# Your First Study

> Ask one question of an existing audience, inspect its result, and choose a useful next step.

Source: https://imario.ai/docs/getting-started/quickstart

This walkthrough runs one open question using an audience already available to your workspace. You do not need to create individuals, upload customer data, or build a canvas.

## 1. Choose an audience

Open **New Task** in the sidebar. Open the audience selector above the composer and choose one audience you can access. Read its definition before continuing: a broad national population and a narrow customer segment answer different questions.

If access is locked, choose an available audience or review the separate access purchase. A study's credit estimate does not include unlocking an audience.

## 2. Write one question

Leave the task on **Default** in the **+** menu. For example:

> What would make you hesitate before switching your main grocery shopping to a delivery service?

Use one question with a clear context. Avoid combining price, brand, packaging and purchase intent in one sentence. The system determines the question format from your request; for fixed question types and options, use [Survey](https://imario.ai/docs/research/survey).

## 3. Review size and cost

Check the respondent control beside the run action. An open question has a recommended panel of 50; adjust the count before running if needed.

At 2 credits per respondent, one open question with 50 respondents costs **100 credits**, before any report generation. This is an example, not a fixed price for everything typed into the composer. Check the estimate for your actual task, especially after changing its type or audience count.

## 4. Run and inspect

Submit the task. It opens as a conversation and shows research progress followed by the result. Read the question and audience attached to the result before interpreting its themes or percentages.

Open the result's analysis to inspect **Explorer**. Read individual answers alongside the summary. Look for a recurring objection, a disagreement, and an answer the summary does not fully capture.

## 5. Continue deliberately

Ask for an explanation of the existing result, or ask a new research question:

> Ask the same audience which of those concerns would actually stop them from trying the service.

New research can incur another charge. Report generation is also separate: for a scope containing only this 100-credit run, the report costs 50 credits. You can learn from the result without requesting a report.

## If you cannot continue

- **No suitable audience:** see [Choose an audience](https://imario.ai/docs/audiences/choose).
- **Not enough credits:** reduce the scope or review [Usage](https://imario.ai/docs/workspace/usage).
- **Unexpected answers:** check the audience definition and question wording before rerunning.
- **You see a node canvas:** see [Older workflows](https://imario.ai/docs/resources/legacy-workflows).

Next, [choose a research method](https://imario.ai/docs/research/choose-a-method) or [explore the result](https://imario.ai/docs/run-and-analyze/explorer).