Online Survey

Are You Trying to Solve a Non-Problem?

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Sherrie Mersdorf
I was asked to complete a product market research survey today. The product survey asked me a series of questions about possible products related to improving my beer drinking experience. One of the many things I didn't like about this survey was they never asked me if I thought there was a problem.

For example, one of the possible products was for a different method of carrying beer. Unfortunately, I'm perfectly happy with my current method: keeping the beer in the package it comes in. The suggested product would make me move the bottles from their packaging to take them somewhere. I'm not interested in that extra step. Did they ask me why I wouldn't by the product? Nope. They only asked if I would.

Maybe for their survey research goals, that's all they cared about: Would I buy the product, Yes or No? Kelli mentioned in a post earlier today that it's important to gather product feedback on a smaller scale before launching a bigger market research study. The goal of this market research questionnaire easily could have been to identify which product ideas should be considered for further qualitative and quantitative research. Only products where more than 20% of survey respondents indicated they would be interested in purchasing will have more research around it.

On the other hand, I like to make sure my position is clear when completing attitude surveys. This is probably a respondent bias I bring to the table because I spend so much time sharing online survey best practices. I know that often survey questions are written in a way that doesn't always collect the data the survey creator wants. They just don't always write the right questions. So avoid being "mis-quoted" so to speak, I like to be able to answer a series of question about why I feel one way or another.

Believe me, there were a lot of poorly written survey questions in the feedback form, as well as other issues with their data collection method. I've found that where there is one serious problem with a survey template, there are others hidden as well. If you're worried your survey questionnaire may have problems, go ahead and ask our online survey Professional Services Group to take a look. We're always happy to help.

Looking for sample market research survey questions? Here are a few sample product survey questions you can use in your next product research survey:

Sample Product Survey Question: How likely would you be to purchase this new product?
Sample Product Survey Question: How uniques would you say this product is compared to other products currently available?
Sample Product Survey Question: How believable are the claims made by this new product?
Sample Product Survey Question: Overall, how much do you like this new product?

Comments for Are You Trying to Solve a Non-Problem?

Leave a comment





Captcha