Themes help you turn detailed response tags into broader customer insights. For example, you might group the tags Confusing navigation, Hard to find, and Too many clicks into a theme called Product usability.
This guide explains how to create and manage themes, then use theme analytics to understand patterns in your feedback.
How themes work
A theme is a collection of one or more response tags. When a response has a tag included in a theme, Novella counts that response as a match for the theme.
Keep these rules in mind:
- A theme must include at least one tag.
- A tag can belong to more than one theme.
- If a response has several tags from the same theme, it counts as one mention of that theme—not several.
- One response can match several themes.
- Themes use tags already applied to responses; they do not tag responses automatically.
- Changes to a theme also apply to previously tagged responses, so its analytics can include historical feedback in the selected date range.
Before you start
- Make sure you have permission to manage workspace content.
- Create the response tags you want to group. Go to Settings → Tags if you need to add or review tags first.
- Apply tags consistently to responses so your theme analytics represent the feedback accurately.
- Decide which broader customer stories you want to track, such as product usability, support quality, pricing, or feature requests.
Create a theme
- In Novella, go to Settings → Themes.
- Under Create a theme, enter a clear Theme name.
- Optionally add a Description explaining what the theme represents.
- Choose a Color to make the theme easier to identify.
- Under Included tags, select at least one tag.
- Click Create theme.
The new theme appears under Configured themes and becomes available in theme analytics.
Example theme
For a theme named Product usability, you could include:
- Confusing navigation
- Hard to find
- Too many clicks
- Difficult setup
Use a name broad enough to cover all included tags, but specific enough that your team will interpret it consistently.
Edit a theme
- Go to Settings → Themes.
- Find the theme under Configured themes.
- Click the edit button for the theme.
- Update its name, description, color, or included tags.
- Click Save changes.
Editing the included tags changes which tagged responses match the theme. This can change the theme's current and historical analytics.
To leave edit mode without saving, click Cancel editing.
Delete a theme
- Go to Settings → Themes.
- Find the theme under Configured themes.
- Click the delete button.
- Confirm that you want to delete the theme.
Deleting a theme does not delete its response tags or remove those tags from responses. It only removes the grouping and its theme-level analytics.
View theme analytics
Go to Analytics → Themes, or click View analytics from Settings → Themes.
The summary cards show:
- Tagged responses: Responses that match at least one theme.
- Theme mentions: Unique response–theme matches. A single response can contribute to more than one theme.
- Active themes: Themes with at least one matching response in the selected period.
- Theme coverage: The percentage of responses in the selected period represented by themes.
The Top themes table includes:
- Mentions: The number of responses that matched the theme.
- Share: Theme mentions as a percentage of tagged responses. Because one response can match multiple themes, shares across themes may add up to more than 100%.
- Trend: The change in mentions compared with the preceding period.
- Avg. score: The average score for scored responses matching the theme.
- Negative: The percentage of scored responses in the negative score band.
You can sort the table by any column or search by a theme or tag name.
Filter and explore theme data
Use the available controls to focus your analysis:
- Select Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, or All time.
- Use the analytics sidebar to filter by survey or score band.
- Select a theme in the table or sidebar to open its details.
- Review the theme's included tags, score distribution, and recent matching responses.
- Select a recent response to open its response details.
If you change several filters and want to start over, click Clear all.
Best practices
- Start with a small set of useful themes: Add themes that support decisions your team regularly makes.
- Use consistent tag definitions: Overlapping or ambiguous tags can make theme results harder to interpret.
- Document the purpose of each theme: A short description helps teammates understand what belongs in it.
- Review included tags regularly: Your tagging vocabulary may change as products and customer concerns evolve.
- Use overlapping themes intentionally: A tag can belong to more than one theme when it genuinely supports different analyses.
- Check the underlying responses: Use theme details to read recent feedback before drawing conclusions from a trend.
- Compare like-for-like periods: Keep date range and survey filters consistent when monitoring changes over time.
Troubleshooting
I cannot create a theme
- Confirm you have permission to manage workspace content.
- Make sure at least one tag exists in Settings → Tags.
- Select at least one tag before clicking Create theme.
- Use a unique theme name in your workspace.
A theme has no data
- Confirm its included tags have been applied to responses.
- Widen the analytics date range.
- Clear survey or score-band filters that may exclude matching responses.
- Check that the expected tags are still included in the theme.
Mention totals are higher than the number of tagged responses
This is expected when responses match more than one theme. Tagged responses counts each matching response once, while Theme mentions counts each unique response–theme match.
A theme's shares add up to more than 100%
This is expected because one response can match several themes. Each theme's share is calculated against the number of tagged responses, so theme shares are not mutually exclusive.
I see a tag listed as its own theme in analytics
A response tag that is not part of a configured theme can appear as a standalone theme so tagged feedback remains visible. Add that tag to a configured theme if you want it included in a broader customer story.
Analytics changed after I edited a theme
Theme analytics use the theme's current set of included tags. Adding or removing a tag can therefore change results for previously tagged responses as well as new responses.