Summary
The Product team wanted to implement the first-ever in-app survey to gather information about the participating user and get their feedback on certain features and functionality. While reviewing their first pass at the in-app survey, it was obvious to me that the survey lacked a clear objective and would likely not render actionable insights. I provided feedback and proposed an alternative approach for consideration. After presenting the alternative compared to the original, the team immediately saw the potential benefits of taking a more thoughtful approach to the way we present and organize survey questions to gather higher-quality data.
The original version
The original survey created by the Product Manager and Product Designer included several high-level questions, such as:
“Where within the NS1 platform do you spend most of your time?”
“How would you rate your experience with NS1’s web portal?” followed by “Tell us more about the reasoning behind your rating.”
“How would you improve the experience?”
“How do you feel about the capabilities of NS1’s web portal?”
“Do you use NS1’s API?”
Related to the questions, my feedback was that many of the questions were way too general and put the burden on the participant to interpret the question. Also, many of the questions were related to information we could gather in other ways, so it doesn’t make sense to waste the end user’s time and patience by asking them in the survey. Further, each question was presented on an individual slide, requiring the user to click “Next” between each question — increasing the amount of time it takes to complete the survey as well as the expected drop-off rate.
My proposal
After sharing my general feedback with the team, I put together an alternative survey. The survey is shorter and consolidates questions into fewer modules. Instead of asking open-ended questions, I proposed a “agree or disagree” format where users could read a statement and respond. This allows us to compare responses in a more clear, consistent way while reducing risk of varying interpretations. Finally, I edited the copy to align with the brand’s technical tone and writing style guidelines.
The outcome
The team agreed that my proposed version would be a better approach and it is scheduled to go live shortly. As this is a very recent project and the survey is yet to be published, I will share more details about the outcome once available.