Coming out of the holidays and into the new year, it seems a good time to give a brief update on our SurveyCTO product roadmap:
- All users have now transitioned to version 2.50 and our simplified subscription model.
- Following up on our machine learning roadmap, version 2.50 included a wide range of new sensor options for extending and enriching quality-control efforts. We’re gathering user feedback about the usefulness and effectiveness of the different sensor options, and working to improve those options that seem most promising. In particular, we’re working to develop conversation-detection algorithms that are still safe and lightweight, but do a better job distinguishing between conversation and non-conversation (across devices, genders, languages, and more). And now, with a richer non-PII foundation for machine learning, we’re continuing R&D on how technologies can further automate or streamline quality-control efforts.
- When it comes to the quality-control efforts for the digital surveys and instruments themselves, we’re hard at work on powerful new tools to speed and strengthen online form testing. It’s soon going to be quicker and easier to thoroughly test even the most complex forms, before they are deployed. Specific features we’re really excited about:
- the ability to save testing progress and resume later, even after the form definition has changed;
- a range of new “form inspector” tools for expanding visibility during form testing (e.g., into which fields were skipped due to relevance conditions, or which fields depend in some way on the current field), for more easily navigating around submissions during testing, and more;
- the ability to more easily switch back and forth between testing and design views, to fix the form definition more easily while testing; and
- the ability to save actual data at the end of testing sessions, in order to test downstream data systems.
- At long last, we’re adding a new option to automatically randomize multiple-choice selections. This will include a new option to record the exact choice order presented to users, for auditing or experimentation purposes, as well as options to specifically exclude some options at the top or bottom of a list (so that, e.g., “Other” can always be shown last).
- We’re also making a series of small improvements in Collect, to better facilitate field-based review (e.g., by field supervisors), resume data collection after fixing a broken form, and more.
- And, our customer success team is hard at work on a self-paced online onboarding course for new SurveyCTO users. We’ve always wanted to make it easier for new users to start using SurveyCTO, and we’re excited about this idea of an onboarding course.
There’s a whole lot more that we’re working on in addition to these things, including some truly exciting stuff – but we’re going to have to stay tight-lipped about it for now. Stay tuned for more updates!
And thank you for all of your continued support! Our ongoing efforts to improve SurveyCTO are only possible because so many of you inspire us, push us, and help us, and we are so fortunate to know that the work we do will be put to such great use in the world.
