Interview guide

The interview guide is the ordered list of items the agent works through in every interview. Each item is a question, asked in your exact wording, a choice question, asked in your exact wording and answered by picking from your options, or a topic, an area the agent explores with questions it writes itself. Study depth sets how many follow-up questions the agent asks on each item.

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Questions, choice questions, and topics

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Questions

Pick a question when every participant must hear the same wording, for example to compare answers across interviews.

• The agent asks your wording as written, or a faithful translation when the interview runs in another language.
• The agent asks every question, even one the participant already touched on.

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Choice questions

Pick a choice question when you want answers you can count, such as which payment method a shopper tried or how often they buy online.

• The agent asks your wording as written, and participants answer by picking from your options: one on Single choice, one or more on Multiple choice. Options are translated with the question when the interview runs in another language.
• Participants can answer only from your list, so the Overview reports exact counts for every option.
• Like a question, a choice question is always asked, and the agent can follow up on the reasons behind a pick.

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Topics

Pick a topic when you want to learn about an area without fixing the wording, and leave room for answers you didn’t expect.

• The agent writes its own question about the area, choosing the angle from what the participant has said so far.
• The agent doesn’t ask about a topic the participant has already answered, even during another item. One rich reply can cover several topics.

A guide can mix all three kinds.

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Study depth and follow-ups

Study depth applies to every item in the guide. It also sets how long the interview runs, which the builder shows as Estimated interview length.

• Express: no follow-ups. Each answer moves the interview to the next item.
• Quick: one follow-up on every item.
• Balanced: one follow-up on every item, and a second when the answer is rich.
• Deep: at least two follow-ups on every item, and three or four on rich threads.

At every depth except Express, the agent leaves an item without its follow-ups only when the participant is clearly disengaged. When an answer doesn’t yet address the item, for example “fine” to “Can you describe your last order?”, the agent can ask up to two more times per item to get a usable answer. These prompts don’t count toward the item’s follow-ups. On Express, and on items set to No follow-ups, the agent moves on instead. Each item can override the study depth with its own Follow-up depth, and can carry Follow-up instructions that tell the agent where to dig. Write your interview guide shows how to set both.

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