This article will give you tips on how to analyze responses from a Masterclass Attendee survey about Discussion Topics using AI-powered methods and proven best practices.
Choosing the right tools for analyzing masterclass attendee survey data
The approach—and the tool—you should use depends on what kind of data your Masterclass Attendee survey generated about Discussion Topics.
Quantitative data: When you’re looking at numbers (like how many attendees chose certain topics or rated discussion quality), it’s fast and reliable to use Excel or Google Sheets. Summing, filtering, and visualizing numerical results takes seconds. Simple tools also help you quickly share findings with your team.
Qualitative data: If your survey gathered open-ended feedback about Discussion Topics, or used follow-up probing for deeper insights, reading every response is unrealistic. AI tools simplify this—the latest platforms can analyze hundreds of attendee replies in minutes, surfacing nuanced trends you’d otherwise miss.
There are two approaches for tooling when dealing with qualitative responses:
ChatGPT or similar GPT tool for AI analysis
Copy-paste analysis: Many use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or similar AI tools—just copy your exported attendee responses in, and ask the AI to discover patterns or themes.
Data handling is clunky: This works but isn’t very convenient. You’re stuck with manual copy-pasting, limited context window, and basic filtering options. If your survey is long, you may hit data limits or lose track of context.
For small sample sizes or a quick-and-dirty scan, it does the job. But for more complex multi-question surveys or nuanced analysis, you’ll want something more purpose-built.
All-in-one tool like Specific
Purpose-built for qualitative surveys: Specific is designed to collect and analyze qualitative survey responses using AI. It runs conversational surveys, asking real-time follow-ups that go deeper than typical forms —see how to build a masterclass survey here.
Better data quality: When collecting responses about Discussion Topics, Specific’s AI naturally asks for clarifications or details, raising the quality of what you get back. Strong, clean data is much easier to analyze with AI.
Fast and robust response analysis: After surveys are done, Specific’s AI summarizes replies, finds key themes, and organizes actionable insights—no spreadsheet juggling or manual coding required. You can even chat with the AI directly about survey results, just like ChatGPT, but with a smoother workflow. Features for segmenting, filtering, and giving AI focused context all come built in. Read more: instant AI survey response analysis.
Compare with other leading tools: There are also established tools like NVivo, MAXQDA, and QDA Miner that support qualitative analysis and visualization for survey data [1]. These are notable if you need more flexibility or want to combine AI with classic methods.
Bigger-picture: most modern qualitative analysis solutions—whether it’s Thematic or KH Coder—now leverage AI for automating identification of core ideas and sentiments in open text responses [2].
Useful prompts that you can use to analyze discussion topics from masterclass attendee surveys
Having the right prompts makes a world of difference when using AI to extract meaning from attendee feedback about Discussion Topics. Here are proven formats I recommend:
Prompt for core ideas: Use this to extract main topics discussed across your responses. Handy if you’re processing lots of open-ended survey feedback, whether in Specific or in your AI tool of choice:
Your task is to extract core ideas in bold (4-5 words per core idea) + up to 2 sentence long explainer.
Output requirements:
- Avoid unnecessary details
- Specify how many people mentioned specific core idea (use numbers, not words), most mentioned on top
- no suggestions
- no indications
Example output:
1. **Core idea text:** explainer text
2. **Core idea text:** explainer text
3. **Core idea text:** explainer text
Add context for better results: The more information you give the AI about your masterclass, goals, or survey setup, the better your outcomes. For example:
This survey was run after a product management masterclass, with attendees asked for input on future Discussion Topics. Our team wants to identify high-interest themes, pain points, and innovative ideas. Focus the analysis on actionable topics for upcoming events.
Prompt for theme deep dive: When you spot a core idea, ask: Tell me more about XYZ (core idea)
Prompt to search for specific mentions: When you need to know if a particular topic was discussed: Did anyone talk about XYZ? Include quotes.
Prompt for personas: To reveal distinct attendee types: Based on the survey responses, identify and describe a list of distinct personas—similar to how "personas" are used in product management. For each persona, summarize their key characteristics, motivations, goals, and any relevant quotes or patterns observed in the conversations.
Prompt for pain points and challenges: For surfacing frustrations and blockers: Analyze the survey responses and list the most common pain points, frustrations, or challenges mentioned. Summarize each, and note any patterns or frequency of occurrence.
Prompt for motivations & drivers: To understand attendee intentions: From the survey conversations, extract the primary motivations, desires, or reasons participants express for their behaviors or choices. Group similar motivations together and provide supporting evidence from the data.
Prompt for sentiment analysis: To interpret the mood: Assess the overall sentiment expressed in the survey responses (e.g., positive, negative, neutral). Highlight key phrases or feedback that contribute to each sentiment category.
Prompt for suggestions & ideas: To team up on brainstorming: Identify and list all suggestions, ideas, or requests provided by survey participants. Organize them by topic or frequency, and include direct quotes where relevant.
Prompt for unmet needs & opportunities: When looking for improvement space: Examine the survey responses to uncover any unmet needs, gaps, or opportunities for improvement as highlighted by respondents.
If you want more guidance on writing great questions, check out our article on the best questions for masterclass attendee discussion topics surveys. And if you’re starting from scratch, the AI survey generator can guide you step by step.
How Specific analyzes qualitative data based on question type
Specific was designed to go beyond just “surface level” summaries for discussion topics. The way analysis works adapts to the type of question you ask your masterclass attendees:
Open-ended questions (with or without follow-ups): You get a summarized view covering all attendee answers—including follow-up clarifications. This digs much deeper into how people truly feel about each Discussion Topic.
Choices with follow-ups: Every choice you set up (say, picking a discussion track) gets its own summary of what people said in related follow-up questions, making it simple to spot differences between groups.
NPS: Attendees are automatically grouped by category (detractors, passives, promoters), with a summary for each. You can easily drill down to see what each group cares about, all without wrangling data by hand.
The same kind of structured analysis is achievable in ChatGPT or with another GPT-powered tool—it just takes a lot more manual effort, copying, cropping, and organizing.
To read more about how AI handles conversational data, check the automatic AI follow-up questions feature or get a walkthrough on how to create your own conversational masterclass survey.
How to tackle AI context size limits when analyzing responses
Most advanced AIs have a limit—a “context window”—that caps how much data you can analyze at once. If your Discussion Topics survey has tons of attendee responses, you’ll hit that limit (especially in ChatGPT or similar tools, but even in some legacy survey software).
There are two main ways to navigate this, both supported in Specific:
Filtering: Focus analysis only on conversations where masterclass attendees responded to a selected question or made specific choices. This slices out noise and lets you get actionable insights, quickly.
Cropping: Select which questions to include in your AI analysis. By sending only the relevant portions, you fit more conversations into each AI query, maximizing the amount of data you can meaningfully analyze.
These tricks are essential as your data volume grows or you need to hone in on a single Discussion Topic. For advanced needs, tools like NVivo and KH Coder also offer ways to break up and organize large-scale qualitative data sets [3].
Collaborative features for analyzing masterclass attendee survey responses
Collaboration on survey analysis can easily become messy. When several colleagues want to analyze or share insights from Masterclass Attendee surveys about Discussion Topics, managing data versioning and comment threads quickly gets chaotic.
Chat with AI, together: In Specific, analysis is a chat. You simply interact with survey results in conversational form—no extra dashboards or tools. Everyone can have their own chat sessions, set up unique filters, and dig into different areas of the data all at the same time.
Track who’s who: Each chat in the analysis dashboard shows who created it. This is a lifesaver when collaborating across product, education, or event teams. See which team member explored what thread—or share direct links for deeper peer review.
See collaborators’ contributions: During group analysis, you know at a glance who made what comment—avatar and name included. This small feature makes it easier to build on, or challenge, each other’s findings.
Blend perspectives seamlessly: Since each person can start their own filtered view or analysis session, you’re not stuck with one set of results. It’s easy to cross-compare different questions, respondent subgroups, or even NPS segments among colleagues. This is especially useful if you’re prepping for multiple masterclass sessions, or want to surface differing opinions among attendees.
To see how you might build your own survey around these ideas, try our survey generator with a masterclass preset or read a walk-through of using the AI-powered editor for quick tweaks.
Create your masterclass attendee survey about discussion topics now
Act quickly to capture your audience’s interests, use AI to surface actionable insights, and turn every masterclass into a truly engaging experience. Collect deeper feedback. Analyze it instantly. Start creating your own survey and see the difference—no manual work required.