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What is a Survey?

A survey in Panel Pro is a structured set of questions that you design and send to panelists. Surveys serve many purposes — screening potential study participants, profiling panelists for future research, collecting feedback on products or experiences, or gathering data that powers your segments. Surveys are sent to targeted audiences through distributions, which control who receives the survey, how many people receive it, and when it goes out. Once responses come in, the data flows directly into your questions library and can be used for segmentation, candidate sourcing, and more.

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Survey Lifecycle

Every survey moves through a simple lifecycle:

• Draft — The survey is being designed and is not yet available to panelists. You can freely edit questions, add blocks, and configure settings while in draft.
• Published — The survey is live and can be distributed to panelists. Published surveys use a versioning system, so you can make updates to a published survey without affecting responses already collected. Each time you publish changes, a new version is created.
• Archived — The survey is no longer active. Archived surveys retain all their response data but can no longer receive new distributions.

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The Survey Designer

The survey designer is a block-based editor with a three-panel layout: a block list on the left showing your survey structure, an editor in the center for configuring the selected block, and a settings panel on the right for block-level options like conditions. You build surveys by adding blocks to your block list. There are four categories of blocks: question blocks, action blocks, container blocks, and special blocks. All question blocks share a few common settings: a title (the question prompt), an optional body (extended text below the title), a required toggle, and a button text override. Beyond these, each block type has its own specific settings.

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Question Blocks

Question blocks collect responses from panelists.

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Text

Open-ended text responses for short answers or long-form writing.

• Multiline — Switch between a single-line input and a larger textarea
• Character limits — Set a minimum and/or maximum character count
• Placeholder — Hint text shown inside the input before the respondent types
• Prefix / Suffix — Text displayed before or after the input (e.g., ”$” prefix or “years” suffix)
• Compact input — Clamp the input width to match the placeholder width
• Prevent copy/paste — Disable cut, copy, and paste on the input to encourage original responses
• PII detection — Detect personally identifiable information in responses. Can be set to Prevent (block submission) or Redact (automatically remove PII from the response)
• Sentiment detection — Analyze the sentiment of the response
• Relevance detection — Check whether the response is relevant to the question. Can be set to Enforce (require a relevant response) or Record (flag but allow submission). You can optionally point it at another block for context.

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Number

Numeric input for collecting quantities, ratings, or measurements.

• Min / Max value — Constrain the accepted range
• Decimal points — Allow 1–5 decimal places for precision
• Input stepper — Show increment/decrement buttons on the input
• Placeholder — Hint text shown inside the input
• Prefix / Suffix — Text displayed before or after the input (e.g., ”$” or “lbs”)
• Compact input — Clamp the input width to match the placeholder width
• Prevent copy/paste — Disable cut, copy, and paste on the input

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Multiple Choice

Single-select or multi-select questions with a list of choices.

• Multiselect — Allow respondents to select more than one choice
• Choice limits — When multiselect is enabled, set the minimum and/or maximum number of choices a respondent can select
• Randomize choices — Randomize the display order of choices. Individual choices can be pinned to stay in place.
• Exclusive choice — Mark a choice as exclusive so that selecting it deselects all others (e.g., “None of the above”)
• Text entry — Allow a choice to include a free-text input for additional detail (e.g., “Other: ___”)
• Carry choices forward — Carry over choices from a previous multiple choice question. You can carry forward only the selected choices, only the unselected choices, or all choices.
• Choice eligibility — Mark individual choices with an eligibility impact: must-select (required for qualification), ineligible (triggers disqualification), flex (marks as maybe), or suspicious (flags for review)
• End survey when disqualified — If a respondent’s choice triggers disqualification, immediately route them to a survey ending

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Matrix

Grid-style questions with rows (statements) and columns (choices).

• Multiselect — Allow respondents to select more than one choice per statement
• Choice limits — When multiselect is enabled, set the minimum and/or maximum choices per statement
• Randomize choices — Randomize the display order of columns
• Randomize statements — Randomize the display order of rows. Individual choices and statements can be pinned to stay in place.
• Exclusive choice — Mark a column choice as exclusive
• Carry choices forward — Carry over columns from a previous question (selected, unselected, or all)
• Carry statements forward — Carry over rows from a previous question (selected, unselected, or all)
• Statement-level eligibility — Set eligibility impacts per statement/choice combination for fine-grained screening
• End survey when disqualified — Immediately route disqualified respondents to a survey ending

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Upload

File uploads from the respondent, including images, videos, audio, documents, and spreadsheets. Uploads are available in the Respondent Viewer and in exports.

• File types — Choose which file types to accept: images, videos, audio, documents, spreadsheets, or any combination
• Multiple files — Allow the respondent to upload more than one file
• File limits — Set a minimum and/or maximum number of files when multiple uploads are enabled

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Action Blocks

Action blocks control the flow of the survey and apply logic based on a respondent’s path. Action blocks are typically paired with conditions so they only fire when specific criteria are met.

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Disqualify

Marks the respondent as disqualified and records a reason. Available reasons: Ineligible, Scammer, Poor Quality, or Other. You can optionally add eligibility notes for additional context. See Eligibility Criteria for more detail.

• End survey — Immediately route the respondent to a survey ending after disqualification

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Flex

Marks the respondent with a “flex” eligibility state, indicating they are a maybe. Useful when you want to flag someone for manual review rather than outright disqualifying them. You can optionally add eligibility notes for context.

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Jump

Skips the respondent ahead to a specific block later in the survey. You select a destination block and the respondent jumps directly to it, skipping everything in between.

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Label

Tags the respondent with one or more labels. Labels can be used later for study session matching and other workflows. You can apply multiple labels with a single Label block.

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Redirect

Sends the respondent to an external URL. Useful for integrating with third-party tools or sending respondents to an external page after the survey.

• Attach respondent ID — Append the respondent’s ID as a query parameter
• Attach panelist ID — Append the panelist’s ID as a query parameter
• Attach labels — Append the respondent’s labels as a query parameter

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Container Blocks

Container blocks organize and group other blocks.

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Section

Groups blocks together into a logical section. Sections can contain any other block types.

• Header text — A sticky header that displays across the section as the respondent progresses through it
• Randomize blocks — Randomize the order of blocks within the section

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Survey Ending

Defines a custom ending experience for respondents. You can create multiple survey endings and route different respondents to different endings based on their path through the survey (e.g., a different ending for qualified vs. disqualified respondents).

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Special Blocks

Special blocks serve specific purposes outside of collecting question responses.

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Statement

Displays text to the respondent without collecting a response. Use statements for introductions, instructions, transition messages, or any content you want the respondent to read before continuing. You can customize the button text (defaults to “Continue”).

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Legal

Purpose-built for consent agreements, NDAs, and other legal documents. When a respondent encounters a Legal block, they must authenticate via multi-factor authentication (MFA) before they can consent. See Prerequisite Surveys for how Legal blocks are used in studies.

• Attach document — Upload a document (e.g., an NDA PDF) that the respondent must review
• Disqualify on disagree — Automatically disqualify respondents who decline the agreement
• End survey on disqualification — Route disqualified respondents to a survey ending immediately

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Survey Reference

Embeds an entire survey within the current survey. The referenced survey’s blocks are presented to the respondent inline. This is useful when you have a standard set of profiling questions that you want to reuse across multiple surveys without duplicating them.

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Conditions & Display Logic

Any block in the survey can have a condition attached to it. In the survey designer, this is referred to as Display Logic — it controls when a block is displayed to (or executed for) the respondent. If the condition is not met, the block is skipped entirely. Conditions can reference responses from any previous block in the survey — specific choices selected, numeric values, eligibility states, and more. This makes it possible to build branching, dynamic surveys that adapt to each respondent’s answers. Here are some common examples of how display logic is used:

• Follow-up questions — Ask “Which features do you use?” only if the respondent answered “Yes” to “Do you use Product X?”
• Multi-condition disqualification — Attach a Disqualify block that evaluates multiple conditions together — for example, disqualify respondents who selected “No” to product usage and have less than 2 years of experience. For simple single-question screening, use choice eligibility directly on the question instead.
• Conditional labeling — Apply a “power-user” label only if the respondent selected 5 or more features in a previous multiple choice question
• Branching sections — Show an entire section of questions about mobile development only if the respondent indicated they work on mobile apps
• Skip logic — Use a Jump block with a condition to skip respondents past irrelevant questions based on their role or experience level

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Eligibility Criteria

When a panelist takes your survey, they move through a series of eligibility states based on the action blocks they encounter. Every respondent starts as Unknown and their state can change as they progress through the survey. The three eligibility states are:

• Qualified — The respondent meets your criteria. A respondent who completes the survey without being disqualified or flexed is considered qualified.
• Disqualified — The respondent does not meet your criteria. Triggered by a Disqualify block or choice eligibility settings.
• Flex — The respondent is a “maybe.” Triggered by a Flex block. Useful when you want to flag someone for manual review.

Precedence matters when a respondent encounters multiple action blocks: Disqualified > Qualified > Flex. If a respondent hits both a Flex block and a Disqualify block during their survey, they end up Disqualified.

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Choice Eligibility

Multiple Choice and Matrix questions can apply eligibility directly on individual choices, without needing a separate Disqualify or Flex block. You can mark each choice with an eligibility impact:

• Must-select — At least one choice with this marking must be selected to stay qualified (not all of them — just one is enough)
• Flex — Selecting this choice marks the respondent as a maybe
• Ineligible — Selecting this choice disqualifies the respondent

How these work depends on whether the question is single-select or multi-select:

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Single-Select

In a single-select question, the respondent picks exactly one choice. If any choice is marked as must-select, then every other choice that isn’t marked as must-select or flex becomes an implicit disqualifier. This means the respondent must pick one of your must-select choices to stay qualified — any other selection disqualifies them. Because of this behavior, single-select questions cannot combine must-select and ineligible markings on the same question. There’s no need to — if must-select choices exist, everything else already disqualifies.

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Multi-Select

In a multi-select question, the respondent can select multiple choices. The rules are more flexible because the respondent isn’t limited to one choice:

• If any ineligible choice is selected, the respondent is disqualified — regardless of what else they selected
• If must-select choices exist but the respondent didn’t select at least one of them (and didn’t select any flex choices either), the respondent is disqualified
• If only flex choices were selected (and no must-select choices), the respondent is marked as flex

Multi-select questions can combine must-select and ineligible markings because a respondent can select a must-select choice while avoiding ineligible ones.

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The Disqualify Block

The Disqualify block removes a respondent from eligibility and records a reason. Available reasons include:

• Ineligible — The respondent doesn’t meet your profile requirements
• Scammer — The respondent appears to be a bad actor
• Poor Quality — The respondent’s answers are low quality or incoherent

Pair Disqualify blocks with conditions to automatically screen out respondents based on their answers. For example, if your research requires people who use a specific product, add a Disqualify block with an “Ineligible” reason conditioned on the respondent answering “No” to “Do you use Product X?”

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End Survey When Disqualified

Enable the End Survey When Disqualified setting in a question’s settings to immediately terminate the survey for any respondent who is disqualified at that point. Instead of continuing through the remaining questions, the disqualified respondent is routed to a survey ending and exits right away. This is a cost-saving measure — since panelists are paid per question, ending the survey early for disqualified respondents means they answer fewer questions and the cost per disqualified respondent is lower.

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Survey Gratuity

Panelists are paid for every survey they take. Gratuity is calculated per question based on the estimated time to complete each question. We value participants’ time, which is why everyone who takes a survey gets paid — even respondents who are ultimately disqualified. As a rough guide, each respondent costs about $1 per minute of estimated completion time, with a minimum cost of $0.50 per respondent. For example, consider a 10-minute screening survey with disqualification checkpoints along the way:

• A respondent who is disqualified after 1 minute of questions costs roughly $1
• A respondent who is disqualified halfway through at 5 minutes costs roughly $5
• A respondent who completes the full 10-minute survey costs roughly $10

Early termination via “End Survey When Disqualified” reduces your costs because disqualified respondents answer fewer questions before exiting. If you place your screening questions up front, most disqualified respondents will exit in the first minute or two — keeping the per-respondent cost low while still compensating participants fairly for their time. The cost estimate on your distribution settings will reflect this.

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Distributing a Survey

Once your survey is published, you send it to panelists through distributions. A distribution defines your target audience (using a segment or ad-hoc conditions), how many responses you want, and how the survey should be batched and delivered. For a detailed walkthrough of the distribution workflow, see the Survey Panelists use case. For information on how distributions intersect with segments and panels, see Segments and Panels.