Create questions
Quickly done in the library, but take your time with it. It's important that the questions you ask measure what they are intended to measure and add value. Well-crafted questions provide actionable results and insights.
Overview
In the platform, navigate through the side menu to Library > Questions. Here, you’ll find an overview of the content already available to you. There is a category filled with tested and validated questions from Brilliant’s library and a category where your own created questions are stored.
Beyond the question formulations, you can see when the questions were last updated, their unique IDs, and whether they are active and selectable when setting up surveys. A question ID is unique and helps the system keep track of different versions, while the "Selectable" toggle allows you to keep old questions as references without cluttering the editor when setting up surveys. This ensures that as the library grows, you don’t accidentally select outdated question versions.
On the right-hand side, you’ll find three dots that provide additional options—copy, edit, or delete. Brilliant’s questions cannot be deleted, but you can copy them and create customised variations to fit your needs.
Create New Question
On the "Question" overview page in the Library, click "+ Create New", and a view with text fields and a preview will open.
The first field on the page specifies your master language—the language that serves as the original for your content. All translations will be made from this language. We recommend using English as the master language to facilitate collaboration between colleagues in different countries.
Formulate your question—keep it short, simple, and avoid multiple questions in one. Ensure a good match between your phrasing and the response scale you plan to use. We recommend a 1–5 response scale. Sometimes, it takes a few attempts to find the right wording—this is crucial to avoid misinterpretations and ensure clarity for respondents.
Each question can be supplemented with help text—a short note providing context, such as what the question refers to, which team is being evaluated, or other relevant details. To the right of the text field, there’s a button that allows you to automatically pull in information about the respondent’s nearest manager, team, and organization. The system handles this automatically, ensuring the correct details are assigned to each respondent.
You can also assign a category to your question, which improves searchability and result sorting.
Translations
On the question page, there are two tabs: Content and Translation.
Once you save your question, you’ll have the option to translate it. You can choose to use Brilliant’s AI-powered machine translation or translate manually. You can either translate everything at once or go language by language. Remember to verify any machine translations before implementing them.
One key thing to know is that machine translations will overwrite previous translations. However, you can always undo and restore an earlier version if needed.
How you do it - Example
You are focusing on skills development within your organization and want to ask a question about personal development once per quarter. The question is related to knowledge sharing and has a team focus.
- Click on Library > Questions from the main menu on the left side, then go to the "Questions" tab at the top of the page.
- Click the green "+ Create new" button, and a view with text fields and a preview will open.
- The default language follows your customer account but can be changed if needed (we recommend English to facilitate collaboration on translations).
- In the first empty text field, enter your question (see articles for tips on writing effective questions), for example:
"Do you feel that knowledge sharing is prioritized in your team?" - In the next field, write a short help text to clarify for respondents which team they should evaluate—since the perspective is their own team.
- Add a variable using the icon to the right of the text field, which pulls respondents' team names from the organizational structure.
- In the text field, write: "Your team:"
- Then click the variable icon and select [team name].
- Choose a standard 1-5 response scale, as it matches the question format.
- Assign a category (e.g., personal development) to make the question easily searchable when setting up future surveys and generating reports.
- Save your question—always remember to save!
Background questions
Background questions work differently than general questions and, as of now, need to be created and added to your library by your friends at Brilliant.