Write a screener

Overview

A screener is a short set of questions used to check whether a participant is the right fit for your study, before they're allowed into it. It's shown at the very start, before your main questions.

Why screeners are used

• To find the right people — a screener confirms someone actually matches who you're looking for, based on things like their age, location, behaviour, or experience
• To save time — filtering out the wrong participants early means you don't collect study data from people who were never a fit in the first place
• To prevent guessing — some participants may try to guess the "correct" answer just to get into a study, especially if there's an incentive involved. A well-written screener makes this harder to do

What a screener typically checks

• Demographics — age, location, income, job title, and similar basic facts
• Behaviour — how often someone uses a product, or their past purchasing habits
• Experience — whether someone is familiar with a brand, or has a specific skill or background

How this works in Decode

A screener question is a Multiple Choice block with the Screening Question setting turned on, found under Conditions in the block's Configure panel.

Once turned on, mark the correct answer, or answers, by checking the box next to them. Anyone who selects a marked answer qualifies to continue; anyone who doesn't is filtered out.

If you also turn on Multiple Selection, letting participants pick more than one answer, you'll see an extra setting to define how they qualify:

• Exact — the participant must select precisely the answers you've marked, no more, no fewer
• At Least — the participant needs to select a minimum number of the marked answers, but not necessarily all of them

Writing good screener questions

Only ask what you need to decide whether someone qualifies. Anything beyond that belongs in your main study.

Ask about something specific and recent rather than vague. "Have you bought this product in the last 2 weeks?" gives a clearer answer than "Do you buy this product often?", since people aren't always accurate judges of their own habits.

If a question is likely to disqualify someone, ask it early, so they find out quickly rather than after several questions.

Avoid making the qualifying answer obvious. If it's easy to guess which answer gets someone in, list a few realistic-sounding options instead of one that clearly stands out.

Before you publish

Check that every answer option is routed correctly, forward into the study or to the Screenout Page. An answer left unrouted can let in the wrong participant, or turn away someone who should have qualified.

What to do next

See Common screening pitfalls for mistakes worth checking for before you publish.