Hello there! Standard Deviation is not currently something that you can natively create in Dashboards. You can, however, create custom metrics in the Dashboard by going to Dashboard Settings > Custom Metrics.

Additionally, I would recommend seeing if you have Stats iQ available. You can access this in the Dashboard by clicking on the Magnifying Glass that has what looks like some vertical bar charts inside it (this is for the new version of the Dashboard, the old version will have an icon that looks like a scatter plot widget). You can also access Stats iQ by going to your survey project > Data & Analysis > Stats iQ. This is where you could definitely derive a lot more powerful results!

Hi @tannerfaragher! I know about custom metrics, but the calculations one can do there are too basic for something like standard deviation… how would you suggest to make all these steps fit into one custom metrics formula?

Step 1: Find the mean.

Step 2: For each data point, find the square of its distance to the mean.

Step 3: Sum the values from Step 2.

Step 4: Divide by the number of data points.

Step 5: Take the square root.

Also, while I have Stats iQ, there is no way to show the results / cards from Stats iQ in the CX Dashboard. So unless I make screenshots of every analysis and then load them in an image widget, I don't really have a use for it. It's important for me to show the results and analysis in a dashboard that I can share.

Any suggestions?

Hey @JohannesCE, thanks for the additional context. It definitely sounds like we need to come up with the best way to workaround your use case given the functionality of Qualtrics.

You likely already know this, but just in case, there are sharing options with Stats iQ. For your use case, I would recommend using Stats iQ to get the cards you are wanting, and although you can’t put them in the Dashboard (maybe we should fill out a feature request? haha), you can share these much like how you would a normal dashboard. However, I understand not wanting to silo out the data you have from your survey.

You are correct about the limitations of using the Custom Metric to create something such as the Standard Deviation. 

Could we instead look at this in a different light? We can have the Survey Flow and Embedded Data do mathematical calculations. You could add an Embedded Data element paired with the response (in this example, I’m guessing it is a text entry field). Qualtrics Documentation states the available options for operations, such as Exponents, Square Roots, etc. that could pair well with your use case.

It would need to follow the Math Operations format as well.

Then, it would simply be a matter of bringing in this Embedded Data field as a metric in Dashboard Settings and you would be able to add it to Dashboard widgets!

Thanks!
 

Hi @tannerfaragher, thank you so much for your reply. I tried the mathematical calculation in the Survey Flow, but I haven't been able to make it work yet. Maybe we can figure it out together. 

Here is the SD formula:

So let's say that I want to find the SD of the results of (recoded) question Y, and I’m doing this as an Embedded Data element in the Survey Flow, it should look more or less like this:

$e{ sqrt(sum( ( Y - mean(Y) ) ^2 ) / ( count( Y ) - 1 ) ) }

or

$e{ sqrt(sum( ( Y - (sum(Y) / count(Y) ) ) ^2 ) / ( count( Y ) - 1 ) ) }

The formula calculates the standard deviation by first subtracting the mean of the responses from each individual response, squaring the result, summing up the squared differences, dividing the sum by the count of responses minus 1, and finally taking the square root of the result.

Why is this not working?

I’m guessing the “sum” and “mean” dont’t fly here?