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.
Showing a question conditionally (display logic)
Branching decides where the interview goes next; a display condition decides whether a question is shown at all. Open the question’s logic settings, and under Display logic choose Add display condition: pick an earlier question as the source and set the condition on its answer. A question is shown only when all of its display conditions are met; otherwise the participant skips it and the interview continues with the next question that can be shown.
- Sources come from earlier in the study and use the same conditions as branching: Multiple Choice (Equals; Includes and Fewer than N selections for multi-select), Rating Scale, NPS, Star Rating and Number (
= > >= < <=), or an open-ended question with an AI rule. The picker only offers eligible questions.
- A source can’t be one the participant might not see before the question — for example a question inside a randomized group that could shuffle it after, or one inside a randomizer arm the participant may skip. The editor flags saved conditions that no longer hold (a renamed or removed option, a source moved after the question), and the study can’t be saved until they’re fixed.
- If the participant never answered the source — a branch skipped it, or the source was itself hidden — the condition doesn’t pass and the question is hidden.
- AI rules on display conditions are evaluated as soon as the participant leaves the source question, so later questions don’t wait on them. If an evaluation fails, the question is shown rather than silently skipped.
- Branching and display conditions work together: branching picks the next question, then display conditions decide whether it and the questions after it are shown. When every remaining question is hidden, the interview ends with the thank-you message.
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, Number, 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.
