Creating a Survey in LinearB

Create and launch surveys in LinearB to collect structured feedback from engineering teams.

The survey flow guides you through Setup, Topics, Participants, Distribution, and Launch. You can use standard topics, add custom topics and questions, or combine both.

Start a New Survey

1. In the navigation bar, click Productivity > Surveys.
2. Select the Management tab.
3. Click + Create new.

At any point before launch, click Save as draft to continue later or Discard survey to abandon the survey.

Step 1: Setup

On Name Your Survey, enter:

• Internal survey name: Used by editors to identify and manage the survey. Respondents do not see it.
• Display survey name: The title shown to respondents.

Each name can contain up to 100 characters.

Review the Survey Usage Guidelines. Custom questions must not request personally identifiable information such as names, email addresses, or contact details, and must not contain inappropriate, offensive, or discriminatory content.

Click Continue.

Step 2: Topics

Select one or more topics. Standard topics contain predefined questions with a 1–5 rating scale and an optional comment field for additional feedback. Expand a topic to preview and configure its questions.

Available standard topics include:

• AI-assisted development
• Tools and platforms
• Productivity and workflow
• Satisfaction and well-being
• Developer empowerment and professional growth
• Code quality and maintainability
• Collaboration and team culture
• Developer experience
• Engineering Productivity Snapshot - Extended
• Engineering Productivity Snapshot - Short version

Select at least one topic and ensure every selected topic contains at least one question before clicking Continue.

Set Questions as Required or Optional

Questions are optional by default. In an expanded standard or custom topic, use the Required/Optional control for each question to choose whether respondents must answer it before submitting the survey.

To make every question in a topic mandatory, click Require all at the topic level. Required and optional settings are retained when you save a draft, edit the survey, or duplicate it.

Add a Custom Topic

1. At the bottom of the Topics page, click + Add a topic.
2. Enter the custom topic name and save it.
3. The topic is selected automatically and marked Custom.
4. Use the pencil icon to rename the custom topic or the trash icon to delete it.

Add a Custom Question

1. Expand the custom topic.
2. Click + Add a question.
3. Under Answer type, select Rating scale (1–5) or Open text.
4. Enter the question text. A question can contain up to 250 characters.
5. Configure the fields for the selected answer type.
6. Use the Required control to determine whether respondents must answer the question before submitting.
7. Click Save, or click Save & add another to save the question and immediately create another one.

Rating scale (1–5)

Respondents rate the statement on a five-point agreement scale. Phrase rating questions as positive statements when possible so results are easier to compare.

• Reverse scoring: Enable this when a higher response represents a worse outcome. LinearB reverses the score automatically so reporting remains aligned.
• Free text comment instruction (optional): Add a follow-up prompt for open-ended context. The instruction can contain up to 250 characters. The comment remains optional even when the rating question is required.

Open text

Use an open-text question when you want a written response without a numeric rating. Respondents see a free-form text field that accepts up to 4,000 characters. Reverse scoring and the separate free-text comment instruction do not apply to this answer type.

Open-text responses are not scored and do not appear in the heatmap or scored analytics. To review them, export the survey results as a CSV. Each response appears in the Free text answer column, and its Grade value is N/A.

After saving, the question appears inside the custom topic. Use its pencil icon to edit it or its trash icon to delete it. Click + Add a question to add more questions.

Step 3: Participants

Choose who can respond:

• Unlimited Access: Makes the survey available to all eligible users in the organization.
• Managed Access: Limits the survey to eligible users in selected teams or groups.

For Managed Access, select one or more teams or groups from the organization hierarchy. Selecting a higher-level group includes its teams.

Step 4: Distribution

Review how participants will receive the survey. After launch, LinearB sends the secure link through Slack, and the link remains active until you manually end the survey.

LinearB identifies selected participants who cannot receive the Slack notification. Select Manage User Details to review affected users.

Step 5: Launch

Review the internal and display names, selected standard and custom topics, questions, required settings, and participants. Preview the survey if that option is shown, then click Launch Survey.

After launch, the survey appears in Management with a Running status and Slack notifications are sent to eligible participants. The survey remains open until it is manually ended.

Respond to a Survey

Required questions are marked with an asterisk (*), and optional questions are labeled (optional). You can save partial progress without completing required questions, but you must answer every required question before final submission. If you try to submit early, LinearB indicates the unanswered required questions.

Manage the Survey After Launch

• Monitor response progress in the Management tab.
• Open the row menu to preview the survey, send a reminder, or duplicate it.
• Click End survey to close a running survey.
• Analyze submitted results from the Dashboard tab or click View results for a completed survey.

Troubleshooting

Related Articles

• Surveys in LinearB
• Managing Teams in LinearB