Create and Manage Follow-Up Questions

A follow-up is a question nested under a parent question in the same block. It can appear for every respondent who reaches the parent or only when the parent answer matches a trigger. Use follow-ups for short probes such as “Please explain,” “How many?”, or a detail requested only from respondents who selected a particular answer.

Use Flow branching instead when an answer should route respondents into a different block, treatment path, or end screen.

1. Step 1: Open the parent question. In Block Builder, expand the question that should control the follow-up.

   Step 1: Open the parent question

2. Step 2: Open its options. Scroll to the bottom of the question options and choose Add Follow-up Question.

   Step 2: Add Follow-up Question

3. Step 3: Write the follow-up. Choose its question type, prompt, validation, and answer settings as you would for a root question.

4. Step 4: Set “Show when.” Choose a trigger that matches the parent question and select the answers, values, or rules that should reveal the follow-up.

5. Step 5: Preview both outcomes. Test one parent answer that shows the follow-up and one that hides it.

   Step 5: Preview both paths

You can also drag a question to an indented insertion position beneath another question in the same block. The indented placement attaches it as a follow-up rather than leaving it as a root question.

• Specific answers: Multiple Choice, Dropdown, Drag to Order, and selected Heatmap zones. On a MaxDiff parent, pick Best: item or Worst: item; the follow-up appears if that pick was made in any set.
• Rank position: Drag to Order parents. Select items and a position such as top 3 (or bottom 3); the follow-up appears when any selected item is ranked there. Ranked items is also offered when partial ranking is on, to trigger on which items the respondent chose to rank.
• Tags used: Text Highlighter parents; the follow-up appears when the respondent applied the selected tags.
• Task outcome: Tree Testing parents; pick success, failure, or gave up for each task.
• Chosen profile: Conjoint parents; trigger on the profile the respondent chose, including the "None of these" no-choice option.
• Text match: Text Response or Text Chat parents; configure the text rules and case behavior.
• Value range: Slider parents.
• Selected answers: Grid Matrix cells.
• Card placement: Card Sort categories and cards.
• Points range: Constant Sum items and allocation ranges.
• Always: An unconditional sub-question shown whenever its parent is reached.

Select a range with Shift-click. Click one answer, then hold Shift and click another to switch on every answer in between. It works the same way to switch a run of answers off, and on Grid Matrix and Card Sort triggers it selects across the columns or cards in one row or category.

Match any or all. Once a trigger lists two or more conditions (answers, text rules, grid rows, cards, point ranges, or ranked items), a Match toggle appears under it. Any (OR), the default, reveals the follow-up when at least one condition matches. All (AND) reveals it only when every condition matches, for example when a respondent selected both “Price” and “Speed.” On a Grid Matrix, each row is one condition, and a row matches when any of its selected columns is chosen.

At least N answers. When the parent allows more than one answer (a multi-select Multiple Choice or Dropdown, a multi-click Heatmap, or a Ranking, MaxDiff, Text Highlighter, or Tree Testing parent), Any also shows an “at least” count. Set it to 2 to reveal the follow-up only for respondents who chose two or more of the selected answers. To reveal it for anyone who picks two or more answers at all, select every answer and set the count to 2.

Every trigger, including slider ranges, grid cells, card placements, and point ranges, is saved with the survey and stays set when you reopen it.

Always is rarely the right choice for a conditional probe. Prefer the parent-specific trigger so respondents are not asked an irrelevant follow-up.

• Reorder: Keep the parent and its follow-ups together. Root-question move shortcuts do not reorder follow-up questions.
• Detach: Choose Detach in the follow-up’s “Show when” panel to convert it back into a root question.
• Move between blocks: Detach the follow-up relationship first. Parent and child questions cannot remain linked across different blocks.
• Delete: Delete only the question you intend to remove, then verify the remaining parent/follow-up structure in Preview.
• Recover: Restore an accidentally removed question from survey trash.

• Page breaks: Use the follow-up’s page-break controls when it should begin on a separate respondent page, and verify the transition in Preview.
• Randomization: Follow-ups stay attached to their parent. Do not design a randomized sequence that separates a dependent probe from the answer it uses.
• Changed parent options: Recheck Specific answers triggers after renaming, recoding, or removing a parent answer.
• Conjoints with several tasks: Turn on Ask After Each Task in the follow-up's “Show when” panel to ask it after every task instead of once after the last. Each task's copy comes right after that task (on the next page if the conjoint has a page break after it), a Chosen profile trigger tests that task's choice, and conjoint piped text in the follow-up's wording, such as {{conjoint:question_name.selected}}, refers to that task. {{loop:index}} gives the task number. Exports get one column per task, named with “— Task 1”, “— Task 2”, and so on. Inside a loop block the follow-up is asked once.
• Exports: A hidden follow-up normally produces no answer for respondents whose parent response did not trigger it. Account for that structural missingness during analysis.

• Add and Edit Answer Options
• Branching and Skip Logic for Research Surveys
• Randomize Survey Questions and Answer Options
• Version History and Trash Recovery