🚀 New launch as of May 2025! 🚀
Outset’s AI-powered guide builder helps you generate a full interview guide in just a few clicks - no need to start from scratch. Whether you're exploring open-ended user behavior or collecting feedback on specific ideas, AI-generated guides provide a fast, flexible starting point tailored to your goals.
Generating your guide
There are two common use-cases for these types of guides:
1) Discovery - Explore behaviors, needs, or motivations
2) Concept testing - Get feedback on prototypes, products, or messaging
Guide Generation is available now for Standard AI Interviews. To get started, click "New Study" and select your guide settings (e.g., Standard AI Interview, Video response)
For how to create your guide, select "Create a first draft with AI"
A menu will pop up to help you create your guide with AI -
Get started by describing the goals of your study. The guide generation process works best with some extra details here - see some examples below for how to set this up.
You can also click the "Additional options" menu to build in more structure around expected number of questions, Interview purpose, and Question makeup (e.g., Qual only, Quant only, or mix of Qual/Quant)
Once you click "Generate guide," you'll have a draft guide ready for your review within about two minutes - read on for some examples!
Example #1: Customer Journey (Discovery)
Let’s say you’re running a discovery study to better understand consumer behavior. In this example, you want to learn how U.S. consumers decide which platform to use when booking a vacation (e.g., Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, etc.).
You might have the following learning goals:
1) What does the vacation travel booking process look like today for consumers? Dive deep into actions and motivations, focusing on their most recent booking example.
2) What platforms do consumers use currently and how well are their travel booking needs met? Do consumers want an "all in one" travel booking platform, or do they prefer to pursue the best deals across platforms?
3) How loyal are customers to a specific travel booking platform? What drives loyalty, and what could encourage loyalty?
Here's what your "Create your guide with AI" menu might look like -
Click “Generate Guide,” and in less than two minutes, Outset will return a structured interview draft. The guide might include:
Warm-up questions about recent travel habits
Questions about which platforms were considered and why
Deeper probes into the decision-making process
Questions about satisfaction, trade-offs, and future preferences
From there, you can edit, reorder, or add to the guide as needed, including adjusting the depth of probing or probing instructions that have been added.
Example #2: Product Concept Testing (Concept Testing)
Now let’s say you’re running a concept test for a new product. A CPG company is planning to launch a canned iced coffee and wants feedback on four potential product ideas.
You might have the following learning goals:
1) Understand consumers' current coffee drinking habits, including when and why they drink coffee, what types of coffee they regularly consume, preferences for flavor (including bitterness, light/dark roasts, flavors and sweeteners).
2) Get feedback on the four different iced coffee concepts. We should ask them about their initial thoughts on the product, what they perceive to be the pros and cons of the product, how likely they would be to purchase this item regularly, and how they see it fitting into their current daily habits.
3) Conduct ranking and evaluation in depth to understand which of the four concepts is most preferred and why.
In this case, your guide setup might look like this -
You can then customize the questions included in each concept section, adjust the ordering, and add any concept stimulus (e.g., image or video of product) as needed.
Example #3: Product Marketing Messaging (Concept Testing)
Alternatively, let's say you're doing more of a B2B-focused project, and you want to test product marketing messaging for a software product, to see what best connects with potential purchasers. Let's say the software is inventory and order management software (e.g., for cafes, hardware stores, salons, local boutiques, etc.).
Here are some potential goals to frame up your product marketing concept test -
1) Understand what kinds of inventory management needs small business owners have today, including what their current inventory management process looks like and who manages their inventory.
2) Get feedback on a table describing product offerings of the leading 5 inventory management softwares for small businesses, including what each includes and does not include. Understand which of these product offerings small business owners prioritize vs. do not prioritize, and why. Understand how these product offerings impact their perception of each of the brands listed.
3) Test product marketing messaging on the benefits of a new product launch from our client, which is focused on using AI for inventory and order management. For each of these product marketing messaging options, test what people like and don't like about the message. Evaluate which of these messages is the most compelling to drive them to try out the new feature.
Option #1: "Our AI tracks what’s flying off your shelves and what’s collecting dust - so you always stock exactly what your customers want, before they even ask."
Option #2: "Ditch the spreadsheets. Our AI automates your ordering, spots trends, and keeps you stocked - so you can spend more time with customers and less time managing supplies."
Option #3: "With real-time insights and intelligent alerts, our AI helps you avoid last-minute stockouts and over-ordering - no guesswork required."
Option #4: "Big chains use AI to get ahead. Now you can too. Our easy-to-use platform brings enterprise-grade intelligence to your inventory - without the complexity."
This prompt would generate a guide focused on understanding these small business owners and the product marketing that resonates with them, and once it's generated we can upload relevant stimuli (e.g., the table comparing product feature availability, or an ad mock-up with some of the product marketing messaging)
Final tips
The more specific you are in your initial setup, the more relevant the generated draft will be
You can always fine-tune follow-up depth, add skip logic, and test the flow using the “Test Interview” feature
For areas where you want the AI to explore more deeply, try adjusting the depth of probing and modifying specific probing instructions
Hope this helps! If you have any further questions, please reach out to our team at [email protected] or via chat.