Questionable Surveys
Asking the right question is as important as asking the right people. We do a lot of primary research work at Silicon Strategies Marketing, and that means we do quite a bit of surveying (so much that we run our own software suite for online surveys). Surveying remains the cornerstone of quantitative investigation even in this age of constant polling where nominal surveys receive less than 0.1% response rates. Which makes the oversupply of sloppy surveying mythologies downright depressing. There is both science and art in survey design. It begins with knowing what critical information is to be acquired – what business decision you are making. Non-specific problem definitions lead to non-specific questions which produce non-specific answers (to be specific). Surprisingly many folks do not precisely understand the business decision they face, and we spend a lot of time in business coaching to improve their focus before assembling their surveys. … Continue reading →