Protobi helps you explore your data, answer key questions, and create cool charts for your report while being flexible to your timeline and goals. Here's what you can expect from us, and what we'll expect from your team.

Protobi is software plus service

Protobi is both (a) a software tool you can use and (b) a team to help you do that.  

Plan to schedule one or more half hour work sessions, so we can review your data together online and design visualizations that accomplish your analysis goals.  

In the first projects, lean on our team to do the setup so you'll see what's possible and learn how to do it. In subsequent projects, your team will be increasingly capable for common tasks, and contact us for more advanced and unique tasks.

Project setup plan

1) Send your survey data

Projects start once you send us the data. We can even start with partial data and create the project before fielding is even complete. 

Send any relevant data to support@protobi.com, which may include:

  • Survey data (SPSS SAV file or API credentials to survey engine)
  • Survey questionnaire 
  • Analysis/banner plan
  • PowerPoint template
  • Brand guidelines (color, font, etc.)
  • Current report 
  • Examples of other client deliverables

Schedule a design work session at https://protobi.com/calendar as soon as you send us the survey.

Optional kickoff call    

If you want to discuss your survey in detail prior to sending us data, feel free to set up a kickoff meeting. In this call we will discuss: 

  • Overview of the survey 
  • Your goals (e.g. streamline internal analysis, provide client deliverable, etc.)
  • Deliverables (e.g. Online charts, Excel tables, PowerPoint slides)
  • Specific issues (e.g. weighting, stacking, coding, translation, etc.)
  • Preferred support style (e.g. we do stuff for you, we teach you to do stuff)
  • Timelines (i.e. rush)

Depending on how quickly the call is scheduled after sending us the data and the complexity of the project, this kickoff call may include or simply be the initial design worksession…

2) Protobi sets up your project

For most first clients, especially new clients, we recommend that we do the initial data import and view configuration for you. 

In 1-2 business days, we will create a neatly organized project view, and grant you access ahead of your scheduled work session.

3) Design work session

Work sessions typically last half an hour, we will show you the initial setup, show relevant software features, and generally walk through the survey question by question. Your team will provide background on the project and set expectations for the project scope, timeline, and deliverables.

During the call we’ll be keeping detailed notes on any changes required, such as:

  • Chart types
  • Data calculations needed –weights, stacking, intermediate variables, etc.
  • Rules for identifying and handling outliers
  • General organization

The main goal is to make sure the project is set up to your specifications. In the process, your team will get trained on how to use the app. Many clients prefer that they “drive” and share their screen, to ensure that all works and makes sense.

You can schedule work sessions on our calendar to review the initial view. For simple studies, we can even create and complete the project setup together in the first session. More complex projects may require more than one meeting over more than one day.

4) Analysis and collaboration

Your team

Your team has control of project data and edits. How often data is updated, and project customizations depend on your specific project needs. 

After the first design work session, many users are comfortable with making common edits in the tool. You can expect your team to spend anywhere from 2-5 hours editing a project, depending on how many adjustments you'll make to the initial setup. 

Protobi support 

You're focused on creating an insightful presentation and we're eager to help. You can add additional support hours to your project for us to make edits on your behalf. We'll track time closely, and communicate via a shared change log or Protobi notes.

You can also email or schedule time with us for support. We’re usually happy to provide training (“How do I do X?”) within reason at no charge, and also happy to provide more involved support (“Can you do X for us?”) as billable support. We’ll track our hours in your project log, and invoice as appropriate.  

For tracking studies where each wave is considered a new project, there is built-in support time for us to make regular updates to your project on your behalf (add respondents, new questions/charts, etc.)

We turn around most requests to support@protobi.com within the same day. For more complex requests, we ask that you give us 1-2 business days. 

5) Protobi delivers a final project view

Based on the design work session and any follow-up discussions, we will complete any pending tasks and polish your project. At that point the project is ready for your team to review, and we will support you as needed. 

For standard projects the final view is ready within a week. 

6) Share with colleagues and clients

You can share the project with your client from the very first day, or wait until all the views are polished and the data is final. Grant your end client direct access to the project with "View" or "Edit" permissions. 

Create new projects yourself

If you're an experienced user, you can bypass project setup from Protobi support and upload your survey independently. 

Sign into https://app.protobi.com press "New project" and upload a survey datafile. This will create your new project space where every column in your data appears as an interactive chart. See Create a new project for detailed instructions.

Data cleaning and prep

Protobi can do sophisticated data prep. A lot of data work you might otherwise have done in R, SPSS or sent to external firms, we can program in Protobi.

Maybe you need to combine countries or waves, merge in translations, calculate respondent weights, untangle a choice exercise, stack patient case data, etc. 

By processing data in Protobi, your logic is accessible to your team and all in one place. It runs every time you upload new data, and is checked into version control using git. Some time for data prep is included in the base project cost. We'll let you know in advance if it ever gets to the point where we'd need to bill extra.

If you prefer R, we integrate nicely with R as well with the Protobi R library which provides convenient utilities to get data from -- and push data to -- your project.

Project life

A Protobi Professional Project is "active" for three months. During this time you can update or replace the data as often as you like. After this time the data is assumed to be stable, meaning that you're not uploading new respondent data. 

You will have access to your project and you can edit the view, change permissions, export data, etc indefinitely. 

If your client loves the work and wants the survey updated beyond that, we have additional options for tracking studies.

Tracking studies

Protobi is often used for tracking studies, including weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual studies. 

Typically we create a new “project” at the start of each wave with both:

  • a “clone” of the project
  • additional design support hours


Email us at support@protobi.com or schedule a time on our calendar to discuss your project.