Field Managers: running your first IntelliSurvey project

Welcome to the Field Manager quick start guide. This walk through covers each step of a project from the perspective of fielding. For a more general new user perspective, refer to the Resources for new IntelliSurvey users.

Getting ready

Finding your project

For your first login, you will receive an email invitation to the server. Click on the link and set up your password. The link is only active for a limited amount of time (usually 48 hours), make sure to click soon enough to avoid having to request a resend.
You might receive a link to the specific project. In which case, you can follow the link directly.
Logging into your server will take you to the “Home” (also called “Surveys”) page. This page will list all the projects you have access to. By default, they are filtered on the last 30 days (remember to change this if you’re looking for an old project). We recommend you “favorite” your live projects: click the star icon on the left, and they will be accessible in the top tiles of this screen as a shortcut.
Double click on the project you want to review. The left bar helps you navigate through the different sections of the portal, it’s organized in sections: Build, Field, Analyze, Settings. You can have several tabs open with the same project if you’d like.

Understanding the questionnaire content

At any point in time, you can access the latest questionnaire programmed (helpful if your client has not updated their version). Go to Build > Editor > IntelliBuilder. From here you will have an online view of the questionnaire content. You can also download the instrument in Word (top right), with the comment history or without.
If you cannot find IntelliBuilder in the menu, ask your programmer to give you IntelliBuilder Wording Editor rights.

Testing the link

Under Build > Testing, you will find all the testing options. 
We recommend using the advanced test mode features (Build > Testing > Test Survey) which opens in a new tab). By default, this shows the question number so you can track easier where you’re at (live respondents will not see them). The tools in the left side panel are very handy. In particular:

•  Test ID: shown in the top-left corner under the logo or at the end your URL (e.g. TEST20011).
• Search: you can jump around in the survey.
• Navigating terminations: they appear under “Termination Logic” for each page. If you hit a termination unintentionally, you can click the “Clear Term Logic” button to come back to the page where the termination happened.
• “Leave tester feedback” in the top right corner will create both a log and an IntelliBuilder comment that your programmer can fix.

Advanced test mode requires log-in. We suggest you create logins for your client to test with the tools (Settings > Survey Users > Add). Researcher is a good primary role for clients. 
You can also test without logins with the other test modes that you can Find under Build > Testing > Survey Links. 
Whichever testing mode you pick, your test IDs will:

• automatically be cleared from reports upon changing the project stage from “Build” to “Field” in the Field > Field Overview section (they are hidden but the data is still stored in the system if you need them later);
• punch quotas and reports while the project is in Build phase (pass through variables are only punched if the link has them – in particular: panel and country, you can add them manually).

Setting up vendors

The “panel applet” which is located under Field > Audiences > Panels automates a lot of the vendor set up which might be manual on other survey platforms. Most sample sources are already pre-set up. If you cannot find a vendor, reach out to our support team (click “Get Help” at the top of this page). 

Adding vendors

In the panel applet, select your sample vendor(s) from the drop down (you can type in to find them faster).
“Display As” field lets you change how vendors name will appear in the portal for lower permission users – it can be useful to hide the vendor list from your clients.

Finding entry links

We call “entry links” the links that you / your vendors will send to respondent to give them the survey.
Under Field > Audiences > Panels, use the “Add New Panel” search bar to add your vendors for this project.
Entry links can be copied all at once with the buttons on the top right. You can also review them individually by expanding fields with the arrow on the left.

Setting up redirects

Once you’ve added your vendors in the panel applet, the redirects are built in. You can check them by clicking on “Review and edit panel return links” with the Action icons on the right of every panel line.
If there’s no (i) information icon on the left of the vendor name, you don’t need to do anything, you’re good to go.
If there is an (i) information icon, it means that this vendor changes their redirect links for each project with one or more parameters. Click on (i) to review what parameter you need (typically a project code). Collect it from the vendor and edit the links appropriately with “Review and edit panel return links” on the right of the panel line.

Defining custom end messages

This applies in the absence of redirect (example the sample comes from a client database). In the IntelliSurvey platform, setting up custom end messages is usually handled by programmers (“Maker” role on the project). You can reach out to our support team for help.

Vendors testing

Sample vendor will typically want to test on the live link for at least a complete and a terminate. They may also request the latest questionnaire (reminder: you can download it from IntelliBuilder).
Set your survey stage to “Live” in Field > Fielding Overview using the change Stage Button.
When using CheatSweep cookie deduplication (“dedupe”), ask your programmer to temporarily allow duplicates during vendor testing or tell your vendors to test using an incognito browser clearing their cookies between each test.
You can check that test IDs are punching correctly in Analyze > Reports > Response in the right hand-side Builder section, remove Completed to see All Records. You can click ID and paste the vendor-shared IDs in the filter box to only see the relevant ones. You can also pick a couple fields individually to simplify your view (usually: status [C for complete, T for terminates], panel are the main field of interest).

Clearing vendor test data

Under Analyze > Data Management > Mark As Test, paste your IDs in the box and Click Next (top right). This data is not lost but it will be removed from quotas, reports, and data exports by default. 
Note: if your project includes sending your vendors a batch of unique links (and only in this case), you might want to fully delete their testing records (instead of marking them as test data) so the same ID could be used again by a real respondent (preventing user error from some vendors who don’t remember which IDs they used for testing and reuse them). 
After this, you’re ready for your soft launch.

Checking soft launch data

The Field > Fielding Overview provides a good summary of critical field information, all in one place:

• Incidence and length of interview: in the top bar.
• Termination report: this automatically generated and presented in the termination tile.
• Status tab: shows you where all respondents sit. P ‘In Progress’ gives you a sense of how much live traffic you currently have.

We also recommend that you give Field > Quotas a quick review to ensure everything is coming as expected at this stage.
You can also run a deeper review, especially if your programmer does not: the tabs under Field > Survey performance present a data scan and detailed reports. You can also review the Reports > Frequency (picking Fields=Survey fields) for a quick results overview). 

Managing quotas

In Field > Quotas, you will find all the quotas:

• At the top: max manager (total cap) and panel quotas which come by default.
• Below: all the project quotas that have been programmed in the survey.

You can set your caps manually in the blue fields, or use the download/upload function at the top. The download function can also be used if you’re keeping an external project file (e.g. calculating projections for the full sample or inferred quotas in a rep stage).
You can also review the change history (top right). This is useful when several field managers cooperate on the same project.

Cleaning data

We suggest creating one combined or several data export. Go to Analyze > Export Survey Data. 
Tip: in advanced options (click the arrow to see them), select “show response text for close ended questions” and “include description row (XLSX)”. These will give you a labelled Excel export (faster to read than codes).
The select Field option lets you pick what you will see:

•  Survey Fields are seen to the respondents or structural survey elements.
• Record data, Appendix, System Fields, Managers only fields gather recodes, quotas, device captured data, respondent behavior data, etc.

Reviewing coded flags

During programming, a quality flag checklist can be created. Check with your programmer if they have and what is the variable name. In export Select Field: Individually, select the corresponding variable.

Reviewing other survey data

If the flags have not been created for you, download the entire dataset: in export, Select Field: Survey fields. Build your check logic in Excel (or another analytics software by changing the File type).

Reviewing CheatSweep data

If you’ve run the IntelliSurvey algorithmic fraud detection during field, you will find the CheatSweep variable in the CheatSweep fields chapter. You will find the total score (csp – probability this respondent is fraud), reasons explaining the score (cs_bad, cs_good) and more details (like table variance - t_var, or the number of times the survey was answered by the same IP - ip_count), Even without CheatSweep you can also review device data chapter.

Reviewing open-end answers

To export open ends only, Select Field: By Field type= Open text.

Reviewing length of interview

The system field “Elapsed” gives you the survey response time in seconds. You can check for the Median in Reports > Frequency, within the Builder on the left, select: Fields: elapsed. This will give you the distribution key metrics.
You can also export each respondent value in Excel (in exports, Select Field: Individually: elapsed).

Removing bad responses

Once you’ve decided which responses fail quality checks and should be excluded, go to Analyze > Data Management > Expunge Records: paste the IDs in the box. You will see a counter telling you how many IDs are concerned – this is a good check. Click Next (top right), tick the Confirm box (bottom), Click Expunge Records (top right). This will remove the respondent from the Completes set – no longer counted in quotas, no longer in the default reports/ exports. Their data is still registered and their status can be reverted back to complete if needed later. 

Daily field management

In addition to cleaning data and managing quotas, the portal gives you handy field reporting tools. In particular:

• Field > Fielding Overview > Metrics: gives you a quick summary of the entire project, you can rearrange the tiles to best suit your needs.
• Field > Fielding Overview > Summary: gives you a snapshot of what happened in the last 24 hours.
• Analyze > Reports: if you save a report, you can schedule it to be emailed to yourself, your colleagues, your vendors, your clients. Use “Schedule email” at the top of the Deliverables tab.

Reporting

In the Analyze > Reports, you can build custom reports and give access to your clients, refer to the Reporting Guide for more details.