Ask HN: Tips on writing a good survey for market analysis?
I've got an idea for a business, but due to some regulatory concerns, I want to suss out the viabily of the business before investing too deep into it. This is a B2C business.
I'm thinking about setting up a booth in a few malls and conducting some surveys with people. Is there any tips/resources/books on writing/asking the right questions to get the most amount of useful data?
The ideal survey should feature among these criteria:
* For evaluations use a rating system of 1 to 7 where 1 is low and 7 is high. It must be an odd number so that there is always a forced middle optional available. More than 7 is too many points of evaluation and less than 7 is too few.
* The questions should be worded in a way that asks a question with precision. Do not provide open ended questions. Force the user to make a decision with confidence.
* Always remember the goal of a survey is to gather data that distills to qualified measures in the aggregate. Know what data you want to see before writing your questions in such a way that you can draw directly logical correlations between data points without making biased assumptions upon the data.
* Yes/no boolean type questions are acceptable, but impose a forced dichotomy, which is less precise, and that lower precision could cloud your data.
* Don't ask questions that impose a hypothetical or ask the user for their wishes or desired futures. These always result in poorly informed bias. Instead ask such questions in such a way that asks for reflections from facts or past events. Its your job as the expert to determine solutions moving forward.
When you consider your collected data remember the Pareto Principle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
Identify 2-3 core questions you’re looking to get answers for and rephrase them a couple times. You’d be surprised how many times the answer changes based on how you ask the question