Getting Started

Core Concepts

Before diving into individual features, it helps to understand how Olivia's building blocks fit together. Every market research project in Olivia is made up of the same core entities.

Projects

A project is the top-level container for everything in Olivia. Each research study you run is a separate project. Projects contain modes, products, slots, questions, invitations, and respondents.

You can create multiple projects and switch between them from the project dropdown in the menu. Each project has its own team members, settings, and data.

When you first register, a demo project is created for you. The demo project is free and limited to 5 slots. It lets you explore all features before setting up a real project. See Creating Projects for more details.

Modes

A mode defines the type of research session. Common examples include:

Focus Group
In-depth Interview (IDI)
Quantitative Survey
Online Interview

Each mode can have a duration (in minutes), which is used in PDF invitations and scheduling. You can create as many modes as your project needs. See Modes for setup instructions.

Products

A product represents the item or variant being evaluated in your study. Products depend on what you are researching — they could be brands, models, advertisements, packaging designs, or anything else respondents will evaluate.

Examples:

For a car study: "Tesla Model 3", "BMW i4", "VW ID.3"
For a food study: "Ritter Sport", "Lindt", "Milka"

See Products for setup instructions.

Quotas

Quotas are the recruiting limits for each product-mode combination. They control how many respondents can be booked and help you track progress toward your goals. There are three quota types:

Quota	Purpose
Target	The number of respondents you need to meet your study goals.
Total	Target plus an over-recruitment buffer to account for no-shows.
Open	How many more respondents can still be booked. Decreases automatically as bookings are made.

For example, if you need 100 respondents but expect 10% no-shows, set the target to 100 and the total to 110. The open quota starts at 110 and counts down with each booking.

Quotas are configured per product and per mode. See Products & Quotas for setup instructions.

Slots

A slot is a single time block that one respondent can book. Slots are the core scheduling inventory in Olivia.

Each slot has:

A mode (the session type)
A date and time (the appointment)
An optional name (e.g., "Focus Group 1")
Optional product restrictions (limit which products can be booked into this slot)
A status that tracks its lifecycle (Open, Booked, Show, No Show, etc.)

You define your project's schedule by creating slots. Ideally, you create more slots than the number of respondents you need, so recruiters can offer a range of appointment times. See Slots for setup instructions.

Respondents

A respondent is a person who has been booked into a slot. Respondent records store contact information, demographic data, question answers, and attendance status.

Respondents are created during the booking flow and can be managed throughout the project lifecycle. See Respondent Management for details.

How They Connect

Project
  |-- Modes (session types with duration)
  |-- Products (items to evaluate, with quotas per mode)
  |-- Slots (time blocks, assigned to modes, optionally restricted to products)
  |     |-- Respondent (booked into a slot)
  |           |-- Answers (to project questions)
  |-- Questions (asked about each respondent)
  |-- Invitation (PDF template for respondents)

The typical workflow is:

Set up: Create modes, products (with quotas), and slots.
Recruit: Book respondents into slots via the booking flow.
Execute: Manage day-of operations with Study Live and QR check-in.
Report: Monitor progress in Statistics and export to Excel.

Onboarding — the setup wizard that guides you through creating modes, products, and slots
Glossary — definitions of all key terms
Create a Project — step-by-step project creation guide