Survey Question Design for Beginners: Work Backward to 10 Easy-to-Answer Questions

Marketing & Sales

Survey Question Design for Beginners: Work Backward to 10 Easy-to-Answer Questions

First-time survey creators use this beginner template to work backward from their goal, narrow questions to 10, and order them so people finish answering. The whiteboard has 4 pages - page 1 sets the goal and who, how many, and by when to ask; page 2 branches out draft questions with a logic tree; page 3 narrows them to 10 with MoSCoW and orders them; page 4 tests with two people before sending and decides how to read and share the results. The task board has 5 columns - to do, drafting, testing and fixing, collecting answers, and shared - with 4 parent tasks matching the 4 pages and 3 subtasks each. Even beginners can follow along using the "e.g." examples on each page, without guessing at what to ask. The board also shows when to use multiple choice versus free text, and why harder questions belong near the end. Use it alone or with 2-3 people, for satisfaction surveys, cancellation surveys, or post-event feedback.

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survey creation question design customer survey MoSCoW for beginners
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① Your Survey Goal and How You'll Use... ② Who to Ask ③ How Many & How to Send ④ Deadline ⑤ Work Back from What You'll Decide t... ⑦ Draft Question List (one question p... ⑨ Order the 10 Questions and Make The... ⑩ From Sending to Deadline (send ⑨'s ... ⑪ How to Read the Results (fill in af... ⑫ Who to Share With and What's Next Survey Design for... How to use (4 pag... Goal & how yo... Decisions & h... Cautions & tr... Insights & wh... 1/4 Decide what to learn Ctrl+F / ⌘F : 2/4... → 2/4 2/4 Draft the questions ↙ 3/4 Your survey goale.g. Learn why many customers cancel, and pick one thing to fix next month How you'll use the resultse.g. As input for deciding which fix to prioritize at next month's review What you won't cover this timee.g. Skip collecting new feature ideas this round (don't ask too broadly) e.g. Customers who started using it within the past 3 months e.g. Ask people who already canceled with a separate survey Also decide who not to ask (employees, partners, etc.) e.g. Send to 200 people, aim for 50 responses e.g. Email a link (5 minutes or less to answer) Expect fewer responses than the number you send to e.g. Send on Oct 1, deadline Oct 8 (1 week) e.g. Compile results by Oct 10 Set the deadline by working back from when you need the results What you'll decide What you need to ... What you know so far Decision 1 e.g. Which feature to fix first e.g. Which feature trips people up e.g. Common questions in support tickets Decision 2 e.g. Whether to revisit pricing e.g. Whether customers find the price fair e.g. No feedback yet from people who canceled Decision 3 Write your 3rd decision here Write what you need to learn as one sentence Write "none" if you have no clue yet ⑥ Branch Out What... e.g. Why many people cancel (sum up ⑤'s topic h… At sign-up Draft Q → Which screen confused you at sign-up? Most-used feature Draft Q → Which feature do you use most? Price fairness Draft Q → Do you feel the price is fair? First week Draft Q → How many times did you use it in the first week? Unused feature Draft Q → Why don't you use it? About the respondent Draft Q → How long have you used it, and what's your job ty… Question text Format & choices Which of ⑤ it sup... Draft Q1 e.g. Which screen confused you at sign-up? e.g. Multiple choice (pick 1). 4 screen names plus "Other" e.g. ⑤'s row 1 (which feature to fix first) Draft Q2 e.g. How many times did you use it this week? e.g. Multiple choice: 0, 1-2, 3-5, 6+ e.g. ⑤'s row 1 Draft Q3 e.g. Do you feel the price is fair? e.g. 5-point scale (1 = not fair, 5 = very fair) e.g. ⑤'s row 2 (whether to revisit pricing) Draft Q4 e.g. Why did you want to stop using it? e.g. Free text (about 100 words); catches what choices miss e.g. ⑤'s rows 1 and 2 Draft Q5 Write every question you think of; add rows if you run out Split choices so they don't overlap, and add one "Other" Move questions with no link to ⑤ into Won't on ⑧ 3/4 Narrow to 10 → 4/4 4/4 Send & read r... ⑧ Narrow to 10 wi... MustRequired Without it, you can't make ⑤'s decision e.g. Which screen confused you at sign-up (multiple choice) Keep Must plus Should to 10 or fewer ShouldWorth having Makes the decision more solid e.g. How many times you used it this week Cut from here first if you're over 10 CouldNice to have Useful for reference if there's room e.g. What other services you use Fine to save for the next survey Won'tNot this time Skip this round e.g. New feature ideas (already ruled out in ①) Leave a one-line reason for skipping Questions to place Ease-of-answer tips Count First e.g. Are you still using it? (yes/no) Start with quick multiple-choice questions e.g. 2 questions Early e.g. Usage count, confusing screens Group fact-based multiple-choice questions together e.g. 4 questions Late e.g. Price fairness (5-point scale) Put feeling-based questions near the end e.g. 3 questions Last e.g. Why they wanted to stop using it (free text) Only 1 free-text question, and make it skippable e.g. 1 question TestHave 2 people answer ite.g. Ask 2 coworkers to answer and time it, noting any confusing questions FixFix confusing questionse.g. Remove overlapping choices, check it takes 5 minutes or less SendSend the linke.g. Email it to ③'s 200 people on the morning of the send date set in ④ (Oct 1) RemindSend one remindere.g. 2 days before the deadline, send one reminder to anyone who hasn't answered DeadlineClose responsese.g. Close it the evening of the deadline set in ④ (Oct 8) and record how many responses you got What to look at Results (counts &... Reading notes Numbers Counts and percentages for Must questions e.g. 18 of 50 people were confused by sign-up (36%) Write both the count and the percentage Insights Words that repeat in the free-text answers e.g. "Pricing is unclear" came up 7 times Don't decide everything from a single loud comment Next action An action that matches ①'s purpose e.g. Fix the sign-up screen copy by next month Pick just one action (owner & date go on ⑫) Who to share with, and wheree.g. Share with dev and sales at the Oct 10 review meeting Owner and deadlineOwner: ____ / Deadline: __/__Track progress on the task board What to ask next timee.g. Ask about the questions you moved to Won't on ⑧ in your next survey → 2/4 Draft the questions ↙ 3/4 Narrow to 10 → 4/4 Send & read r...
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Task board contents

To do 16 items

Decide what to learn
Draft the questions
Narrow to 10
Send & read results
Write your goal
Pick who & deadline
Find what to learn
Branch out topics
List your questions
Set format & choices
Sort with MoSCoW
Set the order
Recheck hard ones
Test with 2 people
Send & wait
Read & share it

Drafting 0 items

Testing & fixing 0 items

Collecting answers 0 items

Shared 0 items

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