Best Tip/Trick for Qualtrics Qubie? | XM Community

Best Tip/Trick for Qualtrics Qubie?

  • 29 November 2017
  • 22 replies
  • 161 views

Userlevel 4
Badge +2
What's your best tip/trick for a Qualtrics Qubie (the thing you wish you knew from the get-go or the aha moment you had about something little)?

22 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +7
If you have logic to show questions that will be similar with minor differences, and the questions shown are their own block, use branches in survey flow rather than adding display logic to each question individually.

Also, don't be afraid of survey flow, it is daunting at first, but will also be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. In my opinion use of survey flow is one of the easiest ways to tell a newcomer from someone experienced.
Userlevel 4
Badge +2
@AnthonyR - That's a great tip!

And oh goodness yes... the survey flow was intimidating at first. Coming from a platform where quotas and terms were treated in the same way as questions (an element you add into the survey itself), this was definitely a BIIIIIG change.

That being said, now that I have a handle on how it works, I like the separation — it gives you more options and more control!
Userlevel 5
Badge +7
One tip I always give my users is to use the "Edit Multiple" feature for adding answer choices - saves so much time!
Userlevel 4
Badge +2
> @lillianc said:
> One tip I always give my users is to use the "Edit Multiple" feature for adding answer choices - saves so much time!

Yes! Agree!
Userlevel 6
Badge +7
I almost hate to say it, but I think taking the trouble to call Q Support every time you aren't sure you've figured out the best way to do something is worthwhile. Otherwise you'll sometimes discover months later that you weren't doing something optimally. (And you can also recommend they add your feature request for consideration, if there isn't a better way.)

Perhaps the new Community will accomplish part of this!
Userlevel 5
Badge +10
@RachelTHREE I think for me the biggest thing to do is to sit down and visualize _how_you want to be able to see your data on the back end. This can inform your survey setup in radical ways.

I had a convoluted survey I did about office shirts (people got to pick the size and color for three shirts with three different shirt styles) for about 60 people. I didn't think ahead about how I'd need to process the data to actually produce the order, nor did I think about the fact that people would change their mind and want to go back to the survey and change their answers.

To put it bluntly: it was a mess. I had one person go in 5 different times and give 5 different answers for pretty much their entire order. I ended up having to call lots of people to figure out what they _really_ wanted. UGH. Lesson learned! 😃 😎
Userlevel 4
Badge +2
@AnneF agreed about the Q support! I would let any new person know that the support as actually very good and provides great information, I think for someone who doesn't know, they may be apprehensive about reaching out.
Userlevel 5
Badge +9
> @AnneF said:
> I almost hate to say it, but I think taking the trouble to call Q Support every time you aren't sure you've figured out the best way to do something is worthwhile. Otherwise you'll sometimes discover months later that you weren't doing something optimally. (And you can also recommend they add your feature request for consideration, if there isn't a better way.)
>
> Perhaps the new Community will accomplish part of this!

I agree on both points. I always tell newbies to make sure they don't sit and brew too long over something. Call support. They are always helpful and in the long run it saves so much time.
Userlevel 4
Badge +2
I guess I should post mine... 😃

Embedded data is your friend!

Once I realized I could bucket people in my survey flow with branch logic and embedded data and then turn around and use the embedded data to create nice and neat quotas (ones where you just saw the name rather than all the question logic), I was a very happy camper.
Userlevel 1
Badge +3
I have a set of "principles" and "rules" I promote for better surveys. Here are a few:
1. Never ask a question if you know the answer (or can get the data elsewhere)
2. Use dropdowns rather than fill-ins whenever possible - removes spelling errors and variations that make data analysis difficult on the back-end
3. when working with workflow and passing information in to your form/survey, copy and paste - don't type it (I don't know how many times when things didn't work it was because of capitilization or spelling errors between the variable name - header in csv - and the use in Survey Flow)
4. use the text entry "form" type to make your survey/form "feel" shorter

Marty
Badge +1
I love how easy it is to preview surveys while I'm working on them. It's simple to send the preview link around to a few colleagues to have additional sets of eyes on the survey before you actually launch.
Once you know your validation is set up correctly, you can set your preview to "Ignore Validation" and breeze through required questions, which is so helpful when validation is NOT what you're trying to review.

I also appreciate the Qualtrics saves preview responses and that they are super easy to identify and delete!
Userlevel 4
Badge +2
@macbridel YES! I also love the option to view both a mobile version and a desktop version on my screen. Though I still typically have someone else test on mobile, it gives me a head start on sifting through mobile UX issues prior to testing on mobile.
If you are working in a survey for a decent amount of time Command "s" to save your changes. Also, if you are working the survey flow for a long period of time, save and go out/back in every so often, sometimes it can time out and you lose all your work!
Userlevel 1
Think about any groupings of data that you may need at the analysis stage (e.g. grouping an age variable etc., or combining responses from multiple questions to group respondents) and build these into the survey flow as embedded data. Qualtrics works much better with this kind of embedded data than fields created in the data later.... and its best practice to think about your analysis before you send your survey out!
Building on what others have suggested around testing surveys. Do a dry run of your analysis process before you launch with the data you gather from your pilot testers. Don't be that person who collects their first 50 participants before realising they forgot a key question or even scale.
Recode is your friend. If you've coded your data incorrectly and you realise after the fact, you can always go back and recode the responses in your survey (or change your question labels) and then re-export your data. Qualtrics will export your old data using the new values.
Userlevel 6
Badge +45
I wish I'd known sooner that Qualtrics has a library of commonly used questions that you can import and use in your surveys--from dates to demographics, this saved a lot of time for me once I figured it out.
Userlevel 5
Badge +12
When copying from word or anywhere make sure you hit remove formatting to make sure that all fonts are the same and size. I have seen many surveys that have many fonts and sizes.
Userlevel 5
Badge +12
Maker sure you look at the choice values are because no one looks at that until they are trying do stats and then find numbers are not right.
Userlevel 5
Badge +12
> @VirginiaM said:
> I wish I'd known sooner that Qualtrics has a library of commonly used questions that you can import and use in your surveys--from dates to demographics, this saved a lot of time for me once I figured it out.

Make sure you look at the QID if you use surveys from the library and use imbedded questions in the invite. Learned the hard way that there QID are not the same as other survey so half the people were able answer the survey.
Userlevel 4
Badge +5
One of the best tricks I've learned as a fairly new Qualtrics user is using survey flow instead of lots of display logic. I remember my first few projects and trying to get all of the logic in the editor... What a mess! o_0 Learning to appropriately use Embedded data and branches has certainly brought me a long way. But this Qubie has a long way to go! 😑
Userlevel 3
Badge +11
Survey flow is easier when you realize you can have the same block show up in multiple locations - it isn't limited to a single appearance.

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