Designing a survey (long)
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I am thinking of bringing out a second version of Browsy soon. The way I tried to market this first version was the way of a total amateur, which I am, when it comes to marketing. Anyway, Colin helped me a lot with deciding how to go about it in the next version (thanks a lot, Colin! :) ). One of Colin's excellent suggestions was to do some sort of market research before I do anything about the next version. He suggested doing some kind of survey. So here are the questions. Most of them have been suggested by Colin himself (again!). I wrote them in my own words, and added a couple of questions of my own. Anything that is right is Colin's, and all the mistakes are mine. Please take a look and tell me if I should add any more. The purpose of this survey is to help me decide: 1. Who are my prospective customers? 2. Where can I find them? 3. What do they want? 3. What should I tell them about Browsy (ie what feature/benefit of using Browsy they'll like the most)? 4. How much can I charge them for Browsy? 5. How are my customers finding me? 6. Anything else that'll help me sell more copies of Browsy and satisfy my customers better OK, now on to the questions. Please note that the wording of the question is probably as important as the question itself. I want to do it right the first time itself, because I might not get a second chance, so please help me as much as you can. 1. Age (dropdown) 2. Gender (radio button/dropdown) 3. Country (dropdown) 4. Occupation (dropdown) 4. Do you consider yourself an expert on the Internet, knowledgeable, just a user, a novice. (dropdown) 5. Where do you like to browse on the Internet - News Sites, Technology Sites, Children’s Sites, Blogs, Adult sites... (any more suggestions, guys?) (Checkboxes, to let the user make multiple selections) 6. How did you find out about Browsy - Our Website, Friend, Search Engine, Media Report... (any suggestions for other options?) (Checkboxes again) 7. Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before? Y/N (dropdown or radio) 8. Do you think the full individual price of Browsy at USD 29.95 is - too high, just right, easily affordable (drop down) 9. How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy (dropdown) 10. Are you happy with Browsy - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 11. Is Browsy user friendly? - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 12. Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy? 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 13. What new features would you like to see in Browsy? (textbox) - How many max chars shoul
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I am thinking of bringing out a second version of Browsy soon. The way I tried to market this first version was the way of a total amateur, which I am, when it comes to marketing. Anyway, Colin helped me a lot with deciding how to go about it in the next version (thanks a lot, Colin! :) ). One of Colin's excellent suggestions was to do some sort of market research before I do anything about the next version. He suggested doing some kind of survey. So here are the questions. Most of them have been suggested by Colin himself (again!). I wrote them in my own words, and added a couple of questions of my own. Anything that is right is Colin's, and all the mistakes are mine. Please take a look and tell me if I should add any more. The purpose of this survey is to help me decide: 1. Who are my prospective customers? 2. Where can I find them? 3. What do they want? 3. What should I tell them about Browsy (ie what feature/benefit of using Browsy they'll like the most)? 4. How much can I charge them for Browsy? 5. How are my customers finding me? 6. Anything else that'll help me sell more copies of Browsy and satisfy my customers better OK, now on to the questions. Please note that the wording of the question is probably as important as the question itself. I want to do it right the first time itself, because I might not get a second chance, so please help me as much as you can. 1. Age (dropdown) 2. Gender (radio button/dropdown) 3. Country (dropdown) 4. Occupation (dropdown) 4. Do you consider yourself an expert on the Internet, knowledgeable, just a user, a novice. (dropdown) 5. Where do you like to browse on the Internet - News Sites, Technology Sites, Children’s Sites, Blogs, Adult sites... (any more suggestions, guys?) (Checkboxes, to let the user make multiple selections) 6. How did you find out about Browsy - Our Website, Friend, Search Engine, Media Report... (any suggestions for other options?) (Checkboxes again) 7. Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before? Y/N (dropdown or radio) 8. Do you think the full individual price of Browsy at USD 29.95 is - too high, just right, easily affordable (drop down) 9. How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy (dropdown) 10. Are you happy with Browsy - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 11. Is Browsy user friendly? - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 12. Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy? 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 13. What new features would you like to see in Browsy? (textbox) - How many max chars shoul
I think your biggest question need be; How are you going to get people to fill in this survey? There needs to be an incentive. Sure, some of us here will help out because you are a nice chap, but 99% of the rest of the world does not know that nor do they care. They will want something for giving you all those answers in their own time. You could make it a competition (free Browsy for life or something from a sponsor) or a requirement for downloading Browsy (not really a good idea that though). Also don't make any of the questions mandatory. A lot of people will not give their age or gender. Also would not have "Adult sites" as an option for #5. Only people that will answer with that will be jokers. Avoid words like hate. They are negative words. Rather use dislike. Otherwise looking good :) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
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I am thinking of bringing out a second version of Browsy soon. The way I tried to market this first version was the way of a total amateur, which I am, when it comes to marketing. Anyway, Colin helped me a lot with deciding how to go about it in the next version (thanks a lot, Colin! :) ). One of Colin's excellent suggestions was to do some sort of market research before I do anything about the next version. He suggested doing some kind of survey. So here are the questions. Most of them have been suggested by Colin himself (again!). I wrote them in my own words, and added a couple of questions of my own. Anything that is right is Colin's, and all the mistakes are mine. Please take a look and tell me if I should add any more. The purpose of this survey is to help me decide: 1. Who are my prospective customers? 2. Where can I find them? 3. What do they want? 3. What should I tell them about Browsy (ie what feature/benefit of using Browsy they'll like the most)? 4. How much can I charge them for Browsy? 5. How are my customers finding me? 6. Anything else that'll help me sell more copies of Browsy and satisfy my customers better OK, now on to the questions. Please note that the wording of the question is probably as important as the question itself. I want to do it right the first time itself, because I might not get a second chance, so please help me as much as you can. 1. Age (dropdown) 2. Gender (radio button/dropdown) 3. Country (dropdown) 4. Occupation (dropdown) 4. Do you consider yourself an expert on the Internet, knowledgeable, just a user, a novice. (dropdown) 5. Where do you like to browse on the Internet - News Sites, Technology Sites, Children’s Sites, Blogs, Adult sites... (any more suggestions, guys?) (Checkboxes, to let the user make multiple selections) 6. How did you find out about Browsy - Our Website, Friend, Search Engine, Media Report... (any suggestions for other options?) (Checkboxes again) 7. Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before? Y/N (dropdown or radio) 8. Do you think the full individual price of Browsy at USD 29.95 is - too high, just right, easily affordable (drop down) 9. How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy (dropdown) 10. Are you happy with Browsy - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 11. Is Browsy user friendly? - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 12. Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy? 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 13. What new features would you like to see in Browsy? (textbox) - How many max chars shoul
I work in the MR research industry and I was impressed by your methodology. Everybody think they can design a survey. Very few actually can. You need to have some questions (which you have) and you need to make sure that the data you will collect will answer those questions. Make sure that your demographics (general) are relevant. I think the gender is probably not useful. The size of the company they work in is. If the buyer is in charge of the IT systems, chances are he will buy more than one copy. If you are trying to evaluate the volume of your future sales, it is important. Your questionnaire seems to be targeted at users of your product. This is important: your sample will not be representative. It is biaised by the fact that people already know (and like) your stuff. If you want to evaluate your prospects, you need to to target non users, explain what your stuff does and then see if they would buy it and at which price. If you leave it open, people will say 0. If you want to transform your users into paying users, then it is important to ask them what to improve in your software. Give them some ideas, otherways they will not be talkative. You may need to know if you need to work on the actual functionnalities or the interface. Finally, it is important to know who does not finish your survey. If somebody drops out, try to understand who, where and why (make your survey into different pages). Do not start by the demographics or you will probably scare the prospects away. There you go.. a few things as they pop in my mind! Good luck!
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I think your biggest question need be; How are you going to get people to fill in this survey? There needs to be an incentive. Sure, some of us here will help out because you are a nice chap, but 99% of the rest of the world does not know that nor do they care. They will want something for giving you all those answers in their own time. You could make it a competition (free Browsy for life or something from a sponsor) or a requirement for downloading Browsy (not really a good idea that though). Also don't make any of the questions mandatory. A lot of people will not give their age or gender. Also would not have "Adult sites" as an option for #5. Only people that will answer with that will be jokers. Avoid words like hate. They are negative words. Rather use dislike. Otherwise looking good :) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
Thanks Paul. :) I think I'll do what Colin suggested - offer users a discount in exchange of filling out the form. Your suggestions are good as usual, and I'll take them into account when doing it finally. :) I put Adult sites in there, because I suspect a lot of users who are irritated by popups are porn surfers. But I want to be sure, and so I put it in there. Although you do have a good point. Regards, Rohit Sinha Browsy
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa
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I work in the MR research industry and I was impressed by your methodology. Everybody think they can design a survey. Very few actually can. You need to have some questions (which you have) and you need to make sure that the data you will collect will answer those questions. Make sure that your demographics (general) are relevant. I think the gender is probably not useful. The size of the company they work in is. If the buyer is in charge of the IT systems, chances are he will buy more than one copy. If you are trying to evaluate the volume of your future sales, it is important. Your questionnaire seems to be targeted at users of your product. This is important: your sample will not be representative. It is biaised by the fact that people already know (and like) your stuff. If you want to evaluate your prospects, you need to to target non users, explain what your stuff does and then see if they would buy it and at which price. If you leave it open, people will say 0. If you want to transform your users into paying users, then it is important to ask them what to improve in your software. Give them some ideas, otherways they will not be talkative. You may need to know if you need to work on the actual functionnalities or the interface. Finally, it is important to know who does not finish your survey. If somebody drops out, try to understand who, where and why (make your survey into different pages). Do not start by the demographics or you will probably scare the prospects away. There you go.. a few things as they pop in my mind! Good luck!
Thanks Jerry, although it's all Colin's work, mostly. :) And thanks for your suggestions too. BadJerry wrote: If you want to evaluate your prospects, you need to to target non users, explain what your stuff does and then see if they would buy it and at which price. This is something I hadn't considered. :omg: You're absolutely right, of course. What do you suggest I do about it? How do I get non users to fill in such a long survey? I know I wouldn't do it. BadJerry wrote: make your survey into different pages OK, but while this will let me collect more data, won't it piss many people off? What does your experience say? And thanks again. :) Regards, Rohit Sinha Browsy
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa
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I am thinking of bringing out a second version of Browsy soon. The way I tried to market this first version was the way of a total amateur, which I am, when it comes to marketing. Anyway, Colin helped me a lot with deciding how to go about it in the next version (thanks a lot, Colin! :) ). One of Colin's excellent suggestions was to do some sort of market research before I do anything about the next version. He suggested doing some kind of survey. So here are the questions. Most of them have been suggested by Colin himself (again!). I wrote them in my own words, and added a couple of questions of my own. Anything that is right is Colin's, and all the mistakes are mine. Please take a look and tell me if I should add any more. The purpose of this survey is to help me decide: 1. Who are my prospective customers? 2. Where can I find them? 3. What do they want? 3. What should I tell them about Browsy (ie what feature/benefit of using Browsy they'll like the most)? 4. How much can I charge them for Browsy? 5. How are my customers finding me? 6. Anything else that'll help me sell more copies of Browsy and satisfy my customers better OK, now on to the questions. Please note that the wording of the question is probably as important as the question itself. I want to do it right the first time itself, because I might not get a second chance, so please help me as much as you can. 1. Age (dropdown) 2. Gender (radio button/dropdown) 3. Country (dropdown) 4. Occupation (dropdown) 4. Do you consider yourself an expert on the Internet, knowledgeable, just a user, a novice. (dropdown) 5. Where do you like to browse on the Internet - News Sites, Technology Sites, Children’s Sites, Blogs, Adult sites... (any more suggestions, guys?) (Checkboxes, to let the user make multiple selections) 6. How did you find out about Browsy - Our Website, Friend, Search Engine, Media Report... (any suggestions for other options?) (Checkboxes again) 7. Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before? Y/N (dropdown or radio) 8. Do you think the full individual price of Browsy at USD 29.95 is - too high, just right, easily affordable (drop down) 9. How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy (dropdown) 10. Are you happy with Browsy - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 11. Is Browsy user friendly? - 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 12. Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy? 1 2 3 4 5 (radio) 13. What new features would you like to see in Browsy? (textbox) - How many max chars shoul
Funny you should ask such a question. I work for a market research company and have developed the internet surveying system we use. I would suggest you use our services but the price would probably be prohibitive. If you are interested anyway, email me and we can discuss it. Actually, I would just put you in touch with a sales person. Some suggestions: * Ask demographic type questions last and make them optional. (Age, Gender, Country, Occupation) * May I suggest asking internet connection type (ie. dial-up, broadband, etc) Again, make this optional. * Use radio buttons, not drop downs. Vertical radio buttons with labels on the right work best most of the time. * Are you assuming English is the language of your users? This may be fine, but may not be. * Don't ask "Adult sites". Too personal and will generate some discomfort with survey responders. * Instead of asking "Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before?", ask something like "Which of the following products have you purchased before, if any?" and list your known competitors. * Instead of "How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy?", ask "Would you say the installation procedure for Browsy was..." and list the options as radio buttons. * Ask the respondent what software packages they found easiest to install. Make it an text box. Optional. * Is Browsy user-friendly is not a good question to ask. A better question might be "Consider how you use Browsy, what features you use and why. How would you describe the user frieldlyness of Browsy?" Make it a text field. * Dump the "Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy?". When you allow people to enter text, either provide only one line (ie. ) with a max length and size to match, or allow multiple lines with no limit on # of chars. In practice people will often write whole paragraphs and this is what you want to hear. Don't cut them off. The DB size is trivial. Who will take the survey? Just visitors to your site? Are you going to email them (ie. Opt-In lists), are you going to popup a message? Will you buy a list of peoples names/emails? How many people do you want to get to take it? Reasonably. Keep the total survey length short, preferably less than 5 minutes for an average person. If you are going to spread the questions across pages, limit the # of questions on a page to 1 or 2 or if more than 1-2 questions on a page, limit the # of pages to 3 or 4. Are you going to offer
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Thanks Jerry, although it's all Colin's work, mostly. :) And thanks for your suggestions too. BadJerry wrote: If you want to evaluate your prospects, you need to to target non users, explain what your stuff does and then see if they would buy it and at which price. This is something I hadn't considered. :omg: You're absolutely right, of course. What do you suggest I do about it? How do I get non users to fill in such a long survey? I know I wouldn't do it. BadJerry wrote: make your survey into different pages OK, but while this will let me collect more data, won't it piss many people off? What does your experience say? And thanks again. :) Regards, Rohit Sinha Browsy
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa
Rohit Sinha wrote: How do I get non users to fill in such a long survey? If you have a big budget, you buy a link on a very visited link and offer a rewards to some of the interviewees (it can go from one interviewee at random or all of them). More likely, you have no or little budget, then you have to rely on your address book and forums. Write a nice email explaing what you do, make it amusing and ask everybody to forward it to everybody and you will get some replies. People are more likely to respond if you are a friend of a friend and if you promiss to save the planet from global warming with the money you will earn! Rohit Sinha wrote: OK, but while this will let me collect more data, won't it piss many people off? A survey can alway piss off people. A large form will piss off people as well. Try to make each page interesting so filling it won't be too tedious. Make people feel like their input counts.
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Funny you should ask such a question. I work for a market research company and have developed the internet surveying system we use. I would suggest you use our services but the price would probably be prohibitive. If you are interested anyway, email me and we can discuss it. Actually, I would just put you in touch with a sales person. Some suggestions: * Ask demographic type questions last and make them optional. (Age, Gender, Country, Occupation) * May I suggest asking internet connection type (ie. dial-up, broadband, etc) Again, make this optional. * Use radio buttons, not drop downs. Vertical radio buttons with labels on the right work best most of the time. * Are you assuming English is the language of your users? This may be fine, but may not be. * Don't ask "Adult sites". Too personal and will generate some discomfort with survey responders. * Instead of asking "Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before?", ask something like "Which of the following products have you purchased before, if any?" and list your known competitors. * Instead of "How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy?", ask "Would you say the installation procedure for Browsy was..." and list the options as radio buttons. * Ask the respondent what software packages they found easiest to install. Make it an text box. Optional. * Is Browsy user-friendly is not a good question to ask. A better question might be "Consider how you use Browsy, what features you use and why. How would you describe the user frieldlyness of Browsy?" Make it a text field. * Dump the "Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy?". When you allow people to enter text, either provide only one line (ie. ) with a max length and size to match, or allow multiple lines with no limit on # of chars. In practice people will often write whole paragraphs and this is what you want to hear. Don't cut them off. The DB size is trivial. Who will take the survey? Just visitors to your site? Are you going to email them (ie. Opt-In lists), are you going to popup a message? Will you buy a list of peoples names/emails? How many people do you want to get to take it? Reasonably. Keep the total survey length short, preferably less than 5 minutes for an average person. If you are going to spread the questions across pages, limit the # of questions on a page to 1 or 2 or if more than 1-2 questions on a page, limit the # of pages to 3 or 4. Are you going to offer
Matt Gullett wrote: I work for a market research company and have developed the internet surveying system So we probably do competing products! How did you do yours? with ISAPI or with ASP/.NET ? Anyway, I agree with everything you said especially on the biais induced by incentive... if somebody is ready to fill a 1/2 hour questionnaire for 3 bars of chocolate, they usually have 3 heads and a pet dragon.
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Funny you should ask such a question. I work for a market research company and have developed the internet surveying system we use. I would suggest you use our services but the price would probably be prohibitive. If you are interested anyway, email me and we can discuss it. Actually, I would just put you in touch with a sales person. Some suggestions: * Ask demographic type questions last and make them optional. (Age, Gender, Country, Occupation) * May I suggest asking internet connection type (ie. dial-up, broadband, etc) Again, make this optional. * Use radio buttons, not drop downs. Vertical radio buttons with labels on the right work best most of the time. * Are you assuming English is the language of your users? This may be fine, but may not be. * Don't ask "Adult sites". Too personal and will generate some discomfort with survey responders. * Instead of asking "Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before?", ask something like "Which of the following products have you purchased before, if any?" and list your known competitors. * Instead of "How did you find Browsy to set up and install - hard, not too hard, easy?", ask "Would you say the installation procedure for Browsy was..." and list the options as radio buttons. * Ask the respondent what software packages they found easiest to install. Make it an text box. Optional. * Is Browsy user-friendly is not a good question to ask. A better question might be "Consider how you use Browsy, what features you use and why. How would you describe the user frieldlyness of Browsy?" Make it a text field. * Dump the "Are you happy with the features offered by Browsy?". When you allow people to enter text, either provide only one line (ie. ) with a max length and size to match, or allow multiple lines with no limit on # of chars. In practice people will often write whole paragraphs and this is what you want to hear. Don't cut them off. The DB size is trivial. Who will take the survey? Just visitors to your site? Are you going to email them (ie. Opt-In lists), are you going to popup a message? Will you buy a list of peoples names/emails? How many people do you want to get to take it? Reasonably. Keep the total survey length short, preferably less than 5 minutes for an average person. If you are going to spread the questions across pages, limit the # of questions on a page to 1 or 2 or if more than 1-2 questions on a page, limit the # of pages to 3 or 4. Are you going to offer
Thanks for all your suggestions Matt, they're really going to help me. :) Matt Gullett wrote: Are you assuming English is the language of your users? This may be fine, but may not be. You are right. I should not make any such assumption. Do you think I should add a question with a radio button or a etxt box to let them enter it? Matt Gullett wrote: Instead of asking "Have you considered buying another type of program similar to browsy before?", ask something like "Which of the following products have you purchased before, if any?" and list your known competitors. OK, that'll make their work easier and will give me more information. But will it not also make them think about my competitors, and maybe try out their product first if they haven't already? At best it might delay them buying my software, and at worst, they'll buy it from the competition. What do you say? Matt Gullett wrote: Who will take the survey? I think I'll have to reach out to people. I don't get too much traffic to my site, so expecting to get any useful data from visitors to my site will not work. Maybe I'll have to work out something with other people who have lists. But then again, I'm really short on cash, so I'm not sure really. I'll have to use my non existant brain to come up with something fast. Now that's a challange. :-D Matt Gullett wrote: How many people do you want to get to take it? Reasonably. Frankly speaking, I don't have any idea yet. I think I'll go on till I start seeing a consistent and clear trend. About the services offered by your company: As much as I'd like to get professional help, I just can't afford it. :(( Thanks for the offer anyway. :) And thanks again for your reply. :) Regards, Rohit Sinha Browsy
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa
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Matt Gullett wrote: I work for a market research company and have developed the internet surveying system So we probably do competing products! How did you do yours? with ISAPI or with ASP/.NET ? Anyway, I agree with everything you said especially on the biais induced by incentive... if somebody is ready to fill a 1/2 hour questionnaire for 3 bars of chocolate, they usually have 3 heads and a pet dragon.
BadJerry wrote: So we probably do competing products! Probably so. Where do you work? I work for Bellomy Research, a small market research firm in Winston-Salem, NC. BadJerry wrote: How did you do yours? with ISAPI or with ASP/.NET ? Our data collection system (fancy way of saying survey system) consists of 2 Windows services (C++, STL, ATL) and 2 extremely simple ASP driver pages. The ASP driver pages are like 30 lines long each and just call the appropriate service to do the work. BadJerry wrote: they usually have 3 heads and a pet dragon. We laugh about this type of thing at my office all the time. Who are these people taking 20-30 minute telephone surveys for nothing, or internet surveys for a change (1 in 1.069E77) to win a few bucks?
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BadJerry wrote: So we probably do competing products! Probably so. Where do you work? I work for Bellomy Research, a small market research firm in Winston-Salem, NC. BadJerry wrote: How did you do yours? with ISAPI or with ASP/.NET ? Our data collection system (fancy way of saying survey system) consists of 2 Windows services (C++, STL, ATL) and 2 extremely simple ASP driver pages. The ASP driver pages are like 30 lines long each and just call the appropriate service to do the work. BadJerry wrote: they usually have 3 heads and a pet dragon. We laugh about this type of thing at my office all the time. Who are these people taking 20-30 minute telephone surveys for nothing, or internet surveys for a change (1 in 1.069E77) to win a few bucks?
Matt Gullett wrote: Where do you work? Askia: all we do is MR software. Good to meet somebody else in this very exciting industry X| ! Well one hast to make a living! We went the ISAPI way keeping the DB access to the bare minimum so it would be somehow scalable. Re the pet dragon type, I have seen much worse. A 100 page booklet which takes hours to fill in exchange of a dozen pounds. You can imagine the quality of the data. Maybe Mr rchin (another valuable CPian regular) may want to elaborate on this?