Key Concepts
This guide explains the fundamental concepts that power Diaform. Understanding these will help you make the most of the platform.
Organization#
Your organization is your workspace in Diaform. It's where you manage your subscription, invite team members, and create projects.
Key characteristics:
- Each organization has a unique subdomain (e.g.,
yourcompany.diaform.io) that appears in all interview links - Organizations have a subscription plan (Starter, Pro, or Business) that determines limits on conversations, projects, and features
- You can invite team members to collaborate on projects and view responses
- All billing and usage limits are managed at the organization level
Your subdomain is part of your brand identity on Diaform—choose something recognizable and professional.
Project#
A project (internally called an "agent") is an AI interviewer configured for a specific product, service, or research topic. Each project operates independently with its own configuration.
What a project includes:
- Interview link: A unique URL where respondents access the interview
- Questions: The topics you want to explore with respondents
- Knowledge base: Background information about your product that helps the AI conduct informed interviews
- Automations: Rules that trigger actions mid-interview based on detected topics or sentiment
- Appearance settings: Branding, colors, logo, and welcome messages
You can create multiple projects within one organization—for example, separate projects for different products, customer segments, or research topics.
Interview / Conversation#
An interview (also called a "conversation") is a single session between the AI and one respondent. Each interview goes through these states:
- Opened: The respondent clicked the link but hasn't started answering yet
- Started: The respondent began answering questions
- Completed: The interview finished (either the respondent completed all questions or the AI determined enough information was gathered)
Each interview generates one response with structured insights.
You can view opened vs. started vs. completed conversations in your analytics to understand drop-off rates.
Response#
A response is the structured result of a completed interview. Each response includes:
- AI-generated summary: A concise overview of the key points and themes from the conversation
- Per-question answers: Structured answers for each question, including:
- The respondent's answer
- Sentiment analysis: Positive, negative, neutral, or mixed
- Follow-up exchanges (if any)
- Keywords: Automatically extracted topics and themes mentioned by the respondent
- Notable quotes: Key statements that capture important insights
- Full transcript: The complete conversation history between the AI and respondent
Responses appear in your dashboard where you can filter, search, and analyze them.
Probing Intensity#
Probing intensity controls how deeply the AI follows up on each question. You can set this per question to balance depth vs. interview length.
Three intensity levels:
- Low: Up to 2 follow-up questions—best for surface-level insights or quick surveys
- Medium: Up to 5 follow-up questions—ideal for most use cases, balancing depth and respondent time
- High: Up to 10 follow-up questions—for deep exploration when you need rich qualitative data
The AI adapts follow-ups based on the respondent's answers. If someone gives a detailed, complete answer, the AI may ask fewer follow-ups than the maximum allowed.
Higher probing intensity leads to richer insights but longer interviews. Use high intensity for your most critical questions.
Automations#
Automations are rules that trigger mid-interview when the AI detects specific conditions. They enable your interviews to take action in real-time based on what respondents say.
You can create automations that trigger when:
- The AI detects specific topics (e.g., mentions of "pricing", "bugs", or "customer support")
- The AI detects specific sentiments (e.g., anger, frustration, churn risk, or high satisfaction)
When triggered, automations can:
- Offer a discount code
- Book a calendar meeting
- Send a Slack notification to your team
- Display a custom message
For example: If the AI detects pricing complaints, automatically offer a 20% discount and notify your sales team in Slack.
Knowledge Base#
Your knowledge base provides background context about your product, service, or company that helps the AI conduct more accurate and informed interviews.
You can add knowledge in two ways:
- Text entries: Paste in product descriptions, FAQ content, feature lists, or other relevant information
- File uploads: Upload PDFs, documents, or other files containing product documentation
The AI uses this context to:
- Ask more relevant follow-up questions
- Understand product-specific terminology
- Provide more informed responses if respondents have questions
- Better detect topics and sentiment related to your specific features
A well-stocked knowledge base helps the AI conduct interviews that feel informed and personalized to your product.
What's Next?#
Now that you understand the core concepts, dive deeper into specific areas:
General Settings
Customize your project's name, branding, language, and appearance.
Writing Questions
Learn how to craft effective questions and set the right probing intensity.
Knowledge Base
Add context to help your AI conduct better interviews.
Automations
Set up rules to take action based on what respondents say.