Question logic lets each question branch based on the participant’s answer. Rules are evaluated top to bottom — the first matching rule wins. If no rule matches, the interview simply continues to the next question.
Conditions
The conditions available depend on the question type:
AI rules (smart conditions)
For open-ended questions, you can write a condition in plain language — for example, “If the participant mentions price as a concern” — and Versive’s AI evaluates it against the response. AI rules are evaluated in order along with your other rules.
Keep AI rules specific and observable (“mentions a competitor by name”) rather than interpretive (“seems unhappy”). Specific rules evaluate more reliably.
Actions
When a condition matches, one of five actions runs:
Where jumps can land
Jumps are forward-only: a rule can only target a question or group that comes after the question it belongs to, so the last question of a study has no jump targets. When your study uses question groups, two more rules apply:
- Randomized groups — questions inside a group with randomized order can’t be targeted directly, since their position differs per participant. Target the group itself instead: each participant enters at whichever question their shuffled order puts first, so randomization is preserved.
- Empty groups can’t be targeted — there’s no question to jump to.
The target pickers only offer valid destinations, so you don’t need to memorize these rules. If a later edit invalidates a saved rule — say, deleting the target or enabling randomized order on its group — the logic editor flags the rule with a warning.
Screening participants
To build a screener, put your qualifying questions first and add Screen out rules to each. Screened-out participants see the customizable screen-out message, and their responses are excluded from completions and insights by default.
Reusing earlier answers (mentions)
To pipe an earlier answer into a later question, use mentions: type @ in the question editor and pick a previous question to insert a reference to its answer — or to a specific option or property of it. Each participant sees their own earlier answer woven into the question text (“Why did you choose the Pro plan?”).
Answers from these types can be referenced: Open Text, Short Text, Multiple Choice, Matrix Rating Scale, Card Sort, Ranking, and Allocation.
Good to know
- The logic editor warns you about rules that can no longer fire: targets that were deleted, moved to before the question, or moved inside a randomized group, plus rules on the last question.
- Logic is language-aware — rules are evaluated against the participant’s study language.
- Chaining multiple rules on one question is fully supported; order them from most to least specific since the first match wins.
