Build Your Own Assessment

Your context. Your scale. Ten minutes.

Pre-built libraries cover most contexts. But when your organisation operates in a niche, has developed proprietary competency models, or needs to measure something no standard framework addresses — Synethos lets you build a validated, psychometrically sound assessment scale from scratch, in under ten minutes, without needing a specialist to do it.

Live in under 10 minutes
Psychometric guardrails built in
Individual or organisation
Legally defensible

What custom scale creation means

Define the construct. We handle the rest.

Bad measurement gives false confidence. A poorly designed questionnaire that produces a score is not better than no questionnaire — it is worse, because it creates the illusion of evidence where none exists.

Custom scale creation in Synethos is not a free-text form. It is a structured process that walks HR professionals and subject-matter experts through the definition of the construct they want to measure — what it is, what it is not, how it manifests in behaviour, and what distinguishes high from low performance on it. The AI then generates candidate items, applies psychometric filters, and produces a scale that is coherent, fair, and defensible.

Individual assessment

Hard skills for any role or sector

Technical knowledge, regulatory expertise, operational capability — for any role not covered by the standard libraries. Validated against your own performance criteria.

Individual assessment

Soft skills your organisation defines

Proprietary competency models, leadership frameworks, or values that are specific to your organisation and cannot be captured by generic scales.

Organisational assessment

Cultural dimensions unique to your context

A transformation initiative, a merger integration, a specific cultural risk — measured with a scale designed for that exact purpose and validated against your own population.

Every custom scale is built and validated within your Synethos environment. It belongs to your organisation, is stored on Swiss-hosted infrastructure, and is never shared or used to train any external model.

The process

Three steps. Ten minutes. Psychometrically sound.

The custom scale builder is designed for HR professionals and subject-matter experts — not for psychometricians. The guardrails are built into the process, so the output meets the standards required for fair, legally defensible assessment regardless of who builds it.

1

Define the construct

Describe what you want to measure — in plain language. What does good performance look like? What behaviours or knowledge does it require? What distinguishes someone who has this capability from someone who doesn't? Synethos guides you through a structured input process that captures enough precision to generate valid items.

2

AI generates and filters items

The system generates a candidate item pool, then applies psychometric filters — checking for double-barrelled items, social desirability bias, construct overlap, and readability — before presenting a refined set of items for your review. You select, adjust, or replace until the scale reflects exactly what you need.

3

Deploy and validate over time

The scale is immediately available for deployment. As data accumulates, Synethos monitors internal consistency, item performance, and criterion validity — providing ongoing quality indicators so you can refine the scale as your population and context evolve.

Custom scales built in Synethos meet the standards required for use in legally sensitive contexts — including hiring decisions — because the guardrails are embedded in the process, not added after the fact. Every scale is documentable, auditable, and fair.

Guardrails by design

The quality is built into the process. Not added after.

A poorly designed questionnaire that produces a score is not better than no questionnaire — it is worse, because it creates the illusion of evidence where none exists.

Most custom assessment tools give you a blank canvas and leave the quality entirely to you. Synethos works differently. Psychometric guardrails are embedded at every step of the build process — so the output is sound regardless of whether the person building it has a measurement background or not.

Construct clarity check

Before any items are generated, the system prompts you to sharpen the definition of what you are measuring. Vague constructs produce vague items. The guided input process ensures the construct is specific, bounded, and distinct from related dimensions before the first item is written.

Item quality filters

Every generated item is automatically screened for the most common psychometric failure modes — double-barrelled phrasing, leading language, social desirability contamination, construct overlap, and readability at the intended population level. Items that fail are flagged or removed before you see them.

Fairness and bias screening

Items are reviewed for potential adverse impact — language or framing that may systematically disadvantage candidates or employees based on gender, cultural background, or educational experience. This is not an optional step. It runs automatically on every item in every scale, every time.

Ongoing reliability monitoring

Once deployed, Synethos tracks internal consistency (Cronbach's α) and item-level performance as response data accumulates. Items that underperform are flagged for review. The scale improves with use — and you are notified when the evidence base is sufficient to confirm or refine its validity.

Audit trail and documentation

Every scale built in Synethos generates a documentation record — construct definition, item rationale, screening results, and validity evidence to date. This documentation is available on demand and is sufficient to support legal defensibility in hiring decisions, where assessment practices are subject to regulatory scrutiny in most jurisdictions.

The guardrails do not slow the process down. A scale that passes all checks is still live in under ten minutes. The difference is that it meets professional measurement standards from the first deployment — not after a costly remediation.

Get started

Build your first scale. In the time it takes to write a job description.

Book an orientation call to see the custom scale builder live — or request a demo account to try it with one of your own competency definitions.