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Research Flow Guide

When you sign in, the Roundtable home page shows a road above the service cards. The road lists the stages of a research project in order, marks the ones that are done, and tells you what to do next.

The road is for one project at a time. It reads the project itself, so there is nothing to tick off. A stage is done because the work exists, whether you did it, a colleague did it, or an AI agent did it.

The Stages

Each stage shows one of three states: Done, Next, or To come. Exactly one stage is next, unless every stage is done.

# Stage Done when
1 Connect an AI provider Your account has a working AI provider. This stage only appears while you have none. Once a provider works, the stage is gone. A provider your organization shares with you counts.
2 Goals in the paper The research goals are written in the project's Research Paper.
3 Questionnaire validated A questionnaire of your own has a version that passed validation with no errors.
4 Campaign with a pool A campaign of the project has a respondent pool assigned.
5 Answers collected At least one survey of the project is completed.
6 Dataset extracted A Bundle of the project has its Bronze dataset ready.
7 Quality measured A Bundle of the project has its Silver dataset ready. Deriving the Silver dataset is what measures quality.
8 Paper chapter written A Study of the project is written and promoted, so its chapter appears in the paper.

A few rules are worth knowing:

  • The starter and sample questionnaires do not count. Every new project begins with a starter questionnaire, and your first project also holds sample questionnaires that show how projects, questionnaires and campaigns connect. Left untouched, none of them makes stage 3 done. Edit one into your own survey and save a version that passes validation, and it counts.
  • A version that passed has passed. A later save that fails validation does not undo stage 3.
  • The chapter needs a promoted Study. A Study that is written but not promoted does not appear in the paper, so stage 8 is not done yet. The road then asks you to promote it.
  • Several of a kind. When a project holds more than one questionnaire, campaign or Bundle, each stage reads the one that is furthest along.
  • A later stage can be done before an earlier one. A stage that is done stays done, even while an earlier stage is next. For example, a campaign fielded only through an open link has no pool, so stage 4 stays next while the stages after it are done.
  • Synthetic answers count. When every completed survey was filled by synthetic respondents, stage 5 is done and carries the label synthetic. The label goes away once a person has answered.

When every stage is done, the road says: "This project has been walked end to end."

The Next Step

The next stage carries one sentence that says what to do, and a link that opens the page where that work is done, on the selected project. The guide does not perform any step itself. It only points.

Stages that are done carry a link too. It opens the page that shows the finished work, such as the paper, the campaign or the dataset.

Some stages are the work of an AI agent, and the road says so. Goals are written with the Designer, and a Study is written by the Analyst. You can still walk from the questionnaire to the dataset without an AI provider.

If no Bundle exists yet, the link on the dataset stage opens the dataset board, where you create one.

Two Ways to Collect Answers

When Answers collected is next, the road offers two links:

  1. Fill with synthetic respondents. This comes first, because a new user usually has nobody to survey yet. The link opens the simulation page with a Manager chat already filled in for your campaign. You start the chat yourself. This way needs the manager role and a working AI provider.
  2. Invite real people. The link opens the campaign page, where you send invitations or share an open link. This way is open to a manager or a designer.

An interviewer who is neither a manager nor a designer sees one link instead, which opens their own interviews.

Choosing a Project

The road starts on the project most recently worked on. That means the latest change to the project or anything in it, by anyone.

Use the project selector on the road to choose another project. It lists every project you can read, most recently worked on first. Your choice is remembered until you change it, also after you sign out and in again. The choice is kept separately for each organization you belong to.

The selection changes the road only. No other page changes its default project.

If the project you chose is deleted, or you can no longer read it, the road goes back to the project most recently worked on.

If you can read no project, the road shows one line inviting you to create one. If your role does not allow creating a project, or the organization is read-only, the road does not appear.

Opening and Closing the Road

The road starts closed. Closed, it is a single row: the next step, its link when there is one, and the project selector. Click the road's header to open it and see every stage; click it again to close it. Whether it is open is remembered until you change it.

When a Stage Is Not Yours to Do

Your roles decide which stages you can do.

Stage Who does it
Goals in the paper Manager or designer
Questionnaire validated Manager or designer
Campaign with a pool Manager or designer
Answers collected, synthetic Manager
Answers collected, real people Manager or designer
Dataset extracted Manager
Quality measured Manager
Paper chapter written Manager

When the next stage is one your roles do not cover, the road names who does it and shows no link. For example, an analyst sees "A manager or designer sets up the campaign."

When you can read a project but cannot change it, the road describes the stage and says that a project owner does it.

You can always open the links on finished stages that your role allows. An analyst, for example, can open the dataset and the paper.

Read-Only Organizations

In a read-only organization, such as the Askalot Demo organization, the road shows state only. Finished stages keep their links, so you can open the paper, the campaigns and the datasets. Nothing on the road offers to change the project, and the next stage says that the organization is read-only. See sealed organization.

If you are signed in with the shared demo account, the provider stage is not shown, because that account cannot connect a provider. Your project choice and whether the road is open are kept in your browser for the current session, so they do not affect other visitors.

When the Road Updates

The road is read when the home page opens, and again when you come back to the page. It does not change while you are looking at it. After a synthetic fill or a dataset step finishes, return to the home page to see the new state.