Study intake and managing study requests 📥

Study Intake lets research teams collect study requests from across your organization in one place.

Create one or more study request forms, share a custom link with the teams that need research, then review each request and assign it to the right study lead. Approving a request creates the study.

🛡️Who can request a study?

Allow access via SSO to anyone at your organization for Enterprise customers

How Study Intake works

🛠️ You create a form for a team (for example, Payments, Creator Studio, Search).
🔗 You share the link with the people who can request research.
✍️ Requesters describe what they need, either from scratch or by starting from a recent or popular request.
🤖 AI drafts the study from their description, so nothing starts from a blank page.
👀 You review the request, ask for changes, route it for budget approval, or approve it.
✅ Approving creates the study, ready for the right study lead to run.

You can create as many forms as you need, so each internal team gets its own branded intake with its own settings.

Creating a study request form

Go to Study Intake, open the Request forms tab, and click New request form. The setup has four steps, and you can edit everything later.

Step 1: Basics 🧱

Name the form, choose its brand, and pick the link you’ll share.

Form name: An internal name so your team can tell forms apart. Participants and requesters never see it.
Brand: Choose which brand powers the logo, colors, and fonts requesters see. Use Show on form to turn the logo on or off. Need a different brand? Account owners and admins can add or edit brands from Home > Brands.
Form URL: The link looks like https://[brand].ethn.io/study_request/[path] . The subdomain comes from the brand. Click Customize path to set a readable ending, like research-request , then Copy to grab the link.
Who can open this form:
- 👤 People with an Ethnio account: Anyone on your Ethnio account opens the link and signs in as usual.
- 🔐 Anyone with the link, via SSO: People at your company sign in with SSO. No Ethnio seat is needed. They get the free Study requester role and only see their own requests.

💡 Tip: Because the form gives access to Ethnio AI, some form of authentication is required for now. That’s why the form can’t be open to anyone on the internet.

Step 2: Page content ✏️

This is the text requesters see at the top of the form.

Headline & text blocks: Edit the headline and intro using the rich text editor (bold, italic, links, images, lists). Drag blocks to reorder them, or delete ones you don’t need. Use Text block + to add more.
Methods to create a request: Choose how requesters start:
- Both methods: They describe a new request, or start from a recent or popular one.
- Only from scratch: They describe what they need in their own words or attach a brief.
- Only from existing requests: They start from a recent or popular request across your organization.

⚙️ Advanced settings (optional)

Most forms don’t need these controls. Expand Advanced settings to let requesters pick a study type before they describe their request.

Turn Let requesters pick a study type on or off.
Edit the Heading (default: “How do you want to handle study type?”).
Toggle individual options on or off:

Option	What it’s for
✨ Let AI decide	Picks the best study type based on the requester’s prompt
🧑‍💬 1:1 Interviews	Scheduled, typically moderated interviews
📊 Survey	External survey tool (like Qualtrics) or Ethnio
👥 Focus Group	Up to 10 participants per group, up to 4 concurrent sessions
📓 Diary Study	External tool (like dScout), optionally with interviews scheduled in Ethnio
🎪 Event	Workshops, panel discussions, empathy challenges
🖱️ Unmoderated Exercise	Card sorting and automated research tools, all outside Ethnio
💲 Compensation Only	Pay via Ethnio or track external payments
🧪 Beta Feature Testing	External platform or tool, optionally with interviews scheduled in Ethnio

💡 Tip: If your team only runs interviews and surveys, switch off the rest to keep the form simple.

Step 3: AI & questions 🤖

These settings apply behind the scenes when a request is assembled. Requesters never see them. Every request becomes a draft study that you review before anything goes live.

AI model

Google Gemini: Fast and low cost, a good fit for most requests.
Anthropic Claude: Builds the study step by step and looks up your library and past studies. Best for long or complex briefs.
OpenAI ChatGPT: A solid all-round choice.

🔒 Names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses are removed from requests before anything reaches AI. Participant data is never shared.

Question source

Any source: Reuse your Questions Library and past studies, and write new questions when nothing fits.
Only Questions Library: Use approved library questions only. Requirements the library doesn’t cover are left out.
Only past study questions: Match questions and answer choices from your organization’s past studies, never the library.

You’ll also see a toggle labeled Use the new editor, logic, and rendering engine.

Step 4: Alerts 🔔

Choose how your team finds out when a new request comes in. Enable one or more channels, and click a channel to configure its message.

📧 Email: Sends an alert to the address shown.
💬 Slack: Pick a channel, such as #product . You can customize the message using placeholders like Study name, Requester, Study type, and Study link. Click Reset to default to start over.

Use Send test to Slack to check the message before you share the form. When you’re ready, click Done.

After you click Done, your form is live.

From the confirmation screen you can:

Copy the link
Share this request form to send it to your teams
Keep editing to adjust settings
Back to request forms to return to your list

Share the link wherever requesters already look, like your intranet, a Slack channel, or your Research Ops wiki.

What requesters see 👀

When someone opens the link, they see your brand, your headline and intro, and a short guided flow.

Step 1: Describe your request. Requesters can:

Method 1: From scratch. Type what they need to learn, paste a link to a Google Doc or web page, or attach a brief. Links to Google Docs and web pages are only read if anyone with the link can view them.
Method 2: Recent and popular requests. Pick an earlier request from across the organization as a starting point.

AI then drafts the study, and the request lands in Study Intake for you to review.

Reviewing and approving requests ✅

Open Study Intake > Requests to see everything submitted through your forms. Each row shows:

The request name and ID (for example, R-118) and the requesting team
Requested by
Study type
Participants
Submitted date
Status

Filter by status: Open, Approved, Rejected, or All.

Request statuses

Status	What it means
🟡 Needs review	Waiting for Research Ops to look at it
🔵 Budget approval	Waiting on a budget approver, shown as “Waiting on [name]”
🟠 Changes requested	Sent back to the requester for updates

Your review options

Approve: Creates the study.
Assign: Route the request to the right study lead.
Request changes: Send it back to the requester.
Decline: Reject the request.

Managing your intake / request forms 🗂️

The Request forms area shows every form at a glance:

Form name and a summary (pending requests, alerts, last updated)
Link with a one-click copy button
Pending requests per form
Approval steps configured for the form
Draft label for forms that aren’t shared yet
⋮ menu to edit or manage a form

💡 Tip: Create a separate form for each team or kind of request. Give each its own brand, study types, and alert channel so requests reach the right people.

FAQ ❓

Can I create more than one form?

Yes. Create as many as you need, for example one per department.

Do requesters need an Ethnio seat?

Not with SSO. People who sign in through SSO get the free Study requester role and only see their own requests.

Does AI approve requests?

No. AI only drafts the study. You review everything before it goes live.

Is participant data shared with AI?

No. Names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses are removed before anything reaches AI, and participant data is never shared.

Can I change a form after it’s live?

Yes. Open it from the Request forms tab and edit it any time.