Sections

Your topic guide is organized into two independent concepts:

• Sections are the structural containers that group related questions together. They shape the flow of the interview and are not shown to participants by name. Sections are what you reorder, randomize, and attach stimuli to.
• Research objectives are analytical lenses that describe what you want to learn. They drive analysis — themes, summaries, and insights are generated through the lens of these objectives. Research objectives do not contain questions.

Sections and research objectives do not need to map one-to-one. A section groups questions that belong together in the interview; a research objective frames the business question you want answered.

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Sections

Sections live in the Topic guide panel. Each section is labeled Section 1, Section 2, and so on — there is no section title to fill in. A section is just a grouping of questions. Use sections when you need to treat a group of questions as a unit:

• Showing a stimulus (image, video, or other asset) across a group of questions
• Randomizing a group of questions together to reduce order bias
• Routing participants to a group of questions based on a screener answer

If none of these apply, add your questions to the default section instead of creating a new one.

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Adding, reordering, and deleting sections

• Click Add section in the Topic guide panel to create a new section.
• Click Reorder & Randomize to change the order of sections and set up randomization groups.
• Click the trash icon on a section to delete it. If the section has questions, you’ll be asked to confirm.

Questions can be dragged between sections directly in the Topic guide.

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Stimuli on sections

Attach a stimulus to a section when every question in that section should share the same visual. The stimulus is shown for the duration of the section and applies to all its questions, so you don’t need to reattach it per question. Section stimuli support the same types as question stimuli — single image, image comparison, randomized stimuli, uploaded video, YouTube, Figma, Canva embed, and link. See Stimuli for the full reference.

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Randomizing sections

Open Reorder & Randomize from the Topic guide panel to shuffle section order for each interview and reduce order bias. Add two or more sections to a randomization group and they will be shuffled together per interview. See Randomization for the full reference.

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Research objectives

Research objectives live in the Study information panel, directly under the Research briefing. Each objective has a title and a description — for example:

• Title: “Which leaflet best drives toothbrush sales?”
• Description: “Measure how each leaflet variant influences purchase intent and recall, and identify which messages resonate most.”

A study typically has one to three research objectives. They define what the analysis will surface — every theme, summary, and insight is tied back to an objective.

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Adding, editing, and deleting research objectives

• Click Add objective under the research objectives list to create a new one.
• Click into the title or description to edit directly.
• Click the trash icon to delete an objective.

Research objectives do not contain questions. Questions always live inside sections in the Topic guide.

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How sections and research objectives interact

The AI study design assistant understands both concepts. You can ask it to “add a section for pricing questions” or “add a research objective about brand awareness” and it will create the right kind of item.

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Older studies

Studies created before sections were introduced use a single-concept model where research objectives themselves contained questions. On those studies you’ll see research objectives directly in the Topic guide panel, with questions nested under each one, and no separate Sections list. Duplicating an older study preserves its model — contact support@conveo.ai if you want to rebuild one under the new model.

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Need help? Contact us at support@conveo.ai