Idea Studies
Use Studies to learn throughout an initiative
Studies let a product team frame one decision, show a screen, prototype, concept, or short walkthrough, and keep the resulting evidence connected as work moves from discovery through validation.
Use a study when the team is close enough to show something, but early enough that customer judgment can still change the plan. Good studies are short: one screen, one flow, one decision, or a few steps that ask for the smallest useful signal.
A study can start from an idea or directly from an initiative. It can also link additional work from ideas, opportunities, initiatives, and product features. These are flexible associations, not a parent-child hierarchy.
They are separate from the Ideas Portal. A portal can help with customer identity or distribution in some workspaces, but a study is a targeted experiment around one decision, not a customer voting backlog.
The basic loop is: define the decision and participants, connect the relevant linked work, draft the participant journey, publish it, view responses, and record what the team decided. AI can summarize the evidence, but it does not invent product impact.
A completed study keeps the screen, question, target area, response count, and answer summary together before the idea moves into planning.
When to use a study
Use a study for questions like:
- Where would users click first?
- Which option do users prefer?
- What is confusing on this screen?
- Does this plan match what customers thought they were getting?
- Should this idea move forward, change shape, or stop?
Do not use a study for broad intake or ongoing voting. If customers need to submit or vote on ideas over time, use the Ideas Portal.
Build a study
Create a study from the New menu, or open an idea or initiative and use its Studies workspace. The draft separates the internal study goal from the participant-facing journey.
A useful draft usually has:
- a clear internal study name
- a study goal with participants, decision, and learning question
- optional welcome and thank-you pages with their own participant-facing copy
- one or more participant-facing steps
- an image, screenshot, or prototype frame when the question is visual
- an optional captioned YouTube, Vimeo, or Loom walkthrough for show-and-ask research
- a heatmap target area if you need to know whether users found the intended action
- a text, single-choice, or ranking question when you need a reason or preference
- an always-on or answer-specific follow-up when a structured answer needs explanation
- an optional end-of-study clarity and improvement check
New rankings default to an unranked, randomized choice pool and require participants to confirm the order they built. This reduces anchoring without relying on drag and drop.
Keep the study narrow. A 90-second answer is often better than a survey that tries to settle every product debate at once.
Draft setup keeps the goal, participant steps, prototype image, questions, and target areas in one idea-level workspace.
Connect linked work
Use Linked work inside the study to attach the ideas, initiatives, opportunities, and product features that should inform it.
Zentrik can propose related work from the study goal, but every proposal stays in a review queue until a product manager attaches or dismisses it. Dismissed links are remembered so they are not immediately proposed again. You can also search the workspace and attach work manually.
A study always keeps at least one linked work item. Adding or removing another link does not move the study, duplicate responses, or rewrite its findings.
Preview and publish
Preview the study before you publish it. Check the exact screen, question text, answer options, target areas, and step order.
Draft studies can be edited. Published study content is intentionally locked so responses stay comparable. If the prompt changes materially, clone the study or create a new one instead of editing live data.
Collect voice answers
Participants can answer open-text questions by typing or by selecting Speak inside the answer field. Voice is optional: the question and submission flow work the same way for participants who prefer to type.
The participant controls when recording starts and stops. While recording, the control shows elapsed time and clear actions to discard or finish. Zentrik then places the transcript in the normal answer field so the participant can review, edit, or replace it before submitting the study. In results, Transcribed from voice identifies how the answer began without changing how researchers read or use it.
Zentrik does not retain the audio recording after it is sent for transcription. The submitted response contains the reviewed text, not an audio attachment. Recordings stop automatically after two minutes to keep answers focused and uploads bounded.
If microphone access is denied, recording is unavailable, or transcription fails, the participant can retry or type the answer without losing the rest of the study. Voice answers currently apply to open-text questions; choice and ranking questions keep their existing interaction.
Review results
Results have three useful levels:
- Summary shows response count, clicks, target-area performance, and answer distributions.
- Responses preserves participant, account, answer, and notes context when available.
- Conclusions turns the evidence into a reviewable learning report.
For heatmap steps, look at where users clicked and whether they found the intended area. For question steps, read the answers before reducing the result to a count. The useful output is not just a chart; it is a better decision about the idea.
Study responses stay tied to participant, account, and answer context so the decision can move forward with traceable evidence.
Record product impact
Study evidence cannot prove that the team changed direction. On an initiative, use Record impact to state what the product team actually decided:
- confirmed the current direction
- changed scope or direction
- raised a risk
- decided that no change was needed
- needs a follow-up study before deciding
The initiative learning summary uses these human records for product impact. If none exists, Zentrik says No direction change has been recorded rather than inferring a pivot from responses or generated conclusions.
Carry evidence forward
After responses arrive, generate or write conclusions on the study, then record the product decision on the initiative when one has been made.
Treat generated conclusions as a draft for the product team to review. Conclusions should summarize the evidence and its limits; the separate product-impact record states what changed.
The next step should be explicit. Common outcomes are:
- refine the idea
- link the study to an opportunity
- create or update an initiative
- move the decision into a planning review
- close the idea if the evidence argues against it
The goal is to keep customer intent attached while the work moves from learning into shaping, planning, and delivery.
The Conclusions view turns the study into a reviewable decision report before evidence gets carried into the next product object.
Troubleshooting
These items are about workflow and expectations in the product, not a broken OAuth client. If something contradicts what you see in your workspace, note your workspace name and the screen, then contact us.
Publish is blocked
Check every step. Visual heatmap steps need an image. Question steps need question text, and option-based questions need at least two options.
The target area is not useful
Use target areas only when there is an intended action. If the goal is broad comprehension or preference, ask a question instead.
The study has no responses
Confirm that the study is published, the share link is available for your workspace, and the right participant path is configured. Then send it to a smaller, more relevant segment before widening the audience.
A participant cannot record a voice answer
Confirm that the browser has microphone permission. The participant can allow access and retry, record again, or type instead. A failed recording does not block the rest of the study.
The evidence is not changing the plan
Write the decision the study was meant to inform. If the answer does not map to an idea, opportunity, or initiative, the study may be too broad.