How to publish Tellet interviews and what happens after publishing.
Publishing Methods
Direct Publishing
For users with publishing permissions:
- Complete all required fields
- Click "Publish" button in top navigation
- Confirm in dialog
- Interview goes live immediately
Requirement: The organisation must have an active subscription to publish. Publishing is blocked if the subscription has lapsed.
Approval Workflow
For users requiring admin approval:
- Complete all required fields
- Click "Request to Publish" in top navigation
- Select an admin or owner to approve
- Wait for approval (admin receives email notification)
- After approval, click "Publish" to make the interview live
You can send a reminder after 24 hours using "Request approval again".
Project Statuses
- Draft — Description: Setting up interview; Can Edit: Full editing; Can Delete: Yes; Accepts Participants: No
- Ready — Description: All fields complete; Can Edit: Full editing; Can Delete: Yes; Accepts Participants: No
- Awaiting Approval — Description: Editor awaiting admin review; Can Edit: Full editing; Can Delete: Yes; Accepts Participants: No
- Approved — Description: Admin approved, ready to publish; Can Edit: Limited editing; Can Delete: Yes; Accepts Participants: No
- Live — Description: Published and collecting data; Can Edit: Very limited; Can Delete: No; Accepts Participants: Yes
- Completed — Description: Data collection finished; Can Edit: No; Can Delete: Yes; Accepts Participants: No
- Deleted — Description: Removed from your workspace; Can Edit: No; Can Delete: No; Accepts Participants: No
The status badge in the project header shows the current status and, where actions are available, opens a menu for them (Publish, Request to Publish, Mark as Complete, Unpublish, Re-publish).
Status Flow
DRAFT → READY → LIVE → COMPLETED
↓
AWAITING APPROVAL → APPROVED → LIVE (Editor path: request → approve → publish)
What Changes After Publishing
Locked Fields
Cannot be changed after publishing:
- Interview questions (wording and order)
- Screening questions and their logic
- Most interview settings (interviewer name, opening message, tone of voice, interview language, and the language-choice toggle)
Editable Fields
Can still be changed:
- Maximum Participants (increase only — you can never decrease it)
- Panel integration settings
- Privacy policy link
- Analysis language
- Theme and interview type
What Happens After Publishing
Immediate
- Interview link becomes active
- Participants can start interviews
- Completions count toward participant limit
- Responses appear in real-time
Data Collection
- Transcripts generate automatically
- AI analysis identifies themes
- Analytics update in real-time
- All data is securely stored
When the Participant Limit Is Reached
Once enough participants have completed, Tellet stops accepting new ones — newcomers see a message that the study has reached its maximum and is no longer accepting responses. To allow for people who start but don't finish, Tellet keeps the link open slightly past your target before closing it, so your final completed count lands close to the number you set.
The project status stays Live at this point — it does not switch to Completed on its own. Use Mark as Complete (below) to formally close the study.
Manual Completion
- Click "Mark as Complete" in project
- Interview link stops accepting new participants
- Project status changes to Completed
- All data remains accessible for analysis
Unpublishing a Project
Unpublishing reverts a live project to Ready status.
Requirements
- Project must be in Live status
- No participants currently mid-interview (wait for any in-progress interviews to finish or be abandoned)
- Organisation Owner, Admin, or Editor role (Workspace Viewers cannot unpublish)
Editors can unpublish, but publishing again goes through the usual approval flow.
Process
- Open the project and click the status badge in the project header (for a live project it reads Live) — or use the ⋯ menu on the project card
- Select Unpublish from the menu
- Review conversation counts:
- Ongoing conversations: Must be 0 to proceed
- Completed conversations: Choose to keep or delete
- Type the exact project name to confirm
- Click Unpublish
What Happens When You Unpublish
Status change: Project goes from Live → Ready, and the interview link stops accepting new participants.
Your completed responses — keep or delete: During unpublishing you choose what happens to responses already collected:
- Keep: Responses stay accessible, along with all analysis (overall insights, per-question analysis, themes, and Research Assistant conversations).
- Delete: Responses are removed, and all analysis built from them is deleted with them.
Audit trail: The action is logged for compliance and tracking.
Important Notes
- ⚠️ Analysis data deleted with conversations: If you choose to delete conversations, all associated AI-generated insights are permanently deleted. Keeping conversations preserves analysis data.
- ⚠️ Wait for ongoing conversations: You cannot unpublish while participants are mid-interview
- ✅ Can republish: After unpublishing, edit your project and publish again
When to Use Unpublish
- Found an error in questions after publishing
- Need to make significant changes to interview flow
- Want to reset analysis and start fresh
- Collected test data that needs to be cleared
Republishing a Completed Project
Completed projects can be republished to collect additional responses.
Requirements
- Project must be in Completed status
- The respondent limit must not have been reached (or increase the limit first)
- Organisation must have an active subscription
- Organisation Owner, Admin, or Editor role required (Workspace Viewers cannot republish)
Process
- Open the project
- Click the status badge in the project header (it reads Completed) and select Re-publish
- Confirm in the dialog
- Project status changes from Completed → Live
What Happens When You Republish
- Interview link becomes active again
- Participants can start new interviews
- Existing responses and analysis data are preserved
- New responses are collected and analysed alongside existing data
Note on Respondent Limit
If the limit was already reached, increase Maximum Participants before republishing to collect more responses.
Troubleshooting
"Some required fields are empty"
Hover over publish button to see missing fields. Complete them and try again.
"You don't have permission to publish"
Two permission levels apply to direct publishing:
- Workspace role: Must be Editor or Owner (not Viewer). Ask the workspace owner to upgrade your role.
- Organisation role: Requires org-level Admin or Owner. If your org role is Editor, you cannot publish directly — use the approval workflow instead (click "Request to Publish" and select an admin or owner to approve). This is expected behaviour.
"This project is already published"
Project is already live. No action needed.
Admin hasn't approved request
- Wait (they may be busy)
- Send one reminder using "Request approval again" after 24 hours
- Contact admin directly
- Ask different admin if available