Intake Forms and Consent

Intake forms let you collect information from participants before the interview starts. You can gather names, email addresses, and custom fields — or skip the form entirely for fully anonymous interviews. The form appears after the participant clicks Start on the landing page and before the conversation begins.

When to Use an Intake Form

Intake forms are useful when you need to:

• Identify participants — collect name and email for follow-up or record-keeping
• Segment responses — ask about role, company size, or other attributes to slice your data later
• Gather consent — include a checkbox for research consent or terms acknowledgment
• Pre-qualify participants — use a dropdown to confirm they meet your criteria before the interview begins

If you do not need any of this, you can disable the intake form entirely. Participants will go straight from the landing page to the interview.

Configuring Your Intake Form

Open your project and navigate to the Customize tab. The intake form settings are in the Lead Form section of the editor.

Enabling the Form

Toggle the lead form on or off. When disabled, participants skip directly to the interview after clicking Start.

Adding Fields

Click Add Field to create a new form field. Each field has the following properties:

Available Field Types

Koji supports several field types to handle different kinds of information:

Field Order

You can reorder fields by dragging them using the grip handle on the left side of each field row. Place the most important fields first — participants are more likely to complete forms when the easy fields (like name) come before the more involved ones (like a long text comment).

Required vs. Optional Fields

Mark fields as required when you absolutely need the information to proceed. Keep required fields to a minimum — every required field adds friction and may reduce your completion rate.

A common setup is:

• Name — required (so you can address them in the conversation)
• Email — optional (for follow-up, but not blocking)
• Consent checkbox — required (if you need explicit research consent)

Consent Collection

For formal research, you may need to collect explicit consent before the interview. The checkbox field type is designed for this.

Example consent field:

• Label: "I agree to participate in this research study and understand my responses will be analyzed"
• Type: Checkbox
• Required: Yes

Participants must check the box before they can proceed to the interview. This creates a clear record that consent was given.

For more detailed consent requirements, you can:

• Use the footer text on the landing page to display full consent language
• Add a link to a consent document in the field label or landing page description
• Combine a consent checkbox with a long text field where participants can ask questions

Pre-Filling from CSV Import

When participants arrive via a unique tracking link from a CSV import, their data is pre-filled into the intake form automatically. For example, if your CSV includes name and email columns and your form has matching fields, those fields will already be populated when the form loads.

Participants can still edit pre-filled values if needed, but in most cases they simply review the information and click to proceed.

How Intake Data Is Stored

All intake form responses are stored alongside the participant's interview record. You can see intake data in:

• The respondents table — each participant's form responses appear in their row
• Exported results — intake data is included when you export interviews as CSV or JSON
• The interview detail view — form responses appear in the participant's profile section

Intake data is never shared with other participants or made public. It is accessible only to the study owner.

Form Validation

Koji validates form submissions in real time:

• Required fields are checked before the form can be submitted. If a required field is empty, an error message appears.
• Email fields are validated for correct format (must contain @ and a domain).
• Checkbox required fields must be checked to proceed.

Validation messages appear inline next to the relevant field, so participants can quickly see what needs to be corrected.

Tips for Effective Intake Forms

1. Keep it short. Every additional field reduces your completion rate. Only ask for what you truly need.
2. Put name first. Collecting the participant's name allows the AI interviewer to address them personally during the conversation, which builds rapport.
3. Make email optional unless essential. If you do not plan to follow up with participants, skip the email field entirely.
4. Use dropdowns for segmentation. If you want to analyze results by segment (e.g., role, department, or company size), a dropdown is cleaner than a free-text field.
5. Lead with the easiest fields. Name and email are quick to fill in. Place them before longer or more complex fields.
6. Test the form yourself. Click your own interview link and go through the intake form to make sure everything works as expected.

Disabling the Intake Form

If you want fully anonymous interviews with zero friction, simply toggle the lead form off. Participants will go directly from the landing page to the interview without seeing any form fields.

You can enable or disable the form at any time. Responses that were already collected are not affected by toggling the form.

Next Steps

• Interview Landing Page — see how the form fits into the overall landing experience
• Customizing Branding — edit the headline and description that appear above the form
• Importing Participants via CSV — pre-fill form fields from a spreadsheet