Writing a Great Survey: Answer these three questions for yourself first
These 3 questions will help you uncover *why* you’re writing the survey and lead you to focused, actionable results.
Writing a good survey doesn’t have to be hard if you focus on your key objectives. Before I write a survey, there are three important questions I always ask myself. Understanding the answer to these key questions allows me to start designing the survey or writing the research proposal with clarity. It ensures that the survey stays focused, and that I collect the best possible results.
These questions may seem obvious or intuitive, but understanding the answers to these questions is crucial to design great surveys. I always start with asking each of these three questions:
- What question(s) do I want to answer?
- How are these findings going to influence decision-making?
- What data deliverables do I expect out of this research?
What question(s) do I want to answer?
We usually don’t write surveys to just ‘see what we find.’ These projects take time and money so we often know upfront what we would like to investigate. Are you trying to learn how well known a brand is among a certain group? Do you want to know what flavors are most appealing to consumers?
Once you decide what you want to know — and what you don’t want to know — you have your survey guardrails. These guardrails make it easier to stay on task and focus on your most important questions. Keep the survey to the point and avoid adding unrelated questions.
How are these findings going to influence decision-making?
Consider what decisions will be made after analyzing the data you gather. Will your business redesign a beverage prototype? Perhaps you might increase ad spend? A survey can uncover great insights and help direct, or redirect, resources in a business.
Consider what impact this data will have on the company. Be sure that you ask as many, if not all, the relevant questions to that business decision. If this research won’t lead to any decisions, then why are you doing it?
What deliverables do I expect out of this research?
Think backwards into your question set. Envision the data points you would like to know or outline those important facts and figures you would need to make a business decision. If your business case would get the green light if the majority of consumers loved your new ice cream idea, then you had better ask a likability question about your concept.
Start thinking about how you’ll use the data. If you will be adding data points to a presentation, what does that data point look like? Write out a “wish list” of data points: ie. I wish “70% of consumers said they would buy purple peanut butter”. Now you know you need to ask about purchase intent.
By answering these three questions, you will have a better understanding of what your survey should look like. Be specific and concise. Take care not to ask for data you won’t need. Based on your answers to these questions, you can write a more focused and beneficial survey.
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