Read a theme
Open a theme in Adduce, read the evidence clustered behind it, and decide from its strength and sentiment whether it is worth a brief.
A theme is a cluster Adduce built from your evidence: the same thing said in different words, in different places, gathered onto one page with every quote kept.
Before you begin
- Role: any project role can read a theme. Drafting a brief from one needs Editor or Lead; other roles see the button, and the request is refused.
- A source that has synced at least once, and a synthesis run that has grouped its evidence into themes.
Steps
Open the project and choose Themes. The table is ordered by strength, and each row shows the verdict, a strength bar, the sentiment as an arrow and a word, and the number of evidence items and sources behind it.
Open a theme. The verdict line under the header — Improvement recommended, Monitor this theme or No improvement needed — states the verdict with its reason beside it. If no brief has been written from this theme the header button reads Generate brief; while one is still a draft it reads Regenerate brief; once the brief is Ready or Archived it reads View brief. The numbers the verdict came from sit in the panel on the right (Details, Brief, Issue, then Top sources and Top speakers), and the table below explains them. Use the previous and next arrows in the top bar to move between themes in strength order.
Read the Evidence tab. Every item is a quote as it was said, with the kind of signal it is, who said it, and, where one exists, a link back to the transcript or record it was taken from. Filter by evidence type when the list is long, choose Show more to load the next batch, or page with Previous and Next.
Check Contribution to see which sources and which speakers the theme is carried by (All beside Top sources jumps there), and Findings for anything Adduce has already flagged against it.
If the theme is worth acting on, choose Generate brief. A toast says Brief generation started and the panel's Brief section reads Generating a brief… while Adduce writes a problem statement and a proposed change from this theme's evidence. You get a notification, Your brief is ready or Brief generation failed, when it finishes; the Brief section then names the brief. Opened early, the brief says it is still being generated and offers Back to the theme. While the brief is a draft the header reads Regenerate brief, which asks you to confirm because it replaces any edits made by hand.
What the numbers mean
| On the page | What it is |
|---|---|
| Strength | How much of the project's evidence sits in this theme, as a value out of 100 and a bar, relative to every other theme |
| Sentiment | Whether the quotes read as Positive, Neutral or Negative, shown as an arrow and a word; a dash means there is no sentiment yet |
| Evidence | How many quotes and observations are clustered here |
| Sources | How many connected tools contributed to it |
| Rank | Where the theme sits when the project is ordered by strength |
A theme with two evidence items or fewer is shown as Emerging instead of scored: too thin to grade honestly. Give it another sync before you decide anything from it.
What's next
- Work with briefs — what happens after Generate brief.
- Ask a question in Chat — ask across every theme at once.
- Connect your tools — a theme is only as broad as its sources.
Ask a question in Chat
Ask Adduce a question about your project and get an answer that cites the evidence behind it, from Chat or from the Ask AI shortcut.
Work with briefs
Read a brief in Adduce, move it through its statuses, record decisions on its open questions, and discuss it with your team in comments.