Screener questions
Screener questions are the qualifying questions asked at the very start of a survey, before the story begins. Their job is to make sure the people who take your study actually belong to the audience you’re researching — and to politely screen out those who don’t. Screeners protect the quality of your data: a study about premium electric scooters is only as good as its guarantee that the respondents are genuine prospects, not random passers-by.
Where screeners sit in the respondent’s journey
Section titled “Where screeners sit in the respondent’s journey”Every respondent goes through a short pre-survey sequence before they reach the story-led scenes:
Screeners qualify, demographics profile, then the tailored survey begins.
What a screener does
Section titled “What a screener does”- Admits qualified respondents. If the answers match your criteria, the respondent proceeds to the demographics step and then the survey.
- Screens out the rest. If the answers fall outside your target, the respondent is ended out of the survey before they consume a full response — keeping your sample clean.
- Feeds your quality metrics. The proportion of people who pass is reported as the screener pass rate on the dashboard, so you can see how tightly your audience matched and whether your targeting or recruitment needs adjusting.
Typical screener questions
Section titled “Typical screener questions”Screeners are usually short and factual — the kind of question that cleanly includes or excludes someone:
- “Have you purchased or seriously considered an electric two-wheeler in the last 12 months?” — include only those who have.
- “Which of these categories do you make buying decisions for at work?” — include only relevant decision-makers.
- “Do you or an immediate family member work in market research or advertising?” — a classic exclusion to remove industry insiders.
Keep them tight: a screener should decide qualification, not gather insight. Save the substance for the scenes.
Screeners, demographics, and groups
Section titled “Screeners, demographics, and groups”Screeners work hand in hand with two neighbouring concepts:
- Demographics are profile questions (age band, region, gender, and so on) captured right after the screener. They describe who a qualified respondent is. Unlike a screener, a demographic question usually doesn’t end the survey — it records an attribute.
- Study groups use the answers to demographics and screener questions as conditions to route each respondent into the right segment. In other words, screeners decide whether someone takes part, demographics and screener answers together decide which tailored track they take.
This is why screeners are set up early: the study groups and the personas generated from them depend on the screening and demographic questions already being defined.
Where you set them up
Section titled “Where you set them up”Screener questions are defined when you set up the study’s audience, alongside demographics, before you define groups. See the audience step of Building a survey for the walkthrough. vDynamiq can also help draft and refine screener wording as you build.
Good practice
Section titled “Good practice”- Be decisive. Each screener should map clearly to “in” or “out.” Ambiguous screeners admit the wrong people.
- Screen for behaviour, not just interest. “Have you bought…” is stronger than “Are you interested in…”.
- Include an industry exclusion where bias is a risk.
- Watch the pass rate. A very low pass rate can mean your targeting is off or your recruitment source is wrong; a very high one can mean your screener isn’t doing its job.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- Study groups — how screener and demographic answers route respondents into tailored segments.
- Personas & segments — the characters generated per group.
- Responses & aggregation — where the screener pass rate is reported.