How To Make a Questionnaire in 12 Steps

Needless to say, information is power. This unambiguous cliché underscores the business success and market control that information yields. And with the advent of the internet, getting actionable information is now easier than ever before. Consequently, the process to make questionnaires has become easier aided by great online survey software. However, regardless of the software you employ to come up with an online questionnaire, best practices still exist for creating surveys that lead to actionable insights. Below, therefore, we take a look at how to make a questionnaire in 12 simple steps:

Review your study objectives

What are you trying to find out and what actions will you take based upon your findings?

Visualize all the pertinent information you seek

How do you want your final report to look like and what information is required to make a decision?

Rank your topics based on their value

List what you deem to be the most important topics, first bearing in mind that you cannot solve the problem if you do not ask the appropriate questions.

Ask respondents how easy it is for them to provide information

If respondents report difficulties in offering their response on a given topic, find out if there is another way to obtain the information, say with another question.

Ensure you have an unbiased sequence of topics

You should frame your questions in a manner that does not bias the results of successive ones. Also do not disclose the purpose of the study or provide too much information in a manner that could create bias.

Determine the best type of questions for the answers you seek

This is essential as it will enable you to get the best possible information. You should make use of multiple choice, dichotomous, scaled, rank order, or open-ended questions etc. as befits the situation.

Write down the questions

For each topic, jot down several proposed questions before settling on the best one.

To remove bias, sequence the questions

Sequencing is necessary in order to eliminate any bias that may arise in succeeding questions.

Repeat steps 1 through 8 to establish any loopholes

Ideally, you should have someone else objectively review your online questionnaire as they will be best placed to tell you if your work is ideal.

Time the questionnaire

Generally, an online survey should take no more than 15 minutes. Have someone fill out your questionnaire and time them to establish how long it would ordinarily take.

Pretest the survey

Before placing your questionnaire online, try it out on about 20 people and obtain their feedback. Did they raise any concerns and what were they unsure about? Also, did they have trouble understanding the questions or did they take a point of view not covered in your answers?

Revise questionnaire appropriately

Having responded to any queries raised above, you may choose to pre-test it again or roll it out to your online audience.