Coding open-ended questions: a guide for market researchers using ChatGPT

Open-ended answers are messy. But they’re also gold.

They capture the why behind a consumer’s decision, the story behind a habit, the emotion behind a choice. If you work in research, you already know this. What you might not know is how to get from that messy text blob to actual insight, without spending hours tagging responses manually.

That’s where ChatGPT comes in. No, it’s not magic. But if you know how to prompt it, it’s pretty damn close.

Here’s a guide for researchers who want to explore open-ends more efficiently - and more meaningfully - with ChatGPT.

Why use ChatGPT for open-ended questions?

Most researchers are already using ChatGPT to some extent. Summarizing feedback. Grouping responses. Spotting keywords.

But very few go deeper.

If prompted well, ChatGPT can:

• Identify emotional tone
• Group responses by intent, not just repeated terms
• Surface contradictions or unexpected patterns
• Suggest better follow-up questions

It’s not about replacing your judgment. It’s about scaling it.

The most common mistake (and how to fix it)

Too many prompts read like a command to Excel.

“Group these into 5 categories.”

Sure, it’ll give you something. But it won’t think with you. It won’t understand why those categories matter. You’ll get vague buckets like “Price” or “Product.”

Try this instead:

“You’re a market researcher analyzing feedback for a new plant-based yogurt. Group responses by underlying motivation - like health, curiosity, or sustainability - and explain why each one matters.”

You set the tone. You define what “interesting” means. ChatGPT follows.

A simple prompt framework that works

Here’s a structure that keeps ChatGPT aligned with your research brain:

1. Set the role: “You are a senior researcher…”
2. Add context: “This is feedback from people who tried our smart bike helmet.”
3. State your goal: “Group responses based on emotional drivers and behavior change.”
4. Ask for reasoning: “Explain what each group reveals about user mindset.”

That’s it. Simple, but way more powerful than just asking for “themes.”

What ChatGPT can’t (and shouldn’t) do

It won’t challenge your assumptions unless you ask it to.
It won’t pick up on social cues or implicit tensions without the right framing.

But that’s a feature, not a bug. You stay in control. ChatGPT becomes your sharp, slightly obsessive assistant who never gets tired.

Want ready-to-use prompts that actually work?

We’ve written a free full guide with plug-and-play prompts to help you code open-ended responses using ChatGPT. Use it as your starting point and make it your own.

Or… let Glaut do the heavy fifting for you

If you’d rather skip the prompt tweaking and jump straight to the insights, there’s another option: use an AI-native platform built for this.

Glaut is designed for researchers who want to spend less time formatting Excel sheets and more time actually thinking. You just upload your verbatims, we handle the rest.

✨ Thematic analysis to cluster your responses into meaningful themes.
🧠 Sentiment analysis that actually understands tone, not just word lists.
⚡ Fast, structured, and built with researchers in mind (not just AI enthusiasts).

It’s not “easy research.” It’s better research, powered by software that gets how you work.