Testing and Reviewing Your Survey

Before launching your survey to respondents, thoroughly test your survey logic, skip patterns, and question flow. The MX8 Labs Research Platform provides several tools to help you catch issues early and collaborate with teammates during the review process.

Create and Share a Test Link

Secure test links let you preview a survey without mixing test activity with live respondent data.

1. Open the survey's Summary tab and find Survey Links.
2. Optionally use First question to start at a specific section. This is useful when you need to test a later branch without answering every preceding question.
3. Find the link for the language you want to test.
4. Open the link in a new tab, or copy it and send it to a reviewer.

A link represents one test respondent. Generate a fresh link for each independent test pass or reviewer so their answers and comments remain separate. If a link has expired, refresh Survey Links to generate another one.

Choose What to Test

The screens shown after opening a test link depend on the respondent sources configured for that survey language. Steps that are not needed are skipped automatically.

1. If matching sources cover more than one market, choose the market you want to test.
2. If the selected market has more than one matching source, choose the source whose targeting and respondent data you want to use.

3. If the selected source supports phone testing, choose Phone or Online. Sources without a phone experience open the online survey directly.

Test Online

Choose Online to open the survey in your browser. The test respondent uses the selected source's market, language, mappings, and other configured respondent data.

Online testing is the quickest way to check wording, display, question logic, and skip paths. It does not send a text message or place a call.

Test by Phone

Choose Phone to test an SMS, voice, or text-to-caller source on a real phone:

1. Confirm the phone channel shown on the page.
2. Enter your number in E.164 international format, including the + and country code.
3. Complete any Test respondent fields shown on the form. These optional values apply only to this test respondent and do not update the source's uploaded contacts.
4. Select Start Phone Test.

The test number must not already be present in the selected source's contacts. Use a separate number or remove it from the contact file before testing.

What happens next depends on the source:

• Twilio Text sends the first survey question by SMS and continues the interview by text message.
• Twilio Voice calls the number and runs the interview by voice.
• Twilio Text-to-Caller sends the initial SMS opt-in and starts the voice call after you reply.

After the test starts, continue on the phone. Starting another test for the same destination creates a new test respondent and replaces any active text-test session for that destination.

Using Test Mode

When you test online, a movable toolbox appears beside the survey. Use it to undo responses, add a comment, or open the additional test controls without interrupting the survey preview.

One of the most useful features is the ability to comment on questions directly during review. Each comment automatically creates a checklist item that links back to your survey code, making it easy to track feedback and requested changes. This is especially valuable when reviewing with teammates. Every comment becomes a trackable item that references the exact question being discussed.

Managing Test Responses

As you test, you'll accumulate test responses. The platform lets you delete any individual test response, not just the most recent one, so you can clean up and start fresh without affecting your survey setup. This flexibility lets you test multiple scenarios across different skip paths and conditional branches, then tidy up your test data before launch.

Catching Problems Before Launch

The platform automatically detects common issues that could break your survey. Programming errors like syntax issues or logic problems are highlighted directly in the interface, and you can use the Quick Fix option to resolve many common errors without manually editing code.

The platform also simulates respondent responses to flag unreachable questions; questions that can never be reached due to skip logic or conditional branching. This helps you identify and fix broken paths in your survey flow before any real respondent encounters them.

Finally, comprehensive batch checks cover syntax, simulation, report generation, translation, and weighting. Any failures are displayed with clear error messages and retry options, so you can fix issues and rerun the checks.

Best Practices

Give each reviewer a fresh link: Rather than asking teammates to edit the survey directly, generate a separate test link for each reviewer. Their answers and comments then remain attached to separate test respondents.

Use comments to create review checklists: Add comments to questions that need revision or clarification. Each comment becomes a checklist item linked to your survey code, making it simple to track and complete requested changes.

Test multiple paths: Use the "start at question" feature to jump to different sections of your survey and verify all conditional branches work correctly.

Test every respondent experience: When a survey has multiple markets, languages, or source types, run a separate test for each one. Check both Phone and Online modes when both are available.

Review before uploading contacts or going live: Configure the respondent sources you need for testing, but complete the review and fix errors before uploading production contact lists or starting fieldwork.