Describe your study, target participants, exclusions, and session format. Makeform turns the brief into a screening survey with branching, contact details, and scheduling checks for consistent recruiting.
Route qualified responses to your workflow.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a study type, adjust the details, or send an editable example into the Makeform builder.
Audience
Recent users of a B2B reporting product
Format
Branching screener with eligibility and scheduling
Prompt size
417 chars
Example screener structure
Branching screener with eligibility and scheduling
What is your role in reporting work?
How often do you build or review reports?
Which reporting tasks have you done recently?
When could you join a 60-minute session?
Contact details for follow-up
Suggested routing tags
Qualified
Review
Not eligible
Ask about recent behavior first. A dated action is easier to screen consistently than general interest.
Step 1
Define
study goals and observable criteria
Step 2
Screen
behavior, exclusions, and practical fit
Step 3
Route
qualify, review, or close neutrally
Step 4
Recruit
contact and schedule selected candidates
Better screening decisions
Turn recruiting criteria into questions about behavior and ability to participate.
Ask about a recent task or purchase. Concrete recall is more useful than broad labels.
Show relevant follow-ups while clear mismatches move to a neutral ending, keeping the survey focused.
Keep eligibility, availability, contact details, and routing tags together for consistent follow-up.
Common study formats
Match questions to the burden, technology, setting, and research method.
Confirm product experience, device setup, screen sharing, and a full session window.
Screen for decision responsibility and recent examples, preserving open answers for review.
Check category experience, group comfort, camera access, availability, and sample quotas.
Confirm routine frequency, devices, upcoming absences, and willingness to complete repeated entries.
Screener workflow
Generate from observable requirements, test each branch, and review without exposing preferred answers.
List required behavior, exclusions, burden, technology, dates, and quotas. Separate requirements from interesting traits.
Tighten answer ranges, add recency windows, and remove questions that do not change a decision.
Submit qualified, borderline, and ineligible combinations. Check follow-ups and neutral closing messages.
Apply the same criteria, inspect open answers, check quotas, and contact the candidates your team selects.
Screener vs intake survey
The right structure reduces irrelevant questions and gives each field a recruiting purpose.
Field guide
Six sections cover qualification, sample variation, attendance, and follow-up.
Recent behavior
Ask what the candidate did and when. Recent actions are easier to assess than identity labels or predictions.
Role and context
Role, responsibility, organization, or household context can show whether someone owns the target workflow.
Exclusions
Ask early about relationships, relevant industries, recent studies, and other exclusions from the recruiting plan.
Quotas
Collect dimensions needed for the sample plan, while keeping routing and thresholds out of participant-facing copy.
Logistics
State session length, format, dates, devices, and repeated tasks before asking whether someone can participate.
Follow-up
Request only what is needed to invite candidates. Make clear that submission does not promise selection.
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Open toolFAQ
Answers about qualification, routing, and recruitment.
A research participant screener is a short pre-study survey that checks recruiting criteria. It covers relevant behavior, experience, exclusions, quotas, technology, availability, and contact details. The research team reviews responses and decides whom to invite.
Keep it as short as the decision allows. Start with decisive behavior and exclusions, branch around irrelevant follow-ups, and collect contact details near the end. Remove questions that do not affect routing or sample balance.
Make each criterion observable and add a timeframe. Ask which products someone bought, when they last purchased, and how often they decide instead of asking whether they are experienced. Use consistent answer ranges.
Do not identify preferred answers or exact thresholds. Neutral questions and endings reduce answer coaching. Keep qualification rules, quota status, and reviewer notes in the team's process.
Yes. Show relevant follow-ups and send definite mismatches to a neutral close. Test every path, including borderline combinations that should reach manual review.
State the topic, format, duration, location or remote setup, dates, activities, incentive, and follow-up process. Completing the screener expresses interest but does not promise selection.
Yes. Makeform is unlimited free for generating, editing, publishing, and collecting responses. The paid tier only removes the Makeform badge.
Apply the same written criteria to every response. Review decisive answers, open examples, exclusions, logistics, and quotas. Keep qualified, borderline, and ineligible tags distinct before sending invitations.
Recruit for evidence, not vague interest.
