Panel properties
Panel properties are used to store data on panelists so you can easily filter and identify the best participants for your upcoming studies. There a few ways to add panel properties to track more details about your panelists. Panel properties are intimately tied to uploading panelists and creating surveys.
Data types
Text
Good for storing short open-ended data, such as first name, last name, email, address, and more. Max length is 299 characters.
Long Text
Good for storing long open-ended data. Max length is 50,000 characters. Note: It is not possible to change the type of this Panel Property after it is created.
Number
Constrained to storing numbers, such as year of birth, annual salary, or number of children.
Date
Constrained to store a date value, such as Date of Birth, or Last Contacted At.
True or False
Stores two options, true or false. This can be used in place of "yes" and "no".
Single-select (Dropdown)
Stores a closed-ended list of options, only one can be chosen for the panelist. Good for storing pre-defined lists of data which you want to keep standard, and filter for in the future - such as gender, country, income range, or highest level of education.
Multi-select (Checkbox)
Stores a closed-ended list of options, multiple values can be chosen for the panelist. Good for storing pre-defined lists of data which you want to keep standard, and filter for in the future - such as types of cars owned, interests, subscribed-to streaming services, or alcohol preferences.
Create a panel property
Go to Panel > Panel Properties, then click New Property.
Enter a Title, then select a Type.
(Single- and multi-select only) Add Options, entering a Label for each.
Labels should be plain-text and cannot be changed. For example, Employed or Unemployed are good labels for an Employment status panel property:
The new field will be available for all past and future panelists.
Defining multiple choice properties from existing panel data
Data uploaded into your panel can get messy fast, so if you are uploading a closed-ended property such as Gender, this is the way to configure it. Here's how you can change a text property type to either a single select or multi-select property type and use previously collected data for that panel property as options:
Go to Panel > Panel Properties.
Click the Edit button for the custom text panel property you'd like to convert to either a single select or multi-select property type.
The Edit property window will pop up. From here, click the drop-down button below Type then select your preferred type.
Click Populate options using panelist data.
Data collected from previous surveys for that panelist property will automatically be added as options.
Other places to create a panel property
In Panel Panelists
When viewing your panel, you can add a custom field by clicking the drop-down button at the top right of the page. Then, click + Add Property.
In Panelist Profile
Similar to the previous process, you can find the + Add Panelist Property button within the panelist view by scrolling to the bottom of a single panelist’s profile.
In a screener
Follow this article on Two-way sync in a survey.
Delete Panel Property
To delete a custom field, you can navigate to your Panel Panel Properties. Here you can select to delete any of the panel properties you created.
Navigate to the field in question (note that default properties like First Name, Last Name, Email and Phone Number cannot be deleted).
Panel Property Groups
Panel properties can be organized into groups. The screenshot below illustrates 3 example groups: Contact Info, Engagement, and General.
You can also drag & drop the groups to set a custom order of how they show up on a panelist profile.
Note: Private Panels was previously managed outside of Dscout, so you may see a different logo and URL in some places. If you have any questions, contact support@dscout.com.