superfan" is the same in the routing, the quota table and the analysis.

A few things to know. Both features work on structured questions only, so a hidden variable is built from structured answers. There is no limit on how many hidden variables a study can have. A hidden variable belongs to the study you define it in. And routing splits your sample, so check group sizes before reading much into one group.

Row-based filtering and hidden variables in one minute

The short version: filter a follow-up by an earlier answer, define Viewer type once, and use it for routing, quotas and Talk to your data.

Watch Dag set up both features

Dag Malstaf from our engineering team filters a follow-up by an earlier answer, builds a Viewer type variable, routes and sets quotas on it, then takes the interview as a participant. Both features are live for every Conveo organization from October 20, 2026, including the hidden variable filters in question coding and Talk to your data. Read the question routing guide to set them up.