Importing a CSV of existing contacts is one of the easiest ways to start building your Hub panel.
This is the most popular panel building method for teams using Hub for the first time. You could pull a list of customer data from another CRM tool, request a list from your data team, or export a spreadsheet of stored research contacts.
In this article, you’ll learn:
The most important field in your CSV file is the email. Email addresses are the only required data point, and without this import the file will not work.
We also recommend including fields for first and last names. These are available by default in User Interviews and allow you to send more personalized emails when inviting your participants to a project.
As you continue building your CSV, feel free to add any fields you need! During the import process, you can map any column in your CSV to a custom field that you create in Hub.
The custom fields can be any of the following data types:
Be careful to select the right data type when you’re creating a new field.
To get started, use our sample CSV file as a template.
🚩 Having trouble? Excel and Numbers sometimes mishandle things like special characters, line breaks, and formulas that may exist in the original file when creating a new CSV file. If you’re having issues, we recommend importing the file to a Google Sheet and creating the CSV there.
1. Include a header row. This will make it easier to map your fields during the import.
2. Pay attention when creating a CSV from another file format. Here are some tips for common tools.
3. In general, keep the original sheet as simple as possible before converting to a CSV.
Our system is designed to allow you to import the same participant (as determined by email) multiple times—this can be used to your advantage!
1. Upload your entire population of users by choosing “Import from CSV” with all of the data you need and map everything to custom fields.
2. Break your master CSV into smaller CSV files that correspond to user segments.
3. Upload those smaller CSV files and apply labels during the import process to easily segment the users in our system.
4. If you’ve previously mapped all of the custom data you need on these users, you will only need to map the email column this time around.
When uploading a CSV to your panel, you'll be asked to map existing or add new columns to your panel. Some columns are synced to participant activity data, so they cannot be edited or removed even if they have no information. These non-editable columns include:
To edit or remove custom fields, click “Manage” in the top right corner.
You can rename or delete columns. If you delete a column, all data will be erased and no longer retrievable (even by us!).
When a list has been successfully uploaded, the individual who imported that list will be sent an email. It will look like this:
Why did my CSV import fail?
The most common reasons a CSV import fails are:
I don’t have a CSV of existing contacts. How else can I build my Research Hub panel?
Although uploading a CSV is the most popular method, there are other available options for building your panel, including: