This guide provides a simple walkthrough for scheduling your interviews/sessions. The platform connects your interview schedule directly to the Respondent Hub. This means Project Owners, Editors, and Collaborators can manage everything from one place.
Access Your Project Overview Page
Every project has its own Overview page where you can manage your interviews. To access it, follow these steps:
- Log in to your Discuss account.
Select your project from the dashboard.
You will land on the Project Overview page.
Note: If you cannot see this page, your user role may be limited. Contact the project owner to update your permissions.
Navigating the Overview Page
The Overview page provides a central view of all scheduled sessions. Each interview card displays key details, including session name, date and time, assigned moderators, observers, translators, and respondents. You can also see whether materials such as consent forms or discussion guides have been added, and whether Live Support is assigned (if applicable). From this view, you can quickly edit sessions, copy links, or join as a moderator or observer.
View Filters: Toggle between the All tab and the Mine tab. We recommend the All tab for full project visibility.
Time Zone: Located at the top left with a "type to filter" search. Setting this ensures all interview times are accurate to your local time.
- The schedule interview button allows you to schedule a new interview.
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The Invites button allows you to manage the email content sent to your team. You can edit the messages for moderators, observers, and translators.
Email Templates: You can use the default Discuss email or customise the text to fit your needs.
Automatic Links: You do not need to manually add joining links. The platform automatically includes the correct link for each specific role in the email invite.
This is a detailed article that shows how to customise these invites: Customise Interview Invites
How to Schedule an Interview
The scheduling experience is organised into two sections: Details and Participants, allowing you to set up sessions clearly and manage all required inputs in one place.
Details Section:
Start: Click the Schedule Interview button on the right.
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Basic Details: * Name: Give your session a name. This is for your team only and is not seen by respondents; it's visible to the project members and in the moderator and observer invites. If no session name is entered, a default session ID will be used.
Date and Time: Click the calendar icon to pick your day and time.
The time zone reflects your account settings and can be adjusted using the search field
Duration: Set the length. Duration can be set in 15-minute increments, with additional preset options available.
- A warning will appear if scheduling takes place within 24 business hours when Live Support is required.
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Interview Setup:
Type: Choose if this is a one-on-one interview or a focus group with up to 8 people.
Market and Language: Select the country and the language that the respondent speaks.
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Translation: If you need a translator, select simultaneous or consecutive. This prepares the room with the right technical links.
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Technical Settings:
Recording: You can set the interview to start recording automatically, manually, or not at all.
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Video Stream: You can choose to force a blurred background for respondents to protect their privacy; respondents must use a Chromium-based browser for the blurred background to be applied.
Guides: Attach your consent forms or discussion guides to the interview here.
Participants Section:
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Moderators:
If you are going to be moderating yourself, use the "I am the moderator" quick-add button or select from the project list.
If someone else will be the moderator, check the box next to their email, if thy are not yet a project member, you'll need to add them to the project first by clicking the "Add Project Members" button. Note: You have the possibility to list more than one moderator per interview.
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Respondents: Link existing participants from the Respondent Hub or add a new one directly (First Name required).
You can create a respondent directly while scheduling by entering their details. This automatically creates a record in the Respondent Hub. A running total of all invites is displayed before saving, so you can review who will receive access.
Observers: Add emails individually or bulk-add using semicolons (;) or commas.
Recruiters: Select from the project-wide email list, or add them to the project if they are not a project member yet.
Tip: Apply to All To save time, use the Apply to All checkbox for translator settings, interview materials (guides/consent forms), and participant roles (moderators/observers). This pushes those settings to every interview in the project automatically.
Apply Settings Across Sessions
To save time and maintain consistency, you can apply certain settings across all sessions within your project.
This includes:
- Session materials: consent forms and discussion guides
- Participant roles: moderators, observers, and recruiters
Using this option helps reduce repetitive setup and ensures that all sessions follow the same configuration where needed.
View Once the Interview has been Scheduled
- You can see the interview name or the default given ID if you haven't entered an interview name.
- Edit the interview details.
- Copy any of the interview links and get the Dial-In Information
- The 3-dot menu allows you to duplicate or delete the interview.
Session Indicators and Status Visibility
Each session card shows visual indicators for key setup elements:
- Consent Forms: Displays whether a consent form has been added to the session
- Discussion Guides: Indicates if a discussion guide is attached
- Live Support: Shows the status of technical support for the session (if included in your project)
These indicators appear directly on the session card, allowing you to confirm setup without opening the session details.
Invite Participant
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Invite moderators
- Multiple Moderators can join the meeting room
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Invite observers
- We recommend a maximum of 40 observers
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Invite Respondents
- We recommend inviting a maximum of 8 respondents
When scheduling qualitative research using the Discuss Live Meeting Room, the number of respondents can significantly impact the quality of the session and the data collected. We recommend limiting the respondents to a maximum of 8 to help :
- Improve Session Management: It is much easier for a moderator to manage a conversation with 8 people or fewer. This size allows the moderator to keep the talk on track, ensure everyone participates, and handle any questions quickly. If you have Live Support, our agents can also provide technical help much more efficiently in smaller groups.
- Enhance Engagement, Interaction, and In-Depth Analysis: Qualitative research is all about detail. In a smaller group, every respondent has enough time to speak and share their thoughts. In larger groups, some participants might be overshadowed, making it harder to get balanced data from everyone.
- Ensure Technical Performance: The Discuss meeting room is built to handle up to 16 video streams, but the best experience happens with smaller groups. Fewer participants mean a lower chance of connection issues or technical glitches, ensuring a seamless experience for everyone involved.
Live Support Visibility
If your project includes Live Support as a service, the platform provides two clear indicators to help you manage your tech support.
- Scheduling Warnings: The platform monitors the notice period for your interviews. You will see a warning message if you schedule or move a session to a time that falls outside of the support window: "Live support will not be available. This interview either has only 24 business hours' notice or is scheduled for a weekend."
- If you see this warning, it means our support agents will not be able to attend due to the short notice or weekend timing. If you need to request an exception for a specific session, please reschedule the session with more that 24-hours notice. If you have any questions, contact our support team at customercare@discuss.io
For sessions with Live Support, you can hover over the support indicator to view its status:
- Unavailable: Support is assigned to this interview, and it will not meet all the required criteria to get support.
- Requested: Support has been requested and will be assigned, as the session meets all required criteria.
- Assigned: A support agent has been confirmed for the session.
This visibility helps you quickly identify sessions that may need attention before they begin.
NOTE: If your project does not include support, the support status will not appear in the session details.
Duplicating, Editing, & Deleting Interviews
Duplicating Sessions
To avoid starting from scratch, you can duplicate an existing session (including past/completed ones):
Find the session card on the Overview page.
Click the three-dot menu.
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Select Duplicate. Note: This copies the setup but does NOT copy the session name, date, time, or respondents to prevent scheduling errors.
Editing & Rescheduling
Click on any session in the Overview or Calendar tab to make changes.
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Rescheduling: Changing the time typically does not change the session link.
Reschedule from the Calendar
- From the Calendar Tab, identify the interview that needs to be rescheduled
- Click on the time of the interview in the calendar, NOT the plus sign
- Interview can be listed with the Interview ID
- Interviews can be listed with the Interview Name
- Make edits to your session
- Select a new date from the calendar
- Select the time
- Click save!
Deleting Sessions
If a session has no recordings and no respondents, you can delete it via the session details modal.
Note: Deletions are subject to the project's cancellation policy. You cannot delete a session once the room has been opened or the start time has passed.
Managing Past Interviews
Just below the upcoming interviews section, you will find the Past Interviews area. This section acts as a history of all activity that has taken place within the project.
When you click into this section, you can toggle between two main views:
Live Sessions: This shows all scheduled interviews and focus groups that have concluded.
Personal Meeting Rooms: This shows any calls or meetings held using the personal meeting room links within this project.
In the Past Interviews view, you can see a detailed summary of each session, including:
Session Details: The name of the session, the date, the time, and the market.
Respondent Activity: See which respondents were invited.
Team Activity: View the list of invited moderators, observers, and translators, along with confirmation of who actually joined the room.
Deleting Past Interviews
Sessions Without Recordings: If a session was not recorded and you want to remove it from your history, you can delete it directly from the Past Interviews list on the Overview page.
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Sessions With Recordings: If a session has a recording, it cannot be deleted from the Overview page. To delete these:
Go to the Recordings page.
Click the Tools & Download button for that specific session.
Delete the recording from that menu. Once the recording is gone, the session record can be managed.
Schedule Interviews with Translation
You can configure translation directly when setting up your session to ensure the meeting room is prepared correctly.
To set up translation:
- Select the translation type: Simultaneous or Consecutive
- Add the translator’s email address
- Choose both:
- The interview language (spoken by the moderator and respondent)
- The translated language (spoken by the translator)
These settings ensure the correct meeting environment is created, including the appropriate access links for the translator and accurate transcript handling.
If you are running multiple sessions with the same setup, you can apply translation settings across all sessions to maintain consistency and reduce manual work.
Once saved, the session will include the required translation configuration and appear in your scheduled interviews with the appropriate setup in place.