Run your first study
A study is a set of questions you put in front of people. Here's the whole loop, start to finish.
- Create a study
On the Studies page, start a new study and give it a title. It opens as a draft — nothing is live until you say so, so you can build and rearrange freely.
- Add your questions
Add questions one at a time. The kit is One word, Free text, Multiple choice, Multi-select, Ranking, MaxDiff, Scale, Number, Sentence completion, and NPS. Keep it short: the best studies take a respondent a minute or two.
MaxDiff is the one worth a note. Give it between 6 and 20 items and the respondent sees them four at a time, picking the best and the worst of each screen — a few screens, so every item comes round about three times. It scores on how often an item was picked best minus how often it was picked worst, which tells you what people trade off against each other rather than what they all rate highly. Under six items, use Ranking instead: there aren't enough items to make the screens differ.
Not sure where to start? Ask zv1 — it drafts the questions into the study you're looking at, and you edit anything before it goes out.
- Preview it
Walk through the study exactly as a respondent will see it. This is the fastest way to catch a confusing question or a missing option before anyone answers.
- Open it for responses
When it's ready, open the study. Prism gives you a share link — anyone with it can answer, anonymously, no account needed. Send it wherever your people are.
- Watch the answers arrive
Responses show up as people finish. You can see how many opened the study, how many started, and how many completed it — so you know whether your link is landing.
- Read what they said
Once you have answers, analyze the study. Prism reads every response and pulls out the themes — the patterns that show up across people — each backed by the actual quotes. You'll also see a chart for every question, so the numbers and the "why" sit side by side.
What's next
- Want depth, not just counts? Add interviews to the same study.
- Ready to reach a bigger or more specific audience? See reaching people.
- Digging into what came back? Reading the results covers segments, cuts, reports, and saving what you learn.