Survey Design and Analysis

Design a survey that measures what you meant, with unbiased question wording, a sample plan, and an analysis plan fixed before data arrives.

Design a survey for me.

The decision this survey should inform: [WHAT WE WILL DO DIFFERENTLY DEPENDING ON THE ANSWER]
What I currently believe: [THE HYPOTHESIS]
Who I will survey and how I will reach them: [POPULATION + CHANNEL]
Roughly how many responses I can expect: [NUMBER]
Length limit: [MINUTES OR QUESTIONS]

Produce:

1. **The measurement question.** Restate what actually needs measuring to inform the decision. If the stated decision cannot be informed by a survey, say so now and name the method that could, such as observing behavior or running a test. Surveys measure what people say, which is a different thing from what they do.

2. **The questionnaire**, 8-15 questions:
- Each question with its response scale and why that scale
- Screening questions first, sensitive questions last
- Behavior questions before attitude questions, so stated attitudes do not contaminate reported behavior
- No double-barreled questions, no leading wording, no undefined terms like "regularly" or "affordable"
- At least one open-ended question that will produce a usable quote
For each question, note in one line what the answer will tell me and which analysis it feeds.

3. **Bias audit** of your own draft: for each question, the most likely bias (social desirability, acquiescence, recall error, order effects) and the wording choice that reduces it. Flag any question that cannot be de-biased and should be dropped.

4. **Sample plan.** Who is included and excluded, what response rate would make the result trustworthy, and who will be systematically missing from the responses no matter what. State plainly what my expected response count can and cannot detect.

5. **Analysis plan, written before any data exists.** Which questions are cross-tabulated against which, what result would confirm my hypothesis, what result would refute it, and what result would be too small to act on. Committing to this now is what prevents finding a story in the noise afterward.

6. **The pilot.** Five people to test it on and the three questions to ask them about the survey itself.

Rules: keep it as short as the decision allows. If a question does not feed a named analysis, cut it and say you cut it.

How to use

Writing the analysis plan before the data exists is the single practice that separates a survey from a search for confirmation. Once responses are in, every cross-tab looks meaningful and one of them will support whatever you already believed. Section 1 is the other thing that saves money: a surprising number of survey projects are really behavioral questions in disguise, and stated intent to pay is famously unrelated to paying.

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