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What is a phase?
Every project has a timeline, and this timeline is made up of different phases. Each phase is defined by a specific participation method.
While the project itself sets the overall scope, visibility, and high-level overview, the phase is where you configure the details for each step. Because each step in a project can be quite different, phases have their own settings and specifications depending on the chosen participation method.
ℹ️ You can learn more about these options in the Phase Settings section below, or by checking our Overview of Our Participation Methods article.
What are the different phase settings?
Each project contains a timeline divided into phases. Each phase has its own settings, depending on the participation method used.
Setup:
Participation methods: all
The Setup section defines the default settings for a phase. Each participation method has unique settings.
Required fields: Phase title and phase dates
Phase dates: Determine where the phase sits in the timeline. Only one phase can be active at a time; overlapping dates are not allowed
Tooltips: Each setting includes a tooltip with more details on what the setting achieves
Input Manager:
Participation methods: proposals, ideation, voting
The Input Manager allows you to view all inputs related to the current phase and manage their availability across other phases within the same project.
ℹ️ The Input Manager is a powerful feature with multiple uses. To explore its full capabilities, refer to one of the articles below. Each dives deeper into specific aspects of how the Input Manager works:
Input/Survey Form:
Participation methods: proposals, ideation, voting, surveys
In this section you can edit the form that users have to fill in when they want to participate in the phase.
ℹ️ For more information on the specific participation methods, navigate to their specific article where they are explained in more depth:
Map:
Participation methods: proposals, ideation, voting
If you want to use maps in your phase, this is the place where you can configure your map.
ℹ️ For more information on maps, read our articles on Map Consultations and Using ESRI ArcGIS maps.
Phase Access and User Data:
Participation methods: all
Phase-level rights define who can participate in each phase action (posting input, commenting, voting, completing surveys, etc.). You can also choose to ask extra demographic questions on the phase level.
ℹ️ For more information on phase-level access rights, read our article on Understanding Access Rights
Notifications:
Participation methods: all
Our platform uses automatic emails to be sent out to users, these are also referred to as notifications. Certain notifications can be customized on a phase-level, you can do so in this tab.
ℹ️ For more information on automated emails read our article on automated email notifications.
Report:
Participation methods: information sharing
In this section you can create a report and choose to make it visible or not to end-users.
ℹ️ For more information on our Report Builder feature read our support article Creating and building reports with the Report Builder
Volunteering:
Participation methods: volunteering
In this section you can manage your volunteering phase.
ℹ️ For more information read our article on Organizing a volunteering project
Phase data: Understanding the Insights phase tab
What is the Insights tab?
The Insights tab allows you to view and understand the results of a phase.
It brings together participation data, audience information, and phase-specific results in one place, helping you interpret how people engaged with your participation method.
Rather than reviewing individual inputs one by one, the Insights tab provides a structured overview that makes it easier to:
Understand overall participation and engagement
See who participated and how representative the audience is
Analyze results based on the participation method used
For reporting purposes, the Insights tab can also be exported to a PDF, allowing you to easily share results with internal or external stakeholders.
The Insights tab is available for phases that allow participant interaction and can include input from both logged-in and logged-out participants, depending on the access rights of the phase.
What information is in the insights tab?
(Topic - reference)
The Insights tab is divided into three main sections:
High-level statistics, providing an overall summary of participation
Demographic & Audience information for the phase, offering insight into who participated
Phase-specific results, depending on the participation method used
Each section is explained in more detail below.
High-level statistics
This section provides an aggregated overview of how your phase performed.
Depending on the participation method, the following data points may be shown:
Visitors (all participation methods)
The number of people who viewed your phase. This includes both logged-in and logged-out visitors.
Participants (all participation methods)
The number of people who actively participated in the phase. Depending on access rights, this may include both logged-in and logged-out participants.
Inputs / submissions (surveys, ideation, proposals)
The total number of responses or ideas submitted.
Completion rate (surveys)
The percentage of participants who started the survey and completed it.
Comments (ideation and proposals)
The number of comments added to submitted inputs.
Reactions (ideation and proposals)
The number of likes or dislikes given to inputs or comments.
Participation over time (all participation methods)
A graph comparing visitors and participants over a selected time period, helping you understand how engagement evolved throughout the phase.
Demographic & Audience information for the phase
The platform allows you to collect demographic information in two ways:
Through registration questions when users create an account
Through added demographic questions within a phase
To learn more, see:
In this section of the Insights tab, you can browse through the demographic questions that applied to the phase and view how different participant groups are represented. This helps you assess the representativeness of your results.
Phase-specific information
This section displays insights that are specific to the participation method used in the phase.
Surveys
An ordered overview of all survey questions and the answers provided by participants
Ideation/Proposal
A summary overview of submitted ideas
A topic breakdown showing how ideas are distributed across topics
A top 5 list of the most liked ideas
A status breakdown showing the distribution of idea statuses
Voting
A list of all items that could be voted on, ordered by number of votes
💡 Optionally, demographic clustering can be enabled to explore how different demographic groups voted
Where to find the insights tab?
You can find the Insights tab within a phase that supports participant interaction.
Find your project in the backoffice of your platform
In your project on the top tab select Timeline
Click on the phase you want to explore your insights for
Click on the Insights tab
⚠️ If the Insights tab is not available for that phase, it means this was a phase without participant interaction.
How to export the insights tab as PDF?
Find your project in the backoffice of your platform
In your project on the top tab select Timeline
Click on the phase you want to explore your insights for
Click on the Insights tab
At the top right you see a Download button that exports a PDF
How to setup your project timeline in phases?
By default your project will prompt you to create a first phase
Choose a timeframe on which you want the phase to be active
Choose your desired participation method for the phase
Configure the settings for the phase
Press the + New phase icon on the right of the timeline to add extra phases until you have your entire project outlined
How to delete a phase?
Navigate to the Project that contains the phase you want to delete
Click on the phase in the timeline that you want to delete
Below the timeline you’ll see the phase title, on the right side of the screen you’ll see 3 dots. Click these dots and press Delete phase
Confirm
Limitations on phases
Phases are tied directly to the project timeline, which means they cannot overlap or run in parallel within the same project. If you need multiple phases to run at the same time, you’ll need to create separate projects.
While projects have a publication status (e.g. draft or published), phases do not. This means it's not possible to add a phase in draft mode, once it's created, it's carrying the publication status of the project.