Logical Branching

What is Logical Branching?

Logical branching—also known as skip logic or conditional branching—is a powerful feature that allows you to tailor the flow of a survey based on a respondent’s previous answers. Instead of presenting every respondent with the same set of questions, logical branching dynamically guides respondents down different paths that are most relevant to them. For example, if a respondent answers “No” to a question about working remotely, the survey can automatically skip over follow-up questions about remote work.

Why Use Logical Branching?

Logical branching improves the survey-taking experience by making surveys more personalized, shorter, and more engaging. It reduces survey fatigue by skipping irrelevant questions and ensures that you collect more accurate and meaningful data. From a data quality perspective, it helps streamline responses and allows for more nuanced insights based on specific respondent segments.

When Should You Use It?

Use logical branching when different groups of respondents should answer different sets of questions. This is especially useful in customer satisfaction surveys, market research, employee engagement surveys, and any scenario where the survey content should adapt based on user input. If your survey includes multiple topics or decision trees, or if certain questions only apply to specific demographics or behaviors, logical branching is the ideal way to keep your survey focused and efficient.

How to Set Up a Logical Branching Survey?

To set up a Logical Branching survey go to the Manage Surveys page and then create an individual survey. First add your survey title then click on the “Add Questions” button in the survey creation form. Now you can start to build your survey.

The first thing to understand is that you should add all of your survey questions before applying any branching logic. Once the branching logic is applied no other edits can be made to the survey questions, so it is very important to finalize the survey questions and survey structure before adding any branching logic. Also, logical branching is done on the page level, so you must have at least two pages in your survey to be eligible to set up logical branching. Once you have finalized your survey questions and structure, click on the “Manage Logical Branching” button near the top of the survey form to be taken to the Manage Logical Branching page.

You should now be on the Manage Logical Branching page. This is the page where you can set all of the branching logic and rules for the survey. Here are some things to note before you get started. Only one question per page can be set as a logical branching question, this is because we can’t have conflicted logic about where to direct the user when they have completed a page. So be aware that only one question per page can be set as the branching question. Next be aware that only certain question types are eligible for branching, these are the Scale, Boolean, Multiple Choice, and eNPS question types. You can still include the other question types in your survey (Multi-Select, Matrix Grid, and Open Text) you just can’t set these as a branching question.

 Now you should be ready to start setting the branching logic. It’s best practice to go page by page, select the question on the page that you would like to branch, click the down arrow to expand the question and answers, and then select where you would like the respondent to be redirected to based on the chosen answer. Your options for branching are always the pages that follow the current page, or end of survey. We don’t allow for selecting a previous page to avoid infinite loops.

Once you are done setting all of the branching logic click on the “Save” button at the top of the page to save the applied rules. This is very important, if you go back or cancel the branching logic will not be saved and you will have to set it up again.

You can now save the survey questions and continue filling out all of the required information to publish the survey (audience, schedule, etc). You are finished and your logical branching survey should be ready to send out!

Employee Experience Responding to a Logical Branching Survey

From the employee’s perspective, completing a logical branching survey feels just like responding to any regular survey—they may not even realize that branching logic is being used. The survey flows smoothly and naturally, presenting only the questions that are relevant to their individual experiences and responses. This creates a cleaner, more intuitive experience, helping employees stay engaged without being distracted by questions that don’t apply to them. 

Logical branching surveys are fully compatible across all TINYpulse response methods, including the TINYpulse web app, TINYpulse mobile app, Slack integration, Microsoft Teams integration, and OAM integration. No matter how employees choose to respond, they’ll enjoy a seamless and consistent experience.

Logical Branching Survey Reporting

Now that the survey has been sent out and you are starting to receive responses, you might be wondering how a logical branching survey might look different than a typical survey. Currently, there are only minor differences to a standard survey. For one, you will see a “Logical Branching Survey” link on the Overview page of the Response Visualization. This link will provide a preview page of all of the logical branching rules applied to that survey, this is helpful for you and other admins who might not be aware of all the branching rules in this survey.

 

Next you will notice in the single question detail page for each question there is a new respondent metric. This metric will tell you how many respondents responded to this specific question out of the total number of survey respondents. This is helpful for logical branching surveys because not all questions will have the same response rate like a standard TINYpulse survey, depending on which branch the respondent took the response rates could vary question to question.

FAQ

Can Group Admins Create Logical Branching Surveys?

Yes, any TINYpulse Administrator that has access to survey creation will be able to create logical branching surveys.

Can the Branching Logic Be Saved As A Template?

Currently no, the branching rules cannot be saved along with the survey questions as a template. This means you will always have to reapply the logical branching rules when using a template from the TINYpulse Content Bank.

Can I make edits to my survey after the branching logic has been applied?

You can edit the survey after the branching logic has been applied; however by doing so it will remove all the branching logic. The branching logic can be reapplied at any time after you are done editing, but please be aware that by making any edits to the survey after the branching logic is applied all of the logic will be removed.

What if I forget the logical branching rules I applied? Is there any way for me or other admins to view the branching logic after the survey is completed?

Yes, the branching logic can be viewed at any time after the survey has been sent out by navigating to the Response Visualization and clicking on the “Logical Branching Survey” link from the Overview page. This will give you a preview of all the branching rules for that survey, this can be viewed at any time.