Skip to main content
A topic guide defines what your interview asks and how participants move through it. Start with the decisions your research should inform, then build and test the participant experience. Editing requires study editing access and an unlocked topic guide. The Topic guide section of a study design page, showing an Introduction question labelled Open-ended with 1-2 follow-ups and No routing, its moderator guidance beneath, then Research Objective 1 with its title and description followed by two further open-ended questions

Key Concepts Explained

The assistant suggests a question, and it stays pending until you accept it.

The AI study design assistant proposes changes from your instructions. Review pending changes before accepting them. AI quality review can highlight problems, but does not prove that the design is valid or that every participant path works. See Review changes and history and Review topic guide quality. Older studies can group questions directly under research objectives. See Sections for both models.

Pro Tips

Describe your intended audience, decisions, and constraints. Put research context and moderator guidance in the appropriate fields, and write participant questions in language that audience understands. Guidance is not displayed as a question itself, but can influence what the AI says; do not treat it as a secure place for information the moderator must never reveal.

Quick Reference

Higher probing levels allow more follow-up questions.

For ordinary questions, probing offers Automatic probing, No follow-up questions, 0–1 follow-ups, 1–2 follow-ups, and 2+ follow-ups. The current budgets are respectively 0–5, 0, 0–1, 1–2, and 2–5 follow-ups. These govern follow-up depth, not guaranteed interview duration. MaxDiff and pricing have method-specific probing controls; consult their guides before applying the same interpretation.

Configure choice answers

Random order shuffles the options for each participant while the pinned option stays last.

For Single-select and Multiselect questions, add the answer options and choose Fixed order or Random order in Option order. Random order shuffles unpinned choices. Pin an option, such as “None of these,” to keep its authored position while the other choices shuffle.

Selecting the exclusive option clears the other selections, and selecting another option clears it.

For Multiselect, mark an option Mutually exclusive when it must be selected alone. Selecting that option clears the other selections; selecting a regular option clears a previously selected exclusive option. This controls which answers can be selected together. Use screener qualification rules separately to decide who qualifies.

Language Settings

The translated transcript shows the interview in the reporting language, and the original German transcript stays as it was.

Participant languages determine which languages are available for the interview. Reporting language controls the language used for analysis and translated research content. Keep the original recording and original transcript distinct from a translated view: changing a reporting language does not change what a participant said. Participant-language options include Afrikaans, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Some have regional variants in the selector. Reporting-language options are Czech, Dutch, English (United Kingdom and United States), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. Voice availability can differ from language availability; the settings warn when text-to-speech is unavailable. Adding or removing participant languages updates associated translations. Check translated questions, answer options, and participant welcome content after making changes. Upload transcription uses a separate language list.

Stimuli Video Controls

With Prevent skipping ahead on, dragging forward is blocked, and Continue unlocks when the video ends.

For an uploaded video stimulus, Prevent skipping ahead restricts forward seeking and gates progress until playback reaches the end. This does not prove the participant paid attention. It does not apply to YouTube videos. Use the canonical Stimuli guide for video controls, groups, and limitations.

Complete Written Guide

Step 1: Access the Dashboard

Open the study you want to configure and go to Design. Check that you have editing access. If the topic guide is locked, use Unlock topic guide before making permitted changes.

Step 2: Start Your Topic Guide

Tell the study design assistant what you want to learn, who should participate, and what the research will inform. Use a template when you already have a reusable structure. Review any generated draft before accepting it.

Step 3: Review Research Briefing

Add reusable briefs or background presentations through study background documents. Check the researcher-facing title and research briefing. Make the business question and important context explicit. These fields serve a different purpose from the participant welcome title and introduction.

Step 4: Set Research Objectives

Write focused objectives that describe the decisions or questions the analysis should address. On section-based studies, objectives do not contain interview questions. Avoid treating an objective as a guarantee that an AI-generated output will cover every requested detail.

Step 5: Build Your Sections and Questions

Add questions to the default section, then add sections for content that needs shared routing, stimuli, or randomization. Questions can be moved between sections. Recheck inherited settings when moving or splitting content; see Sections.

Step 6: Configure Question Settings

Choose a question type, write the question and any choices, and set the probing depth. Supply context to guide follow-ups. Configure stimuli and routing where needed. Use screeners for qualification rather than ordinary routing.

Step 7: Fine-tune Your Guide

Ask the assistant for a specific revision, inspect the proposed changes, and accept or reject them. Use comments for collaborator feedback. Direct edits and accepted suggestions affect the saved design; an unresolved proposal is not proof that a change has been applied.

Step 8: Configure Study Settings

Set participant and reporting languages, then review Participant welcome page content. Configure camera, screen sharing, voice, access, and participant properties in Detailed Topic Guide Settings. For repeat participation, follow Diary studies.

Best Practices

Run test interviews across languages, eligibility paths, and stimulus conditions. Resolve missing variables and validation problems before launch. Before changing a fielded study, read live-edit limitations.