How can you design a questionnaire for a competitive analysis?

1 Define your research goal

Before you start designing your questionnaire, you need to have a clear and specific research goal. What do you want to learn from your competitive analysis? What are the key questions you want to answer? How will you use the data to make decisions or improve your performance? Your research goal should guide your choice of the type, scope, and focus of your questionnaire.

2 Choose your respondents

Next, you need to decide who you want to ask your questions to. Depending on your research goal, you may want to survey different groups of respondents, such as your existing or potential customers, your competitors' customers, your industry peers, or your competitors themselves. You should also consider how you will access, recruit, and incentivize your respondents, as well as how many responses you need to get reliable results.

3 Select your question type

There are two main types of questions you can use in your questionnaire: closed-ended and open-ended. Closed-ended questions are those that have a predefined set of answers, such as yes/no, multiple choice, rating scale, or ranking. Open-ended questions are those that allow the respondents to express their opinions, preferences, or experiences in their own words, such as text boxes or comment boxes. Both types of questions have their advantages and disadvantages, so you should balance them according to your research goal, the level of detail you need, and the time and resources you have.

4 Write your questions

Once you have selected your question type, you need to write your questions in a clear, concise, and unbiased way. You should avoid using jargon, technical terms, leading questions, double-barreled questions, or ambiguous questions that may confuse or influence your respondents. You should also use consistent and appropriate wording, formatting, and scaling throughout your questionnaire. Moreover, you should test your questions for validity and reliability, which means that they measure what they intend to measure and produce consistent results.

5 Organize your questionnaire

The last step is to organize your questionnaire in a logical and user-friendly way. You should group your questions into relevant sections or categories, such as demographic, behavioral, attitudinal, or perceptual. You should also order your questions from general to specific, from easy to difficult, and from less sensitive to more sensitive. Additionally, you should provide clear instructions, transitions, and labels for your questions and sections. Finally, you should keep your questionnaire as short and simple as possible, while still covering your research goal.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?