Requesting answers

Questions and presets

What a request contains, how to write the question, and the presets you can start from.

A request has four parts: the question, the context experts read, the expert profile you prefer, and the fields each expert fills in. Send a free-text question, a preset, or both.

With a question only, experts answer it as written.
With a preset only, the preset's standard question is used.
With both, the preset supplies default answer fields and your question is what experts answer.

Writing a good question

Experts see your question verbatim, together with the company, product and context you send. The more precise the context, the more precise the answers. Name the setting, the scope and the unit you expect, for example "share of total knee replacements at US hospitals, excluding surgery centers".

Presets

Presets are starting points, not limits. Any question works without one, and every preset's answer fields can be extended or replaced. For some presets the company you name is the buyer; for others it is the vendor.

Preset	Company means	What experts answer	Default answer fields
`buying_drivers`	The buyer	Why companies like this one buy, and what they weigh	drivers, criteria
`deal_breakers`	The buyer	What kills deals at companies like this	deal_breakers
`decision_makers`	The buyer	Who really decides and signs, and what drives them	decision_makers, motivations
`switch_triggers`	The vendor	Why customers switch or walk away, and to whom	triggers, switched_to
`pricing`	The vendor	What price or discount is achievable, and how	discount (range), levers, wont_move, timing
`spend_estimate`	The buyer	Budget or spend on a category, as a range	spend (range)
`stack_check`	The buyer	Whether the statement in `context.claim` holds	verified, actual
`market_read`	Optional	A share, rate or trend in a market, from practitioners in it	estimate (range), drivers, barriers, outlook

What can be shown to experts

Everything in the question and context is screened before experts see it. The company you name as the subject is shown on purpose. Personal data, patient information and the names of your own customers or counterparties are blocked, and the request is rejected with 422 context_blocked. See Security and privacy.

Custom presets and larger requests

Custom presets for your team, panels larger than 5, other output formats and recurring questions are set up per key rather than self-serve. Talk to us to turn them on.

The question

questionstringRequired*#

Free-text question, e.g. What share of knee replacements use robotic assistance?. Experts see it verbatim. *Send question, preset or both.

presetstringRequired*#

One of the presets on this page.

company_domain / company_namestringDepends#

The research subject, named deliberately and shown to experts: the vendor for pricing and switching questions, the buyer for buying-driver, deal-breaker, decision-maker, spend and stack questions. Required by presets that name one; optional for market questions.

productstringOptional#

The product in question, e.g. Acme robotic knee system.

collection_methodstringOptional#

How experts answer: written, ai_interview, human_interview or any (default; Synquery chooses per expert).

expert_identitystringOptional#

anonymous (default) or named. Named requests deliver only experts who consent to be identified.

deadlinestringOptional#

Latest time you need the answer (ISO 8601).

callback_urlstringOptional#

Webhook that receives events for this request.

metadataobjectOptional#

Any keys you want back unchanged, such as your own deal or customer ID. Never shown to experts.