---
title: 'Creating from scratch'
description: 'A custom survey without a ready-made template.'
type: doc
locale: en
canonical: 'https://yoseno.com/docs/surveys/from-scratch'
updated: '2026-07-30'
---

# Creating from scratch

A custom survey without a ready-made template.

Create a survey from scratch when a ready-made template isn't suitable: you need your own topic, your own wording, or a localized diagnostic for a specific situation. For your first regular launch, it's often better to use a [template](https://yoseno.com/docs/surveys/from-template.md): questions and analysis topics are already assembled there.

## Launch workflow

Open the **Surveys** section inside the organization and click **Create survey**. In the scenario selection window, select **Create survey manually**, enter a name, and click **Go to editor**.

The editor will open right after the draft is created. First, click **Add category**. A category groups questions of one block: for example, "Team", "Processes", or "Leadership". Inside the category, click **Add question** or **Generate question** if you want an AI draft.

In the question editor, fill in the wording, check the answer type, answer options, intent, and instructions for AI. Click **Save question** — without this, changes to the question will not be applied.

When the structure is ready, open the survey card and click **Launch survey**. After confirmation, the public link will become active, and you can send it to participants.

## What to consider

Before launching, a manual survey remains a draft: participants do not see it and cannot respond. If the survey card says **The survey is currently empty**, return to the editor and add questions.

A minimum of 3 questions is required to launch. The upper limit is 36 questions; in practice, it's better to keep the survey shorter so that participants reach the end and leave detailed comments.

By default, the audience is the entire organization. If you need a different group of participants, configure it before launching and check the rules in the [Survey audience](https://yoseno.com/docs/surveys/audience.md) article: the audience is fixed upon creation and cannot be changed for an already launched survey.

## After the first responses

In a manual survey, analysis topics appear during finalization: the AI examines real responses and constructs a coherent picture from them. That's why clear question wording and understandable instructions for the AI are especially important.

When enough responses are collected, run the [finalization](https://yoseno.com/docs/results/finalization.md). You can perform an intermediate analysis without closing the measurement, or close the measurement and start the final processing.

## Related pages

- [Survey editor](https://yoseno.com/docs/surveys/editor.md) — A reference for survey fields, categories, questions, and options.
- [Survey audience](https://yoseno.com/docs/surveys/audience.md) — Survey addressing and its immutability rules.
- [Summarizing](https://yoseno.com/docs/results/finalization.md) — Starting the analysis and processing stages.

## Read next

- [AI survey generation](https://yoseno.com/docs/surveys/ai-generation.md) — Draft survey and questions from an AI brief.