How sure is this number?
A score rests on the people who answered. The dot beside it says how far it could still move, how many people it rests on, and when there are too few answers to state a margin.
On this page
Every score in Polzy is an average of the people who answered. Twenty-three people tell you less than two hundred, and a score from a few of them could land somewhere else next round without anything having changed. Beside a score, a small dot says how sure it is, so you know which numbers to act on and which to wait for.
The dot is on scores — the headline score, a theme's score, a heatmap cell. Counts and the response rate carry none: they are counted, not estimated.
Where you see it
- On the headline tiles. After a score's name on the Dashboard and on Analytics.
- On heatmap cells. In the corner of a cell that could still move. A settled cell carries no dot, so the ones worth a second look stand out. See Heatmaps.
- On hover and on focus. Point at the dot or the cell, or move to it with the keyboard, for one line: ±0.7 either way · 23 people · may still move.
The four levels
| Dot | Says | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Green | unlikely to move much | Enough people answered that another round would land close to this score. |
| Amber | may still move | A real reading, but a move of a few tenths could be chance. |
| Red | could still move a lot | Few people, or answers that differ a lot from one person to the next. Read it as a direction, not a figure. |
| Hollow dot | Too few answers to state a margin | The score is shown, but too few people answered to say how far it could move. Wait for more answers before deciding anything on it. |
The margin and the people
- The margin. ±0.7 either way means the score you would get if everyone answered is, 95 times out of 100, within 0.7 of this one, on the same scale out of 10. It narrows as more people answer, and faster when most of the people asked have answered. That holds for the headline score and for a group — a heatmap cell, a team's column — whenever Polzy knows how many in it were asked: 40 answers from a team of 50 say far more about that team than 40 answers from an organization of 5,000. A score Polzy cannot match to the people asked, such as a theme's score across the whole view, is not narrowed that way, so its margin stays on the cautious side.
- The people. Each person counts once, however many times they answered — the same rule as the minimum group size.
When it is too early to act
- Wait. A survey still collecting will settle as answers come in.
- Widen the view. A longer period or a broader group puts more people behind the score.
- Compare with care. Two scores whose margins overlap may not differ at all. A move smaller than the margin is not yet a change.
Good to know
- The dot does not hide anything. The minimum group size decides whether a score is shown; the dot says how sure a shown score is.
- The level is worked out on the server, from the same answers as the score, so every screen and report shows the same one.
- No dot is drawn on a figure the minimum group size holds back — there is no number to be sure of — nor on a Viewer's own results, which are one person's answers rather than an estimate.
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Signed-in members can ask Polzy or message the team from Support. How fast we reply depends on your plan.