Run Your First Study

Overview

Whether you’re a solo researcher running quick, ad-hoc interviews or a product team embedding research into your continuous delivery sprint, the core workflow in Peppermint is the same. This guide walks you through the end-to-end process of launching a study and analysing your results.

Before You Start

• Account — you have an active account at runpeppermint.com.
• Workspace — your workspace is configured. See: Set Up Your Workspace.
• Team — your collaborators are invited and assigned their roles. See: Team.
• Research objective — you have a clear research question or hypothesis in mind.

How It Works

Step 1: Create a study

1. From your dashboard, click Run Study.

2. Select your study methodology: Survey, Usability Test, or Interview.

3. Enter an internal Title and Description.

4. Click Continue.

Tip

Testers see a separate customer-facing prompt, not your internal title. To keep your research library organised as you scale, use a naming convention such as: [Product Area] — [Research Question] — [MM/YYYY].

Step 2: Build your tasks or questions

This is where you build the core content your testers will interact with.

• Usability Tests — define your primary and secondary research objectives, then write scenario-based tasks. Always write from the tester’s perspective and avoid leading language.
  • Good: “You want to buy a pair of sneakers. Find a pair you like and complete the checkout process.”
  • Avoid: “Click the Shop button, select a shoe, and click Add to Cart.”
• Surveys — use the question builder to mix multiple-choice, single-choice, and open-ended text fields to gather both quantitative and qualitative data.
• Interviews — configure your calendar availability slots so eligible testers can schedule live sessions with you.

Tip

Multiple team members can collaborate on your draft script. If you cannot see collaboration options, verify your access permissions with your workspace Admin.

Step 3: Target your audience

1. Navigate to the Participant tab within your study creator.

2. Use the Audience Filters to define your ideal user profile. You can filter across 14 distinct criteria — including age range, location, gender, device type, professional background, income, and educational level.

3. Enter the total number of participants required for the study.

Step 4: Check costs and top up your Mint balance

Peppermint studies are fully prepaid using Mints. The cost is calculated dynamically based on your study type and participant count.

To review your estimated cost:

1. Complete Steps 1–3 and save your study as a Draft.

2. Navigate to the Review & Publish tab to view the calculated Mint cost.

To top up your Mint balance:

1. Navigate to Home, then click your workspace name in the upper navigation to open the account dropdown.

2. Select Mints.

3. Enter the number of Mints you wish to purchase, select your preferred currency, and click Pay with Debit Card.

Your Mint balance updates immediately upon a successful transaction.

Step 5: Launch your study

1. Return to your draft study and open the Review & Publish tab.

2. Do a final review of your study configuration and target audience.

3. Click Publish.

Peppermint will instantly screen, match, and notify eligible participants within our research network. Most studies begin collecting responses within a few minutes.

Step 6: Review your results

As testers interact with your study, live session data populates in the Status tab. Your study automatically transitions through three internal phases: Gathering Responses, Analysis & Reporting, and Quality Assurance.

Once the study reaches your requested number of validated responses, your final deliverables appear in the Report section:

• Raw Data — individual tester session recordings, interactive transcripts, and full demographic breakdowns.
• Product Metrics — automated task completion rates, along with standard UX metrics (SUS, NPS, CES) and efficiency benchmarks.
• AI Insights — an AI-generated executive summary highlighting key behavioural patterns and tagged findings grouped by thematic trends.

You can share complete research reports with stakeholders outside your workspace. Click Share Report to generate a secure, public URL — no Peppermint account is required to view the data.

Key Actions

• Run Study — Create a new study from the dashboard.
• Audience Filters — Define your target participant profile across 14 criteria.
• Review & Publish — Preview costs and launch your study.
• Mints — Top up your prepaid credit balance before launching.
• Share Report — Generate a public link to share findings with stakeholders.

Tips & Best Practices

• Save your study as a Draft early — you can check the Mint cost before committing to a configuration.
• Write usability test tasks from the tester’s perspective and avoid instructions that lead them to the answer.
• Recruit slightly more participants than you need to account for any drop-off during the study.
• Use AI Insights as a starting point for synthesis — it surfaces patterns across participants automatically, saving hours of manual analysis.

What Happens Next

Once your study is live, monitor responses in the Status tab. When complete, share the report link with your stakeholders directly from the Report section.

See also: Panels · Billing & Plan

FAQs & Common Issues

Q: How long does it take to collect responses?
A: Most studies begin collecting responses within a few minutes of publishing. Total time depends on your participant count and audience criteria.

Q: Can I edit a study after publishing it?
A: Some fields can be updated after publishing. For significant changes to tasks or audience, it is recommended to pause the study and create a revised version.

Q: What if I don’t have enough Mints to launch?
A: Peppermint will prompt you to top up before the study can be published. Top up via Settings → Mints or from the account dropdown on the Home screen.

Q: Can I share results with someone who doesn’t have a Peppermint account?
A: Yes — click Share Report to generate a secure public URL. Recipients do not need a Peppermint account to view the report.