How to Write a Survey in Less Than a Minute

Writing surveys doesn't have to take days or weeks; in this article we discuss ideas for creating surveys in minutes.

Step 1 - What do you want?
Everyone thinks they know what they want, but few people actually do. What do you want to know? Why people aren't buying my products. Why? So that I can sell more products. Why? So I can make more money and retire to some small island.

In this case forget about your product survey and write a survey that finds out how people were able to retire to a small island.

Yes it's a crazy example, but the point is what you think you want to know probably isn't write. Ask 'Why?' to quickly learn what it really is you want to know.

The better you answer this question the quicker you'll find it is to write your survey.

Step 2 - Keep it short
This'll keep everyone happy. No one has any spare time, if they had spare time they'd be doing something they enjoy and I can tell you it wouldn't be answering some 'silly survey'.

You know what people do when they're doing something they don't want to do? Find a way of getting it over with quickly. If you're survey is more than 5 minutes people's eyes will start to glaze over and they'll just answer with the 'middle answer'.

Can you find out what you want to know in a 5-minute survey? Of course you can, can you find out in a 1-minute survey? That's your goal.

Step 3 - Don't write Silly Surveys
People hate surveys. Because they hate them they'll be in that emotional state of mind. People act depending on there current emotional state. If you want a negative survey make it dull, if you want a positive one make it interesting. Heck make it funny.

Step 4 - Demographics
Demowhatics? Demographics, classifies the type of people who are answering the survey. Where do they live is the best example. These questions always go first, so if a person doesn't meet your profile then you don't waste time continuing with the survey. You'll be happy they'll be happier.

Step 5 - Don't ask leading questions
Unless you want a loaded survey. A loaded survey is where you ask questions that can only have a positive outcome to your objective. If you're writing an employee appraisal survey and want the manager to do badly, load the survey so they'll appear bad.

It's unethical to write loaded surveys, but almost every survey is.

Step 6 - Write Open Ended Questions to save time
The more open-ended questions you write the less time you'll spend writing the survey. The counter is that you'll spend more time analysing it.

Step 7 - Brainstorm and get to your points
If you've spent enough time on Step 1, then this is simple. After your demographics include questions that directly relate to what you want to know. Directly relate? You want to know about selling spaghetti? Then ask why they bought it and why they didn't.

Time up, how did you go?