> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.simulant.tech/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Core concepts

> The building blocks of Simulant — workspaces, datasets, cohorts, creatives, tests, and focus groups — and how they fit together.

Simulant has a small set of objects that build on each other. Understanding how they relate makes everything else in these docs straightforward.

<Frame caption="A live focus group room brings the object model together — a cohort's participants reacting to a creative, with sentiment and themes forming in real time.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/simulant/j7X70BC9NUZuF_VF/images/app/focus-group-room.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=j7X70BC9NUZuF_VF&q=85&s=d64572f602c7b6f88f29d0f12a553648" alt="A focus group room where a voter cohort reacts to a campaign creative" width="1428" height="779" data-path="images/app/focus-group-room.png" />
</Frame>

## The object model

<Steps>
  <Step title="Datasets ground the population">
    A **dataset** is a source of real-world signal — census figures, electoral studies, panels, or your own uploaded data. Personas are built from datasets, so every response can be traced back to evidence.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Cohorts define who you're reaching">
    A **cohort** is a defined audience drawn from your datasets and narrowed with demographic filters and psychographic tags. It has a sample size (`n`).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Creatives are what you put in front of them">
    A **creative** is the thing being reacted to — a video, an image, or a block of copy.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Tests and focus groups collect the reaction">
    A **test** runs a structured study across the whole cohort. A **focus group** convenes a small room from the cohort to deliberate in conversation.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Objects at a glance

| Object          | What it is                                               | Where it lives               |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| **Workspace**   | The shared space for your team's work, data, and billing | Workspace switcher, top-left |
| **Dataset**     | A source of grounding data, versioned with a schema      | **Datasets**                 |
| **Cohort**      | A defined, sampled audience                              | **Cohorts**                  |
| **Creative**    | A media asset or copy to test                            | **Creatives**                |
| **Test**        | A structured study run across a cohort                   | **Tests**                    |
| **Focus group** | A convened room that deliberates                         | **Focus groups**             |
| **Insight**     | A pattern surfaced across many tests                     | **Insights**                 |

## Workspaces

Everything you create belongs to a **workspace**. A workspace has its own datasets, cohorts, tests, members, plan, and billing. You can belong to more than one and switch between them with the switcher in the top-left of the sidebar. See [Members and roles](/workspace/members).

## Quantitative and qualitative, together

Every test returns both kinds of feedback:

* **Quantitative** — structured measures such as recall, sentiment, purchase intent, and clarity, scored out of 100 and cut by segment.
* **Qualitative** — open-ended **verbatims** (what individual personas said and why), clustered into **themes**, with **recommendations** distilled on top.

A [focus group](/guides/focus-groups) adds a third mode: watching a room reason and shift its position live.

## Grounding

Simulant models outcomes, not opinions. Personas are built from the measurable record, and every result traces back to the signals behind it — so the read-out survives the room, the audit, and the front page. See [How grounding works](/data/grounding).

<Card title="Ready to build?" icon="rocket" href="/guides/cohorts">
  Start by building the cohort you want to reach.
</Card>