> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.panelpro.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Panels

> Build curated audiences for your research that are specific to your profile needs.

# What is a Panel?

A panel in Panel Pro is not a panel in the traditional sense — it's not a pool of thousands of people that you screen and recruit from. Rather, a panel is a **curated list of people** that you build and manage yourself to meet your specific profile needs.

Think of panels like a reusable audience. Once you've built a panel, you can use it as a target audience when distributing surveys, or source candidates into a study directly from it.

# Creating a Panel

Navigate to the **Panels** page and click `+ Create Panel`. Give your panel a name and description and you're done. From there, you'll start adding panelists to it.

## Adding Panelists

You can add panelists to a panel from pretty much anywhere in the platform. Whether you're browsing a segment, reviewing survey respondents, or looking at study candidates — click on any panelist to open the [Panelist Viewer](/clients/panelist-viewer). From the `...` menu in the top-right corner, select `Add to Panel...` and choose your panel.

<Note>
  Panelists are not notified when they're added to a panel, and they won't receive invites to surveys or studies just because they're in one. A panel is simply your curated list — what you do with it is up to you.
</Note>

# Using a Panel

## As a Target Audience for a Survey

*Let's say you've built a panel of people who use your product, and you want to survey them about their UI preferences. You have a survey ready to go and want to send it to 20 people from your panel.*

Navigate to your survey and click on `Distributions`. Click `+ Create Distribution` and under Target Audience, select `Panel Condition`. This adds a condition:

> Include panelists who belong to `any` of the panels `[Choose panels]`

Select your panel, set your target response count, and launch. You can also target panelists who **don't** belong to a panel by changing `any` to `none`.

## As a Source for Study Candidates

*Let's say you've profiled a set of panelists and added them to a panel called "Product Y Users." You're running a study on Product Y and want to schedule some of these people for sessions.*

Navigate to your study and click on `Candidates`. Click `Add Candidates`, select **Panel** as the source, and choose your panel. Set the number of candidates to pull in — try to keep it close to the number of participants you actually need — then click `Add Candidates`. The panelists are now candidates in your study, ready to be [reviewed, approved, and invited](/clients/studies#scheduling).

## As a Segment Condition

Panels can also be used as conditions when building [Segments](/clients/segments). For example, you can create a segment that includes (or excludes) panelists who belong to a specific panel, combining panel membership with other question-based conditions for more precise targeting.