Adaptive pulse
A few questions a send on a steady rhythm, picked from your themes so every topic comes round — set up step by step in one window, previewed per person, then started.
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A weekly pulse has to be short, and a short survey cannot ask about everything. An adaptive pulse solves both: you switch on the themes you want to measure, and each send asks every person only a few of their questions, chosen for that person. Over a few sends, every theme has come round.
On Team and up, with Campaigns switched on: a pulse is a campaign.
Set one up
A pulse is set up in its own window, step by step. Open it with New pulse on Campaigns, with its line under Ready-made programmes in the setup guide — Run a monthly pulse in an employee workspace, Start an adaptive pulse elsewhere — or from Ask Polzy. Each step is saved as a draft when you leave it, so closing the window loses nothing: open the draft again and it starts at the first step left to do. Closed with nothing set after the first step, the window asks whether to keep the draft: Discard draft deletes it and its survey, Keep draft leaves it under Campaigns. Beside each step's choices, a live preview shows what it sets up, and changes as you choose. Opened from Run a monthly pulse, a new pulse starts on that programme: monthly, anonymous, with as many questions as its survey asks.
- What it is. Name the pulse and choose whether answers are Named or Anonymous. Beside it is the invitation a person receives: the pulse's name, how many questions this time, and what your choice means to them — "Your answers carry your name, so they can be followed up with you." or "Your answers are anonymous: nobody sees who answered what." Then choose whether to Read each answer with AI (see Read each answer with AI).
- Who. Choose Everyone, or Some people and write who as rules: Only people where Department is Sales, Support — one row per field, joined by and, built the way conditions are. Named people narrows it further. Skip the first weeks keeps someone who just joined out for that many weeks: set it with − and +. Split by is the field a team question is asked once per value of, or Don’t split. When some of these people are already in another pulse, you can skip anyone another pulse asked in the last seven days. Beside it: how many people it asks, a few of them as faces, the groups results are split by — or Results for everyone together — when newcomers join, and an example of one group's own result.
- What to measure. Switch themes on and off; each shows how many questions it holds. Your own area's themes come first, and Other areas shows the rest. A new pulse starts with the themes your workspace's own themes are named for switched on — an event workspace's Venue and platform, for one — or, where none of yours is, your own area's. A Focus asks more about one to three themes — about half of each send — for a number of sends or until a date, then ends by itself. Every theme's questions come from Polzy's question bank, worded the same every time so results compare over time: Show its 6 questions under a theme lists them. Beside it, the themes you chose stand as a ring of their questions, each with one example question, and an example of what they can show — a theme down in one group, with Dig into this.
- Rhythm. Send weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly or quarterly, and choose Questions each time: 3, 4, 6, 8 or 10. The length marked is the one recommended for the rhythm. Pick the day and time of each send, and set eNPS every with − and +. Beside it, the next five sends stand on a calendar strip — the day, the date and the questions in each, with eNPS marked on the sends it comes round in — over the line that says how many weeks your themes take to cover, and an example of one theme send by send. Under the choices, How each send is chosen opens the rules each send follows, with the two you can change: Follow up a low answer and At most per theme (see How each send is chosen).
- Your own questions. A line from Polzy says what they are for: something only you want to know — a recent change, a project, an event. Under it are about five suggested questions: Suggested for your workspace, written by AI from your workspace's context and the themes you chose where AI drafting is on, or else Suggested from the question bank — bank questions the pulse does not already rotate. Tick the ones you want; Suggest others offers new ones, never the same again. To write your own, type it under Add one of your own and choose Add: it is asked on the agreement scale, 1 to 5. Under Your questions, switch on Always ask to put a question in every send — up to two — or choose Ask only… to keep it to the people a few rules pick, in the same rows as Who; Ask everyone takes the rules away. The × beside a question removes it. Another question type, a picture or more wording is the survey builder's job: Open in the builder opens the pulse's survey in a new tab. Nobody else asks your questions, so their answers compare with nothing, and none at all is fine. Beside it, your questions stand as people will meet them: the agreement faces, or a box to write in.
- Preview and start. Preview as starts on the first person, and their next send is drawn beside: the first question as they will see it, with why it is there, then the rest with their theme and reason. A line says each send follows the rules set on Rhythm, with How each send is chosen to go back to them. Check the choices below — each has Edit — and press Start pulse.
Starting publishes the pulse's survey and launches the campaign. The window ends on Your pulse has started: a summary with the first send's date, its people as faces and one question they will meet, the line that says when it goes and to how many people, Open the pulse, and Pause it one click away.
Read each answer with AI
On the first step, Read each answer with AI reads every answer for its themes, its sentiment and a short reading of what it says. It is off unless you switch it on, and it spends AI credits on each answer. Once the pulse's draft exists, a grey tag beside the switch says what it would cost: ≈ 2 credits per answer · up to ≈ 84 per round — a round being one send that everybody answers. Who says what the pulse's AI would spend if everyone answered, and Preview and start repeats your choice with its figure, or No AI credits per answer when it is off; point at that tag to see why.
Reading answers with AI needs AI scoring on your plan and in your workspace. Without it the switch is locked and says why.
Preview as
On the last step, Preview as starts on the first person and draws their next send beside the choices, worked out the way the send itself works it out: each question with why it is there — not asked for a few weeks, a follow-up after a low answer, a focus theme, always asked, eNPS on its rhythm. Your own questions are marked as not comparable.
How each send is chosen
Each time the pulse sends, Polzy picks the questions for every person on their own, by these rules in this order. The Rhythm step lists them for your pulse under How each send is chosen.
- Always ask comes first. Up to two questions you tagged are in every send.
- eNPS on a rhythm. The recommend question is asked on each person's first send and then every few sends — every fourth unless you change it.
- A low answer comes back. When somebody answers a question on the low side, it is asked again in their next two sends, to see whether it was a bad week or a pattern. Switch Follow up a low answer off and it waits for its turn like the others. Never in an anonymous pulse.
- The least recently asked come next. Questions a person has not been asked, or was asked longest ago, are picked before the rest.
- At most two on one theme. A send never asks more than that about the same thing, unless a focus needs them. At most per theme sets it from one to four — never more than the send asks.
The choice is fixed for each person and send: a reminder asks the same questions as the invitation.
Anonymous pulses ask everyone the same questions in a send. Who gets which questions — the themes that suit someone and the questions kept to some people — is set under Settings › People › Recognising people (Recognising people); the link is under the rules, for those who can open it.
What people see
Each person sees only their questions, on one page. A pulse is answered from its invitations only: its survey has no public link, QR code or embed, and it has no logic or sections. Its results are live — there are no rounds to publish.
Each invitation works until that person's next send goes out. Somebody who opens an older one then reads This round has ended, with a link to their own newest invitation, so an answer always lands in their latest send. A reminder carries its invitation's own link, so it ends nothing.
Anonymous pulses
When answers are anonymous, nothing anybody answered changes what they are asked next: a low answer does not come back. Everybody is asked the same questions in a send, and the next send asks the ones asked longest ago. Questions chosen for one person would tell anyone who sees which questions an anonymous answer holds who it came from, so an anonymous pulse never picks them per person, and it does not narrow them by a person's details either.
A pulse with Named answers keeps that promise for anybody whose answer is anonymous all the same. Somebody who turned on Answer anonymously by default in their own settings is asked the send's shared questions, not the ones chosen for them, and so is everybody who answers a send after the pulse was made anonymous. Once they have answered, their invitation keeps no list of the questions it asked. Preview as shows what a named answer gets.
Change a running pulse
Open the pulse's campaign and press Edit campaign. Where an ordinary campaign has its survey, trigger and cadence, a pulse shows Pulse settings: each choice in plain words, and Edit opens the window on that step. The pulse's survey can still be opened in the builder, where it shows only your own questions with their tags. A change — or a focus ending — reaches the next send: a send already out keeps its questions for everybody who answers it, from a reminder too, until their next send goes out.
The pulse's card, on its campaign's Overview and on your Dashboard, shows Next send: the day and time the next send goes out, on your clock, worked out from its rhythm and its last send. A paused or ended pulse shows None planned.
Pause or stop a pulse
Pause on the pulse's campaign stops its sends: no invitation, reminder or newcomer invitation goes out until you start it again. Pausing always works, even with Campaigns or Adaptive pulse switched off.
Switching Campaigns off in Settings → General stops every campaign, pulses included, and Adaptive pulse is off with it: New pulse and the setup window are locked and say that Campaigns is switched off. Switch Campaigns back on and an active pulse sends again on its rhythm; pause it first if it should not.
Your plan's question limit
For a pulse, the plan's questions-per-survey limit counts one send's questions: Questions each time stays within it, however many questions its themes hold.
Ask Polzy
Ask Polzy "Set up a fortnightly pulse for Sales, six questions, anonymous" and it saves a draft with those choices, then opens the window on its last step. You preview it there and press Start pulse yourself.
Related articles
Signed-in members can ask Polzy or message the team from Support. How fast we reply depends on your plan.