Write starter questions
Give Lemma opening questions that help the participant begin without turning the study into a static survey.
Starter questions give the participant an opening path.
They should create enough context for Lemma to ask useful follow-up questions, but they should not try to capture everything upfront.
Use open questions
Good starter questions invite a story, reason, example, or comparison.
Examples:
- What made you start looking for a new solution?
- What happened the last time this problem came up?
- What did you try before cancelling?
- What would have made this easier?
- What outcome were you hoping for?
Avoid questions that only produce labels:
- How satisfied are you?
- Which feature did you use?
- Would you recommend us?
- What is your company size?
Those can be useful as context, but they are not enough for an adaptive study.
Use the study goal to keep questions focused
If the goal is "understand why new customers fail to activate," every starter question should help reveal the activation journey, the point of friction, and the expected outcome.
If the goal is "qualify leads before sales calls," starter questions should reveal urgency, current workflow, problem severity, objections, and next steps.
Question patterns
What made you decide to cancel?
Can you describe the last time this problem affected your work?
What were you expecting to happen instead?
What did you choose instead, and why?
Example starter set
For a customer feedback study:
- What were you trying to accomplish when you used the product?
- Where did the experience fall short or work better than expected?
- Can you describe a specific moment that shaped your opinion?
- What should we improve first?
Next step
Use follow-up guidance to tell Lemma what details matter most.