How to make a useful survey

In Part 1 (what is UXR and why do I care?) we talked about the difference between customer development and user research - a small, but worth noting, difference.

We also talked about reasons for launching a UXR project.

The next piece in Rethink Labs’ methodology is to survey users.

Surveys are great to get quantitative info and to learn patterns

We like to do a survey ahead of live interviews to help us make the most of that in person or video time. Through screening questions, it also can help select users with specific experiences, who will be particularly relevant to interview later in the process.

Part of surveying and interviewing is developing the right questions. The Mom Test is a favorite for many learning to gather data in helpful ways.

Many roles are tasked with getting users to do a specific action.

UXR makes us think differently - we don’t want to lead users into answers we’d like to hear. If we do, the effort of UXR is wasted.

Our top tips for surveying users

• Be clear on what this UXR will help your team with;
• What questions are you looking to answer?
• What hypothesis do you want to disprove?
• What decision is blocked without this data?
• What are key problems of your organization right now?

Without a clear goal the effort to do UXR will not feel worth it

For surveying and interviewing, draft your questions thoughtfully and focus on that key goal for the project. If a question doesn’t actually affect the goal, cut it.

• Challenge yourself on any easy Yes/No questions (sometimes they are needed)
• Start with How / Why / Tell me about to form your questions - this is especially needed for live interviews
• Try to ask the question in 2-3 different ways before landing on the phrasing and in your interview script have a few versions to help the interviewer
• Aim for brevity, but include the questions necessary to get the information you need - if you need 2 more questions to solve for your goal, add them!

We have developed a tool to help teams craft these surveys and scripts (for live conversations with real human users 😳). If you’re ready to get started click here to book a time to talk with us - we’re friendly and love talking to potential customers.

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