Method library
The method library gathers what this environment is built on: guides to the software and the ecosystem, and articles on the method itself. It is open — no account needed.
Quick start
Where to start
One library, five entrances. Pick the role you have in this study; the choice binds nothing and hides nothing.
You design the study: orientation, framing the phenomenon, theses and the panel.
You run the panel: rounds, phases, anonymity and steering the conversation.
You take part in the panel: you answer, give your reasoning, read others' reasoning and may change your mind.
You read the material: the DAE pipeline, the quality gates and the reports.
You build on top: the ecosystem interfaces, the two hinges and plugins.
Guides
Guides in three languages. Each one is readable in the browser and also comes as a PDF; the getting-started guides also come as videos.
Overview
What each part does, how they connect, and how to use each one alone. Start here.
There are two ways into a study: the wizard guides a first Delphi step by step, and importing a plan file takes a finished plan straight into Pronoia.
The wizard takes you from a template to a ready study in seven steps. Every step has a picture and a note on what to change in the template to make it your own.
The way for experienced users: a plan file made with the planning plugins or saved from the wizard, special templates and ready example studies – preview, technical details and creation.
After the wizard or a template, the study is a draft. This guide takes it, with pictures and one step at a time, to the point where the panel can be invited to the first round.
Once the plan is ready, the round is opened, the panel invited and the responses followed. With pictures, this guide walks through round 1 in Argument Delphi – from opening it, through the pause, to preparing round 2.
From the pause after round 1 to ending the study: the round 2 survey is built from round 1's results, the panel answers and discusses, and in the last pause you decide whether the panel has said what it has to say. Finally you write the panel a closing letter.
What the panel said and how the material is taken further: the Analysis area's Summary, Statistics & change and Quantitative analysis, the descriptive results report, and the export to DAE analysis.
Integration
The whole arc end-to-end: three stages, two ecosystems and the two handoffs that join them.
Delphi variations
The four base Delphi variations (Argument, Classic, Real-Time and Barometer Delphi) — what each is and when to use it — plus the ready-to-run templates that instantiate a variation and panel for different purposes.
A one-open-round Delphi in practice: what the software does for you, what you follow when there is no round-to-round comparison, and what simply does not exist in an RTD study.
Planning (DPE)
The locked starting choices of a study design: orientation (N/S/R/E/D/D+), variation, scoping the phenomenon, and the structure of the theses.
The panel as a designed epistemic space: the matrix, the perspective layer, the Perspective Health Score, epistemic coverage and the quality gates before collection.
Synthetic argumentation when no real panel exists: the orientation-aware Argument Simulator, its six phases and a worked example.
Panel design
How the ecosystem designs a Delphi panel: the two-axis matrix as the primary structure, context-dependent axes, roles in cells, the Hautamäki perspective layer, AI panels and their description standard, and the computational panel diagnostics (coverage, PDI, lock-in, PHS) that check a panel before data collection begins.
Facilitation (Pronoia)
How a Delphi study advances in Pronoia: the lifecycle, the phases inside a round, controlled feedback, the presets, and deciding when to iterate and when to close.
How Pronoia protects panelist anonymity: three identity modes, AI disclosure, k≥3 group reporting, matrix-based group comparison, and pointers to the working guides for role play and the QR one-shot poll.
Two interfaces onto one running study: what the panelist sees, what the facilitator sees, and why they differ.
The panelist's path through a round: responding, dialogue, revision, and what is visible at each stage.
The facilitator's work round by round: the state card, the next step, the gates, and what each phase asks for.
When role play suits a Delphi, how the facilitator builds it on the panel matrix, what the panelist sees, and how results are read by box.
Running an anonymous one-shot poll in a hall: preparation, the QR code and presentation view, what to tell the room, disruptions, results and limits.
A two-minute guide for anyone invited to Metodix's open Delphi study: what a round consists of, how anonymity works, and why the reasoning matters more than the rating.
A ten-minute tour for a trial user: the ready-made example study, reading what the panel says, editing theses, building a study of your own, and the limits of the trial.
Analysis (DAE)
Interpretive analysis under quality gates: 21 checkpoints, eight phases, the trilogies and human review — where descriptive collection ends and interpretation begins.
Reference
The ecosystem's key terms in one place.
The most common questions about the ecosystem and how to use it.
One-page entry points for three roles: researcher, facilitator, developer-partner.
Presentation slides are generated from the same source as the guides (per section + whole) — always current. Plus one worked example.
Background essays: The seven ideas of the Delphi method
An introduction and seven essays on the ideas that Delphi processes are built on: the Socratic question, dialogue, argument, open speech, expertise, the future and futures studies. Available in Finnish, English and Swedish.
Read the series →Delphi Pronoia reports
Results reports of Delphi studies carried out on Delphi Pronoia, drafted from the studies' frozen archives.
Read the reports →Articles
In preparationThe guides tell you how the software is used. The articles tell you why the method is what it is: what the choices in Delphi technique rest on, what is known about them and where they fail. The series below are decided, but their texts are not published yet.
The background of the method, its three core assumptions — anonymity, iteration, feedback — and what research says about them.
Why the reasoning matters more than the mean, and how disagreement is read as a result rather than as noise.
Kinds of expertise, the coverage of perspectives, and what panel size actually decides.
What an AI panelist is and is not, where it can be used and how it is marked in the data.
The analytical layers of DAE, the quality gates, and when a human has to be put back in the loop.
How the panel's tensions become axes and axes become scenarios — and when they do not.
The wider method field: metodix.eu
The method library is bounded by this environment: Pronoia, the ecosystem modules and the Delphi method. The wider field of futures research methods, together with Metodix's experts and services, is presented on the company site.
metodix.eu →Is something missing?
The method library grows as the software and the ecosystem grow. If you are looking for a guide that does not exist, tell us what you are looking for — it is the best way to influence the order of publication.
You can also write directly toinfo@metodix.fi