Crowdsourcing Campaigns

Crowdsourcing campaigns let you collect structured input from a group of respondents. A campaign packages one or more forecasting questions and scenario sets into a step-by-step survey that respondents complete in order. Campaigns are useful when you want to gather probability estimates or scenario assessments from people who may not regularly use Hinsley.

Creating a Campaign

Navigate to the Crowdsourcing Campaigns section of your analysis to create a new campaign. The creation form asks for:

  • Title - A name for the campaign
  • Instructions - Guidance for respondents, displayed at the start of the survey. Supports rich text formatting.
  • Access level - Who can respond to the campaign (see below)
  • Closes at - An optional deadline after which no new responses are accepted. Defaults to one month from creation.

You can save the campaign as a draft to continue configuring it before making it available to respondents, or create it immediately to start collecting responses.

Access Levels

The access level controls who can respond to your campaign:

  • Collaborators only - Only users who are collaborators on the analysis can respond. Requires login.
  • All account members - Anyone in your Hinsley account can respond. Requires login.
  • Anyone with the link - Anyone who has the campaign URL can respond, without logging in. This is the best option for collecting input from people outside your organization.

Adding Steps

After creating a campaign, add the items you want respondents to complete. Each item becomes a step in the survey. The available step types are:

  • Forecasting questions - Respondents submit probability estimates for a forecasting question
  • Scenario sets - Respondents assess the likelihood of each scenario in a scenario set

Add steps from the available items panel on the campaign configuration page. You can search and filter available items by name. Each step can be marked as required or optional, and you can drag steps to reorder them.

Once the first response is submitted, steps are locked - you cannot add, remove, or reorder them. You can still toggle whether a step is required.

Inviting Respondents

There are two ways to get respondents into your campaign:

Email Invitations

Click “Invite Respondents” to open the invitation form. Enter email addresses (one per line) and send. Each recipient gets an email with the campaign title, instructions, and a link to start the survey. You can track the status of each invitation - whether the email was sent, the link was clicked, the respondent started, or they completed all steps. Invitations can be resent if needed.

Public Link

For campaigns with the “Anyone with the link” access level, click “Copy Response Link” to get a shareable URL. Distribute this link through any channel - email, chat, or a website. Anyone who opens the link can begin responding immediately without creating an account.

The Respondent Experience

Respondents progress through the campaign one step at a time:

  1. They open the campaign link and see the campaign instructions
  2. A step counter at the top shows their progress (e.g., “Step 1 of 5”)
  3. For each step, they submit their forecast or scenario assessment and advance to the next step
  4. Required steps must be completed in order; optional steps can be skipped
  5. After completing all required steps, they see a completion page with an option to review their responses
  6. Respondents can go back to edit any previous response at any time

Viewing Responses

As a campaign creator, you have two tabs for monitoring responses:

Invites Tab

Shows all email invitations with their current status: pending, sent, clicked, started, or completed. This helps you identify who has not yet participated and follow up if needed.

Responses Tab

Lists all submissions with each respondent’s name, progress percentage, status, start date, and completion date. Click a respondent to view their individual answers for each step.

You receive an email notification when a respondent completes the campaign.

Campaign Lifecycle

A campaign moves through three states:

  • Draft - The campaign is not yet live. You can freely edit all settings, add or remove steps, and configure access. Respondents cannot access a draft campaign.
  • Open - The campaign is published and accepting responses. Steps are locked once the first response is submitted. You can still send additional invitations and extend the close date.
  • Closed - The close date has passed. No new responses are accepted. All existing responses remain available for review.