Think of a soft launch as a test run for a larger study. When creating a survey, it can be beneficial to perform a soft launch — testing the survey on a small percentage of the total sample size to ensure the success of your study when it's time to fully launch.

⚠️ Note: To soft launch a survey, you must reach out to our team — users are unable to soft launch on their own.

If you'd like to discuss whether a soft launch would be beneficial for your study, our team will be happy to assist.

Soft Launch

What is a Soft Launch? A soft launch is when a survey is placed in the field but the sample size is capped at a specific amount, such as 5% or 10% of the total sample. This allows the survey to pause automatically once the cap has been reached, letting the researcher review and decide if any changes are needed before launching to collect the full sample.

Can edits be applied after a soft launch? If edits are needed, changes can be made to the existing draft only if they are not structural changes. A structural change would require the survey to be cloned, edited, and relaunched. The sample collected in the soft launch may still incur fees.

• Examples of structural changes: adding questions, adding answers, swapping stimuli.
• Examples of non-structural changes: updating text.

Why soft launch? Soft launches make it possible to check conditional routing (such as hide/show if logic) and collect survey metrics such as IR and LOI. A soft launch can also help gauge how well open-ended questions are being answered.

What to Expect

Before approaching a soft launch, thoroughly review the study in detail. The preview feature on the Survey Editor page is an excellent tool to scout out any possible programming errors. Once you've completed testing, you're ready to reach out for a soft launch.

1. When your programmed survey is ready, reach out to your account manager with the Survey ID, your total N, and the N of completes desired for your soft launch.
2. The survey will transition to the Panel Operations team, who will monitor both the soft launch and subsequent full launch.
3. When your soft launch is complete, we'll reach out for you to review and complete a data check.
4. When you're ready, let our team know to proceed with the full launch.
5. If adjustments must be made before the full launch, we can discuss options and pricing to improve feasibility or narrow the search as appropriate.

If you have any questions, reach out to support@aytm.com or click Chat with us at the top of the page.

Learn more about Soft Launching surveys in the Lighthouse Academy!