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Response Types

Understanding Which Survey Responses Are Included in Your Results

Overview

When you view your Insights results, the data comes from people who participated in your study. But not everyone completes every survey they're assigned to - some participants finish everything, while others may only complete part of the study. Understanding these response types helps you interpret your results with confidence.

This article explains the difference between including all respondents versus only those who completed the full study, and how Highlight handles this automatically.

What counts as a response?

In Highlight, a response is counted when a participant submits a survey and it gets approved through quality control. There are two ways to look at your respondent pool:

All Respondents

All Respondents includes anyone who completed and was approved on at least one product survey in your study. This gives you the largest possible sample size.

  • Participants may have completed 1 survey, 3 surveys, or all surveys assigned to them
  • Everyone who contributed at least one quality response is included

When this is useful: You want maximum sample size and don't mind that some participants may not have completed everything assigned to them.

Full Completes

Full Completes includes only participants who were approved on all of their assigned product surveys. This is a stricter filter that focuses on participants who completed everything they were supposed to.

  • Only participants who finished everything assigned to them are included
  • Sample size is smaller, but each person completed their full assignment
  • Results are more consistent because every respondent saw everything they were supposed to
  • This is the default setting for projects

When this is useful: You want to ensure every response comes from someone who completed their full assignment, giving you the most reliable data.

How Highlight calculates Full Completes

During your study's lifecycle, Highlight uses two approaches to determine who qualifies as a Full Complete:

While data collection is in progress

During fielding, the system looks at participants who have had all their submitted surveys approved. Since participants are still actively completing surveys, the count includes anyone who is "on track" to finish.

Example: A participant is assigned 5 surveys. They've submitted 3 so far and all 3 were approved. They currently count as a Full Complete because everything they've done has been approved.

After data collection finishes

Once fielding is complete, the system uses a stricter check: only participants who were approved on every survey assigned to them count as Full Completes.

Example: That same participant finished with 4 approved surveys out of 5 assigned. They no longer count as a Full Complete because they didn't complete everything.

This automatic transition ensures your final results only include truly complete respondents.

Where you see this in Insights

The response type affects all areas of Insights:

By default, all these views show data only from participants who completed their full assignment. If you switch to All Respondents, the views update to include everyone with at least one approved survey.

Changing your response type

By default, your project uses Full Completes to give you the most consistent data. If you'd like to include all respondents instead, you can change this setting yourself.

  1. Navigate to any Insights page (Scorecard, Explore, Crosstabs, etc.)
  2. Open the Settings panel in the left navigation
  3. Toggle between Full Completes and All Respondents

Your selection applies immediately to all Insights views and any reports or downloads you generate.

Tip: If you're unsure which option is best for your research goals, Full Completes (the default) is usually the safer choice since it ensures every response comes from someone who completed their full assignment.

Quick comparison

All Respondents Full Completes (Default)
Who's included Anyone with at least one approved survey Only those approved on all assigned surveys
Sample size Larger Smaller
Best for Maximum data volume Most reliable, consistent data
Consistency Varies by participant Every respondent completed their full assignment

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