Should Questionnaires Be Creative?
April 19, 2008 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
One of my favorite bloggers is talking about the questionnaire he and his partner filled in for the architect of their home-to-be.
Darren Barefoot nails the whole questionnaire dilemma. If the questions ask you to say what you want, you won’t be able to describe the things that you don’t know you want.
The “worryingly abstract” questions asked by their architect were actually reassuring to Darren:
“There were questions about our relationships to and views on family, food, hobbies, passions, technology and so forth.
“As this is the first house I’ve built, I don’t know how common this approach is. Some might find these questions worryingly abstract, but I was actually encouraged. I’d much prefer an architect who considers these issues, and attempts to understand who we are, than one who simply starts sketching.”
It’s tempting to just ask people straight out what they want, what they prefer, etc.
Harder to nail down is what they might prefer if something else was available that they don’t know about or understand.
Maybe that’s why Sony failed to follow up their amazingly popular Walkman with a show-stopper like the iPod.
Maybe they asked people if they would like to save lower-quality copies of their songs on a portable hard drive. The answer: of course not!
Technorati Tags: innovation, design, architecture, questionnaires, surveys, markets, future, the unknown, thinking, business, communications
Questionaires should be creative, of course! They help you learn more about you, the product or service you’re being asked about and therefore, have a better experience in your interaction with it.