# Core concepts

Explains the vertical, method, population, persona, survey, study, draft, report, segment, credit and Argus concepts in SCL and how they fit together.

Every study in SCL is built on the same few concepts. This page defines each concept by its on-screen name and shows how the concepts connect.

## How the concepts connect

A study is made up of four choices: vertical, method, population and design. The **New Research** flow goes like this:

1. Choose a vertical: **General Research**, **Fashion** or **Ad Testing**.
2. Choose a method, that is, what you want to measure.
3. Choose or create the population: the group of synthetic consumers (personas) who will answer the study.
4. Design the study: enter the questions, price points, features or the ad to test.
5. Check the estimated credits on the **Research Preview** screen.
6. Click **Start**.
7. When the study is complete, explore the results by segment in the report that opens.

Populations and surveys are saved and can be reused in later studies. Use **Quick Research** to run a saved survey directly on a saved population, and Argus to run the same flow through a conversation.

## At a glance

| Concept | In the app | In short | Details |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Vertical | **General Research**, **Fashion**, **Ad Testing** | The area the study is run in | [Verticals](/en/docs/research/verticals) |
| Method | **Choose Your Research Type** | What the study measures and how | [Choosing the right method](/en/docs/research/choosing-a-method) |
| Population | **Populations** | A reusable group of personas | [Creating a population](/en/docs/populations/creating-a-population) |
| Persona | **Person Count** | A single synthetic consumer in a population | [Persona profiles](/en/docs/populations/persona-profiles) |
| Survey | **Surveys** | A saved question or price design | [Survey library](/en/docs/research/survey-library) |
| Study | **Research Preview**, **Experiment Summary** | A method run on a population | [Starting a new study](/en/docs/research/new-study) |
| Draft | **Drafts**, **Draft** | A study that is set up but not started | [Starting a new study](/en/docs/research/new-study) |
| Report | **Reports** | The results page of a completed study | [Reports](/en/docs/results/reports) |
| Segment | **Segment Analysis**, **Demographic Breakdown**, **Crosstab** | A group the results are split into | [Segmentation](/en/docs/results/segmentation) |
| Market segment | **Find segmentation**, **Market Segment Distribution** | The market group assigned to personas, based on the research topic, when the population is created | [Creating a population](/en/docs/populations/creating-a-population) |
| Credit | **Remaining credits:**, **Credit Usage** | The prepaid unit spent on studies | [Credits](/en/docs/account/credits) |
| Argus | **Argus** | An AI research assistant you work with through conversation | [What is Argus?](/en/docs/argus/what-is-argus) |

## The building blocks of research

### Vertical

A vertical is the area a study is run in. The home page that opens when you log in (**Choose a vertical**) asks you to choose one, and **New Research** opens the same screen. There are three verticals:

- **General Research**: "General-purpose research with market segmentation."
- **Fashion**: "Apparel comparison on an archetype-based panel."
- **Ad Testing**: "Test a video ad with a synthetic consumer panel."

The vertical determines which methods are offered and the population's vertical-specific attributes.

### Method (research type)

The method determines what a study measures and how; on screen it is called the "research type". When you choose General Research, the **Choose Your Research Type** screen shows seven cards: **Price Analysis**, **Competitive Analysis**, **Comparison**, **Priority Ranking**, **Feature Price Impact**, **Survey** and **Real-Time Focus Group**. Some card names are different in Fashion; Ad Testing has only one method, so this step is skipped.

The **Research Type** field on the **Quick Research** screen, however, picks a vertical, not a method.

### Population

A population is the group of synthetic consumers who answer a study. You define the target audience: enter how many personas to generate in **Population size** and the product or category in **Research topic**; you also choose filters such as age, gender and socio-economic status (SES).

You create populations in the population step of the **New Research** flow or with Argus; the **Populations** library has no create button.

To reuse a saved population, choose **Select Existing Population** (**Use existing population** in Fashion and Ad Testing); the personas are not generated again. Each population belongs to a single vertical and is not listed in other verticals.

> [!TIP]
> If you plan to compare the results of two studies, run both on the same population. That way, any difference between them does not come from different personas.

To manage saved populations, see [Population library](/en/docs/populations/population-library).

### Persona (synthetic consumer)

A persona is a single synthetic consumer in a population. It is sampled from Türkiye's population and income data, and a language model role-plays it. Each persona has a Turkish name; demographic details such as age, gender, education and city; an SES class, a monthly budget and personality scores. If segmentation was used, the persona is assigned a market segment; if you added a custom feature, it is given to the share of personas you specified.

You can explore personas in the distribution charts on the **Population Detail** page and in the list you download with **Download Excel**. Persona responses are model output: they show the direction and size of a tendency. [How synthetic consumers work](/en/docs/getting-started/how-synthetic-consumers-work) and [Accuracy and limitations](/en/docs/getting-started/accuracy-and-limitations) explain how personas are generated and where the limits of the results lie.

### Survey

A survey is a question or price design that is saved for reuse. Designs for Multiple-Choice Survey, Price Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Priority Ranking and Feature Price Impact are saved to **LIBRARY** › **Surveys**. You can reuse a saved survey in three ways:

- For multiple-choice questions, copy the questions with **Import from Saved Survey**.
- In the price and feature methods, pick a survey of the same type from the **Select from Saved Surveys** panel.
- Run the survey directly on a saved population with **Quick Research**.

> [!NOTE]
> The word "survey" has two meanings. The **Survey** card on the **Choose Your Research Type** screen selects only the Multiple-Choice Survey method. The **Surveys** library, by contrast, holds saved designs from all five methods listed above: the product and price ladder you enter in Price Analysis are also stored there as a survey, and its card shows the **Price WTP** badge (WTP stands for willingness to pay).

## Studies and results

### Study

A study is a method set up and run on a population. The app sometimes calls the same thing "research" or an "experiment" (**New Research**, **Experiment Summary**, **Experiment Failed**); these docs always say "study". The "analysis" in messages such as **Your analysis is ready** refers to the study's result, that is, the report.

The **Experiment Summary** card on the **Research Preview** screen, which opens after the design step, shows the number of personas and the estimated credits. When you click **Start** and confirm, the study goes live: the personas start generating responses and the progress screen opens. Some methods, such as Real-Time Focus Group, have no preview step.

If you leave the progress screen, the study does not stop; the Argus button at the bottom right keeps showing the studies that are running. When the study finishes, the **Your analysis is ready** message appears and the report opens automatically after 3 seconds.

### Draft

A draft is a study that has been set up but not yet started. The study is created as soon as you complete the population step, and it stays a draft until you click **Start**. Your drafts appear with the **Draft** badge in the **Drafts** list at the bottom of the method selection screen; the list shows your 20 most recent drafts. Click a draft to reopen its design step.

### Report

A report is the results page of a completed study. Your studies that have results are listed under **ANALYSIS** › **Reports**. A report page shows the headline figures at the top, with tabs of charts and tables below. You can download the PDF report or an Excel file with all the data.

[Reading a report](/en/docs/results/reading-a-report) covers the sections of a report, and [Exporting and downloading](/en/docs/results/exporting) covers the download options.

### Segment

A segment is a single group the results are split into, such as the "25-34" age group or "SES B". Splitting results by a dimension such as age, gender or SES is called a breakdown; a crosstab shows where two dimensions intersect. In price, feature and survey reports, breakdowns appear on the **Segment Analysis**, **Demographic Breakdown** or **Crosstab** tab, depending on the method.

A market segment, on the other hand, is set when the population is created: when you fill in **Research topic** and click **Find segmentation**, a segmentation that suits the topic is found and the personas are divided into market segments. You can see this split in the **Market Segment Distribution** chart on the **Population Detail** page. The [custom features](/en/docs/populations/custom-features) you add to a population also become a separate breakdown in the report.

## Account and assistant

### Credit

A credit is the prepaid unit you spend to run studies. Your remaining balance appears on the **Remaining credits:** line of the card at the bottom of the sidebar; when it drops to 500 credits or below, the **Add credits!** warning appears.

The estimated cost appears on the **Research Preview** screen as **Credit Usage**, in the form "balance/estimate", for example 1.250/400. The cost depends mostly on the number of personas and the method settings; for example, in Price Analysis, 50 personas × 5 price points = 250 credits. In most methods, credits are deducted after the personas' responses are saved; in a focus group, they are spent on each response.

To buy credits, go to **Settings** › **Credits & Usage** › **Buy Credits**. Organisation members share a credit pool and do not see the **Buy Credits** button on the **Credits & Usage** page. For purchases and invoices, see [Buying credits and billing](/en/docs/account/buying-credits).

### Argus

Argus is SCL's AI research assistant. Open it from the **Argus** item in the **WORKFLOW** group of the sidebar, or from the round button at the bottom right of other pages; the shortcut is Ctrl + J (⌘ + J on Mac). Type what you want to research; Argus prepares a population and a draft study, starts the study, interprets the results and can combine the findings into a strategy report.

Before any step that spends credits, Argus shows an approval card. The step runs when you click **Approve** or **Approve and launch**, or when **Autopilot** is on. Past conversations are on the **Conversations** page. [Approvals and Autopilot](/en/docs/argus/approvals-and-autopilot) explains how approvals work.

## Related pages

- [Quickstart](/en/docs/getting-started/quickstart)
- [Interface tour](/en/docs/getting-started/interface-tour)
- [Starting a new study](/en/docs/research/new-study)
- [Quick Research](/en/docs/research/quick-research)
- [Glossary](/en/docs/account/glossary)