The Leaning Tower of DIYsa

Have you ever tried one of those picture-perfect video recipes on Instagram? They should come with a warning: Results may vary in your kitchen. While they make cooking seem effortless, what you may end up with is a culinary catastrophe. The devil is in the details, which is often hidden in the fine print (i.e., see bio for recipe).

Take, for example, this seemingly simple parmesan cabbage recipe I stumbled upon. If your oven racks are not at the right level when you bake this, your cheese might end up scorched. If you don't ensure adequate coverage of the spread on the cabbage, your cabbage may become too charred and stick to the pan.

The truth is, many of these food videos prioritize visual appeal—and views and clicks—over practicality.

Social media has turned the average Joe into a creator and a broadcaster and many home cooks into aspiring chefs! ?

Welcome to the Leaning Tower of DIYsa. Social media isn't the only tool encouraging DIYer’s. Market research tools like SurveyMonkey and Google Forms have also allowed anyone with internet access to act as qualified researchers.

Many surveys crafted by laypersons suffer from poor design, skewed results or even unusable data. Rather than joining the class of uninformed DIYers, let’s straighten out a few things so that you can craft surveys that actually yield insights.

Let’s first consider ambiguous questions. Asking questions like "How satisfied are you with our customer service?" leaves too much room for interpretation. Is this question about speed of service, customer rep courteousness or problem resolution. Who knows! Instead, a more specific question like "How satisfied were you with the helpfulness of our customer service rep?" will provide clearer insights and ensure respondents are answering the intended question. Be sure your survey questions clearly reflect what you are attempting to measure.

Next up, anonymity. When dealing with sensitive topics (like, for instance, workplace satisfaction), allowing respondents to answer anonymously can encourage honest feedback without fear of repercussions. However, remember that anonymity may not be suitable if follow-up is required, such as when offering incentives for participation or when you need to link responses to non-survey data.

Next, let’s talk to open-ended questions. While they offer valuable qualitative insights, they can be tricky to analyze (although this is getting easier with AI). Open-ended questions allow for detailed responses, but it’s important to avoid leading the respondent. Instead of "What was disappointing about our new product?", try something like "Describe your overall experience with our new product." The former plants a seed that there must have been something negative about the experience, which may not have been the case for a respondent.

Finally, let's talk about survey length. The ideal online survey length depends on the topic and the audience's relationship with the surveying organization. Generally, shorter surveys get higher response rates. Here are some tips for improving them:

• Prioritize essential questions
• Use progress bars to show completion progress
• Balance closed-ended (easy to answer) and open-ended questions

If you find yourself attempting a DIY survey that's leaning toward disaster, send up a digital flare (or, you know, an email) and I’ll help you keep your project from toppling over.

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Katherine Hunter-Blyden is a CMO Partner at TechCXO. She is a senior marketing executive with P&L management experience. As a full-stack marketer, Katherine's experience includes brand strategy, advertising, digital marketing, sales promotion, product management, pricing and market research. Katherine helps businesses meet their goals with data-driven, quantifiable results.