> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dovetail.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Experience research
> Run a research study in Dovetail, and set up tags and fields so the findings stay comparable across every study that follows.
Experience research is deep work on small samples: a round of interviews, a usability study, or a set of sales calls you want to read closely. In Dovetail each study is a project, so this work lives in [Projects](/help/projects).
This page covers the decisions that determine how useful a study is after it ends. The linked feature pages cover the steps in detail. A study run in Dovetail keeps the transcript, the highlights, and the report connected. Claims in the report link to the moment in the recording they came from, so a colleague can play the clip rather than rely on your summary.
For continuous feedback streams such as support tickets, reviews, and survey volume, use [Channels](/help/channels) and see [Run a voice-of-customer program](/help/voice-of-customer) instead. Both feed the same workspace, so [Chat](/help/chat) can reason across them together.
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## Running a study
**Set up before you import.** Add project Context: objective keywords, plus links to your strategy docs. Context is the background the AI reads before it suggests a highlight or answers a question, so completing it improves the output of every step that follows. Set your Automation defaults in the same pass, so each session is transcribed and summarized when it arrives. See [Projects](/help/projects).
**Import the sessions.** Recordings, documents, and survey CSVs all import into the same project, so sessions and the survey that preceded them can be analyzed together. Set the transcription language before you begin analysis, because regenerating a transcript deletes the highlights made from the old one. See [Import data to projects](/help/projects/import-data-to-projects) and [Transcribe and translate](/help/projects/transcribe-and-translate).
**Analyze.** Highlight the moments that matter, tag them, then cluster them on a canvas to identify themes. Each highlight keeps a link to its position in the recording, so a theme on the canvas stays connected to the source material. See [Highlights](/help/projects/highlights) and [Canvas view](/help/projects/canvas-view).
**Write it up.** Build a doc from the clustered highlights. Each claim carries the clip it came from, so readers can check the evidence themselves rather than ask you for it. You can share the doc, present it full screen, or send it to Jira or Linear. See [Getting started with docs](/help/docs/getting-started-with-docs), [Report prompts](/help/docs/report-prompt-guide), and [Share and organize docs](/help/docs/organise-and-share-docs).
**Hand it over.** [Chat](/help/chat) answers questions about the study and cites the source data, so stakeholders can follow up without going through you. Chat reads project metadata, so completed fields and assigned contacts improve the answers. Doc visibility in Chat matches your sharing permissions.
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## Project scope or workspace scope
Tags and fields both exist at two scopes. Studies remain comparable over time when anything you expect to compare across studies is defined at workspace scope rather than inside a single project.
| | Project scope | Workspace scope |
| :---------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Tags** | [Project tags](/help/projects/project-tags) live in one project and can’t be shared. | [Workspace tags](/help/workspace-tags) are global, linked into many projects, and update everywhere at once. |
| **Fields** | [Data and doc fields](/help/projects/data-and-docs-fields) apply to everything in one project. | [Workspace fields](/help/workspace-fields) are defined once in settings and reused across projects. |
| **Use for** | Codes specific to this study, such as task names or this round’s hypotheses. | Anything you’d compare across studies, such as personas, product areas, segment, or research method. |
To decide, consider whether you would ever answer a question spanning two studies using the label. Persona and product area almost always qualify. “Task 3 confusion” almost never does.
Unlinking a workspace tag board from a project, or deleting the board, duplicates its tags back into each project as local tags, which is the duplication the board was meant to prevent. Unlink deliberately.
***
## Reuse the setup
A [project template](/help/projects/workspace-templates) carries context, automation, and any linked workspace tag boards and field groups into the next study. The quickest way to build one is to convert a finished project you are happy with. Later studies then start from the same configuration and stay comparable to earlier ones.
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## Common mistakes
* Empty project context reduces the quality of AI highlights, tags, and Chat answers.
* Importing data before setting the transcription language means regenerating transcripts and losing the highlights made from them.
* Tags defined only at project scope cannot be compared across studies.
* A free-text field used where a single select belongs produces values that drift and cannot be filtered.
* A report published without linked evidence gives readers no way to verify a claim.
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## After the study
A finished study leaves a report in which each claim links back to its source recording. The highlights stay searchable in [Search](/help/search) after the project is no longer active, and workspace tags let the next study be compared against this one. [Doc metrics](/help/docs/organise-and-share-docs) show who opened the report, how far they read, and which links they followed.
***
## Where to go next
Context, automation, and everything a project holds.
Clustering, grouping, and cross-project synthesis.
Global tag boards that connect themes across projects.
Cited answers across projects, docs, and your workspace.