Best-Practice Support
Forthright does not leave researchers guessing about best practices. Our support team exists because rigorous survey research benefits from deep knowledge about the origins, treatment, and sampling of respondents.
Platform
Well-Supported Researchers & Rigorous Survey Designs
Even the most carefully recruited panel cannot protect results from project-level setup mistakes or poor survey design. Forthright's researcher platform offers transparent tools paired with expert oversight at the specific stages where survey research benefits most from hands-on review.
A deliberately semi-automated workflow supports quality by combining researcher control with expert guardrails that prevent errors before they affect data.
Step 1
Envision Your Survey & Submit a Project Starter
This step ensures projects begin with clear expectations around sampling, feasibility, and cost—before programming or piloting begins.
- Use a transparent cost calculator to estimate project expenses up front.
- Browse the Survey Question Library, which includes validated political, social, demographic, and consumer measures; standard batteries; and experimental templates.
- Use the Project Starter to choose sampling options or specify custom requirements, with optional add-ons for survey programming and custom reporting.
Step 2
Collaboratively Confirm Design & Pilot Your Survey
Piloting reveals common issues that fully DIY platforms often leave undetected—from underpowered designs and unattainable quotas to logic and randomization errors.
- A Forthright research specialist follows up to review project details, answer questions, and offer experience-based guidance.
- Once you are satisfied, Forthright pilots your survey and evaluates the results.
- Forthright can sample surveys programmed externally (e.g., Qualtrics) or provide fully in-house programming services.
Step 3
Hard Launch with Real-time Dashboard & Balancing
This step gives researchers full visibility without taking on full responsibility to manage complex sampling decisions or troubleshoot problems with a survey in the field.
- After launch, researchers monitor live progress through a real-time project dashboard.
- Quality checks are performed continuously to spot and resolve issues as they arise.
- Automated rebalancing corrects over- and under-filled quotas to ensure the final sample is representative.
Devoted project support from our research experts.
Reduced Research Risk
Fully self-service platforms may seem efficient, but they shift responsibility and risk onto researchers—flawed sampling designs, unattainable quotas, unnoticed logic errors, and subtle failures in experimental assignment.
Critical Thinking First
The false sense of control created by menu-style "build and launch" tools discourages critical thinking about recruitment, sampling, and respondent behavior precisely when it matters most.
Hybrid Service Model
Forthright's hybrid service model gives researchers the flexibility of DIY tools while protecting inference through expert review, piloting, and active monitoring—minimizing avoidable errors and ensuring valid results.
Inference You Can Trust
Forthright's platform is designed to support credible inference—not just efficient fielding. By pairing a carefully maintained panel with expert-guided workflows, Forthright helps researchers produce results they can both understand and stand behind.