Vignettes · Pindrop

Vignettes are short portraits of the few kinds of experience in one survey. Each one describes a group of people whose answers were alike: where they stand apart from the organisation, what some of them said in their own words, and who tends to be among them. They help a room picture the results without reading a table.

Open an organisation and choose Vignettes, beside What we know. Your team sees vignettes. Clients see one only when your team puts a ratified vignette into a deck you deliver, or shares a survey's ratified vignettes with them in their portal.

What a vignette is, and is not

A vignette is a composite. No one person in it exists. It is drawn from the answers of everyone in its group, and every vignette says so, with roughly how many people that is: "about 30", never an exact count.

A vignette never tells you who is in it. There is no list of its people, and no way to find one, on any page, for anyone. Each carries an abstract mark, a few soft shapes drawn from the vignette's own figures, so it can be recognised at a glance. It is never a face, a figure or a picture of a person, because those invite guesses about who is being described.

Like an insight, a vignette says what was found, never why. "Fewer in this group are favourable about workload" is a finding; "they are overworked because their managers…" is a theory, and a vignette will not let you ratify it.

Where vignettes come from

Vignettes come from the segmentation in a survey's analysis, which groups people whose answers are alike. When a survey closes and its results are ready, Pindrop drafts one vignette for each group. If the segmentation is not turned on for that survey, turn it on in the analysis settings, run the analysis again, and use Draft vignettes for this survey. The same button drafts a survey that closed before vignettes arrived.

A few rules keep each vignette composite in fact, not just in name:

Groups of at least fifteen. A group smaller than fifteen people, or than your survey's size limit if that is higher, is broken up before anything is drafted, and each of its people joins the group nearest to their answers. If too few people are left for at least two groups of that size, no vignettes are drafted.
What stands out. Up to three areas where the group differs most from the organisation, allowing for how widely answers vary, shown as two percentages: this group's and the organisation's. The profile on each vignette's page shows every area, with the stand-outs in colour.
Who tends to be here. A department, location, level or length of service is named only when the group holds clearly more of it than the organisation does, at least 15 points more, and when both the people in that part of the group and the rest of the group pass the size limit. When nothing passes, the vignette says so plainly.
In their words. Up to three quotes, only from questions your survey allows to be quoted, only where at least five members of the group answered (or the size limit, if higher), and never two from the same person.

How distinct the groups are

Some surveys' answers fall into clearly separate groups; others only lean that way. Each set of vignettes says which, in words: clearly separate, separate, with blurred edges, or blurred, in which case read the vignettes as tendencies, not types. When the groups are too blurred to describe as separate experiences at all, no vignettes are drafted and the page says so.

Naming and ratifying

Every vignette starts as Proposed, unnamed, with the draft's own sentences. A person names it, may add a paragraph, and Ratifies it. Nothing reaches anyone as a finished portrait until someone has.

As you type, the page checks the name and paragraph: words that suggest a cause, numbers the vignette does not hold, and groups it does not show are listed, and Ratify stays unavailable until they are changed. You can also Dismiss a vignette with a reason, and Reopen it later.

On Professional and above, Write a paragraph offers a suggested paragraph and three suggested names, written from the vignette's own figures and quotes and nothing else. They are suggestions: use them, change them or ignore them. The same checks apply before you can ratify.

Each vignette's page keeps its history: who edited, ratified, dismissed or reopened it, and when.

When the results change

If a survey's results change after its vignettes were drafted, for example after late answers arrive and the results are refreshed, Pindrop drafts a new set from the new results. The earlier vignettes you ratified stay readable, marked "The results have changed since this was written", so nothing is quietly rewritten or lost.

Across surveys

When a survey's vignettes are drafted, Pindrop looks for this organisation's last survey with vignettes that asked the same questions, and pairs each new vignette with the earlier one that describes the same kind of experience, if there is one. It finds that survey by the questions themselves, not by which survey was set up as the previous wave.

A pairing says a kind of experience was seen in both surveys. It never says the same people are in it: people join, leave and answer differently, and a vignette is a composite either way.

On the Vignettes page, each card says Seen in the last survey too or New this survey, and the page names the survey it was compared with. Not seen this time lists the last survey's vignettes that nothing here is like, leaving out any that were dismissed (and, if that survey's results have changed since, any that were not ratified).
On a vignette's page, Since the last survey gives its share then and whether it is now a larger share, a smaller share or about the same, never as a number. It is called larger or smaller only when the share changed by at least five points and its phrase changed with it. It also lists the areas where the group stood out in both surveys, and links to the earlier vignette. That vignette is named only if it was ratified; otherwise it is "an unnamed vignette".
Reviewing a vignette whose earlier one was ratified, Use the last survey's name puts that name in the name field. It is a suggestion: the usual checks and Ratify still apply.
In a deck, a vignette's slide adds one line, such as "In the last survey, about one in five."

Two surveys are compared only when they are comparable: the same areas grouped, each sharing questions, and none of those questions marked a new baseline, unresolved, dropped or deferred in the survey's design. When the last survey changed its questions, the page says "Not compared with the last survey: its questions changed", and an older survey is not used instead. When some questions changed, or the design marks a comparison with a caveat, the comparison is still shown, with "Some of these questions changed between the surveys, so read the comparison with care." A deck slide leaves out its line in that case, and when the last survey's results have changed since the pairing.

Pairings are made when a survey's vignettes are drafted, and are not changed afterwards. If the last survey's results change later, the pages say so. Only surveys that already have vignettes are looked at, so draft an earlier survey's vignettes before a later one's: a survey drafted first is not paired with it until its own results change.

In a deck

A deck built from a survey's analysis can carry its ratified vignettes. In the deck's structure, open Kinds of experience and add the vignettes you want; the presets never add them for you. Each becomes one slide in your template, after a single opening slide, "A few kinds of experience here".

A vignette's slide is built from its ratified words, exactly as ratified: its name, how many of those who answered share the experience, its paragraph (or, without one, the draft's own sentences), one quote where it fits, and a chart of the group against the organisation where it stands out. The composite note, with roughly how many people it is drawn from, sits at the foot of every vignette slide. No AI rewrites a vignette slide, and Retry or a suggested fix leaves it as it is. A long paragraph gets a slide of its own words, with no chart, so nothing is cut off.

Each slide's figures are checked with the rest of the deck. A vignette is left out of a deck, and the structure says why, when:

it was drafted from different results from the deck's analysis, so its organisation figures would disagree with the rest of the deck;
it is no longer ratified in the survey's current set;
something in quotation marks in its paragraph is not word for word what someone wrote. The accuracy check compares every quotation on a slide with the answers, so edit the paragraph rather than paraphrase inside quotation marks;
it has no figures to show.

Vignettes come with decks built from an analysis linked to the survey. The structure lists the client model's vignettes; a deck built on the science model carries none of them.

What we are doing

A ratified vignette can have action plans pointed at it, so the experience it describes has an answer. On the vignette's page, under What we are doing, link one of this organisation's action plans, or choose Start an action plan for this experience, which opens a new plan for the survey and links it when you save. Each linked plan shows its status, and Unlink removes the pointer without touching the plan. The action plan's own page says which experience it is for.

Only a ratified vignette of the survey's current set takes a new plan; a plan already linked to an earlier one stays listed. You need both Vignettes and action plans to see or change these links.

In What we know

A ratified vignette can be linked to the What we know insights that rest on it. On the vignette's page, under In What we know, choose one of this organisation's insights and Link an insight; each linked insight shows its status, and Unlink removes the link without touching the insight. The insight's own page names the kinds of experience it rests on.

Only a ratified vignette of the survey's current set takes a new link, and a retired insight cannot be linked. An insight retired after linking stays listed, marked Retired, until you unlink it; a vignette dismissed or redrafted after linking is no longer named on the insight's page. You need both Vignettes and What we know to see or change these links.

Sharing with the client

When the vignettes of a survey are ratified, you can share them with the client: on the Vignettes page, on the client model, Share with the client under For the client. The client's people then read them in their portal, under Kinds of experience: each ratified vignette with its mark, its name, its words, its share of those who answered, where it stands out, its quotes, who tends to be in it and how distinct the groups are. It is built only from what your team ratified, as a deck is: no status, no review, no history, no staff names and no dimension strip. You need the Practice plan to share.

Sharing is a deliberate step, separate from ratifying, because in the portal the client reads without you beside them. Once a survey is shared, vignettes you ratify or edit there show in the portal straight away, and a vignette you dismiss disappears from it. Stop sharing takes the survey's vignettes out of the portal at any time, even if your plan has changed since.

When a survey's results change and its vignettes are drafted again, the new draft is not shared until you share it: the client sees nothing for that survey in between, and the Vignettes page says the client saw the earlier draft. In the portal, a vignette says what share it had in the last survey only when the earlier vignette was ratified and that survey was shared with the client too, and, as on a deck slide, not when the comparison needs care or the last survey's results have changed since.