12twenty's Configuration-Style Outcome Survey Settings are a more flexible way to manage survey availability across multiple unique student populations. This feature gives administrators significant control over how and when students can access outcome surveys through an easy-to-manage configuration-style system. This article explains how to access, create and manage student and alumni access to the Outcome Surveys for your site.
*Note: Still on Legacy Settings? While information on these old settings is still available here, we’re preparing to deprecate several legacy features—Research Tools, Legacy Appointment Settings, and Legacy Outcome Site Settings—on July 1, 2026. Learn how to make the switch below!
Sections
- What are Outcome Survey Settings?
- Creating a Configuration
- Managing Configurations (Configuration Cards)
- Configuration Business Rules
- How Configuration Search Works
- Enabling the New Outcome Survey Site Settings
What are Outcome Survey Settings?
Outcome Survey Settings are available on your site under Site Management > Site Settings > Outcome Survey under the "General" tab. This page allows users to control student and alumni access to different phases of the Outcome Survey.
Default Configuration
The Default configuration applies to all students and alumni and ensures that every student always matches at least one configuration, even if they do not meet the criteria for any custom configuration.
All students automatically match the Default configuration. If a student matches both the Default and one or more custom configurations, the system applies business rules to determine the “winning” configuration. Any attribute-based configuration is considered more specific than the Default.
If no other configuration applies, the Default configuration governs the student’s outcome survey access. This ensures full coverage and prevents any student from being left without defined survey settings.
Key Rules
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The Default configuration cannot include attribute selections.
You cannot apply Program, College, or Graduation Year/Term to the Default (it must always apply to all students).
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All job phase settings are disabled by default:
Edit the Default configuration to set default rules (e.g. enable Job Phases)
The Delete option is not available for the Default configuration.
The Default configuration always appears in the configuration list and is always returned in filter results.
Creating a Configuration
Configuration-Style Outcome Survey Settings allow you to create targeted rules that control survey availability based on Program, Graduation Year/Term, and/or College.
To create a new configuration navigate to Site Settings > Site Management > Outcome Survey under the General tab and ensure that Enable New Outcome Settings is toggled On. From there click + New in the Survey Settings (New!) section to get started!
Step 1: Select Attributes
Attributes determine which students the configuration applies to.
You may select multiple values from one or more of the following options:
Program
Graduation Year/Term
College (if applicable to your institution)
When working with attribute selections on a new Configuration please note the following:
At least one attribute selection is required.
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If no attribute is selected, you will see the error:
“Please select at least one attribute to continue.”
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Attributes only appear if:
They are enabled for your site instance, and
More than one picklist value exists.
Step 2: Configure Job Phase Settings
Each configuration displays all job phases enabled for your site.
For each job phase, users can control:
Survey available to students/alumni
Survey on Login
Require Response
Survey available to admins
Custom outcome submission popup text
If a selected program does not have a specific job phase enabled, an informational message will display beneath that job phase header indicating which programs it applies to.
Step 3: Save
Click Save to finalize the configuration.
If a configuration already exists with the exact same attribute selections, you will see the error:
“A configuration with these selections already exists. Please edit the existing configuration, or update your selections here to continue.”
Please edit the selections you have made so that the configurations are not exactly the same. Once saved, the configuration will appear as a tile in the Survey Settings (New!) section.
Managing Configurations (Configuration Cards)
All configurations are displayed as cards within the Survey Settings (New!) section, consistent with other configuration-style settings across the platform.
Each card displays the selected attributes that determine the student & alumni populations that configuration affects:
Program(s)
College(s)
Graduation Year/Term(s)
If no attribute was selected, the card displays All for that category, so for example the Default setting (seen above) shows "All" for all attributes.
Note: Cards display only attribute selections. Job phase settings (toggles and custom text) are not shown in the card view.
Each card includes a horizontal ellipses (⋯) menu with the following options:
Edit – Opens the configuration slideout for viewing or updating settings.
Delete – Opens a confirmation modal to prevent accidental remova.l *The Default configuration cannot be deleted.
Configuration Business Rules
Configuration Business Rules are just the way that the system determines which Configuration-Style Outcome Survey Settings to apply to a specific student. It does this based on:
The Program(s), College(s), and/or Graduation Year/Term(s) selected in each configuration, and
The attributes on the individual student’s profile.
All students meet the criteria for the Default configuration, therefore all student have at least one configuration that applies to them at all times.
If an admin user creates a new configuration that matches a student then the student will match multiple configurations, when that happens the system evaluates them using this "Business Rule" logic. Each rule is evaluated in order and if no single “winner” is determined the system proceeds to the next rule.
Rule #1: Attribute Priority (Single-Attribute Configurations)
If more than one configuration applies and each configuration uses only one attribute, the following priority order is used:
College > Program > Grad Year
This means that College is the primary determining factor when outcome configurations are applied to a student, followed by program and grad year in that order.
In this example we have two separate Configurations that apply to a 2026 College of Engineering Student:
Configuration A → College of Engineering (Post-Grad survey closed)
Configuration B → Grad Year 2026 (Post-Grad survey open)
This student does not have access to the Post-Grad survey because the College configuration takes priority over the Grad Year configuration, therefore Configuration A applies over Configuration B (which only references the student's grad year and not the college).
Rule #2: Most Specific Configuration Wins
If more than one configuration applies to a student, the configuration with the greatest number of attributes is considered the most specific and applies.
In this example we have the same College of Engineering Student and the same Configuration A, but we have changed Configuration B to include the student's college as well. This student has 3 configurations that apply to them at this time:
The Default configuration → All Students (e.g., no College, Program, or Grad Year)
Configuration A → College of Engineering
Configuration B → Grad Year 2026 and College of Engineering
Configuration B wins this time because it is the most specific configuration, followed by A (which specifies a College) then finally the Default (which has no college, program, or grad year selected).
Rule #3: Fewest Values Wins (Single Attribute Type)
Rule 3 only applies when the first two rules have resulted in ties, this means we're looking at a pair of configurations with the same exact attributes specified (College, Program, and Grad Year are the same across two or more configurations). In this situation “more specific” is defined as the configuration with the least number of selected values.
In this example we have Configuration A and B with the same College and Grad Year specified, and while both configurations have the same Program selected, Configuration B has a few extra programs selected as well:
Configuration A → College of Engineering, Grad Year 2026, Engineering Program
Configuration B → College of Engineering, Grad Year 2026, Engineering Program, Master of Engineering Program
In this situation Configuration A wins because it is more specific since it applies to only a single Program while Configuration B applies to more students (and is therefore less specific).
How Configuration Search Works
As your number of configurations grows, built-in filters make it easy to find and validate and manage the Survey Settings on your site.
Configuration Search Filters
At the top of the Survey Settings section, admins can filter configurations by:
Program
Graduation Year/Term
College
Key details:
Filters are applied using an AND relationship
Only configurations matching all selected filters are returned
The default configuration is always returned in results
Enabling the New Survey Site Settings
To ensure a smooth rollout, legacy outcome survey settings will remain fully supported until July 1st, 2026. The new configuration-style settings are opt-in and controlled by a simple toggle.
The Enable Toggle
Your Outcome Survey site settings page now includes a standard toggle labeled Enable New Outcome Settings:
Toggle OFF → Legacy (v1) outcome survey settings are in effect
Toggle ON → New configuration-style outcome survey settings are in effect and legacy settings are hidden
This allows admins to:
Safely test the new settings
Transition on their own timeline
Switch back to legacy settings if needed (with previous settings preserved)
Important: While legacy settings are supported today, all platforms will eventually be migrated to configuration-style outcome survey settings.