Run your first study
End-to-end walkthrough: from a blank study to your first analyzed interview, in about 15 minutes of clicking plus however long recruiting takes.
This walks you from a blank study to one finished interview you can analyze.
Before you start
You'll need:
- A Strella account
- A research question or topic
- 10 minutes to author the study, plus a few hours to a few days for participants to take the interview
Steps
- Create a project
From your Projects list, click New project and give it a name.
- Start with the setup chat (optional but recommended)
In the AI-guided setup, Strella opens a chat. Tell the chat what you want to learn, who the participants are, and what you want to study in the interview. It drafts a screener and question guide for you.
Prefer to build it yourself? Click Skip setup in the chat to open Build with empty drafts and create the study by hand.
- Check your research objectives
The AI-guided setup drafts your research objectives: the 2 to 5 things you want to learn. The AI analyst uses these to organize themes later, so make them specific: "Understand which pricing tier B2B buyers consider first" beats "learn about pricing." Refine them anytime in Settings → Research objectives.
- Build the screener and question guide
In Build, the left panel shows your steps. Click + Add element to add a screener question (above the divider) or an interview step (below it).
For the screener, keep it short: 4 to 8 questions usually does it. For the interview, drop in open questions and tasks the AI will ask in order.
- Configure the moderator (optional)
Open Settings → AI moderator to customize Strella's voice. Defaults work for most studies.
- Publish
Click Publish in the top right of Build. Strella runs final checks and opens the study to participants. Publish before you recruit: the screener and guide need to be live before participants can take them.
- Pick how to recruit
Go to Recruit. Hire from one of Strella's integrated panels, or bring your own participants with a share link.
- Watch the first interview
Once a participant finishes, Results → Interviews shows the recording. Open it, watch the call, read the transcript, and add notes.
- Browse the analysis
After a handful of interviews, Results → Analysis has themes grouped by objective and by question. Click any quote to jump to the moment in the call.
You've shipped a real study. The next interviews come in without any work from you, and analysis updates as they complete.
Tips
- Use the Preview button in Build before publishing: you can take the interview yourself in 5 minutes and feel exactly what participants will feel.
- Read your questions aloud before publishing. If one feels too long or too leading when you say it out loud, rewrite it, since reading them out is the fastest way to catch a question that won't land.