Skip to Main Content
HBS Online
  • Courses
    Open Courses Mega Menu
    • Business Essentials
      • Credential of Readiness (CORe)
      • Business Analytics
      • Economics for Managers
      • Financial Accounting
    • Leadership & Management
      • Leadership Principles
      • Management Essentials
      • Negotiation Mastery
      • Organizational Leadership
      • Strategy Execution
      • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
    • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Entrepreneurship Essentials
      • Disruptive Strategy
      • Negotiation Mastery
      • Design Thinking and Innovation
    • Strategy
      • Strategy Execution
      • Business Strategy
      • Economics for Managers
      • Disruptive Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Sustainable Business Strategy
    • Finance & Accounting
      • Financial Accounting
      • Leading with Finance
      • Alternative Investments
      • Sustainable Investing
    • Business in Society
      • Sustainable Business Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Sustainable Investing
      • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
    • All Courses
  • For Organizations
    Open For Organizations Mega Menu
    • Corporate Learning
      Help your employees master essential business concepts, improve effectiveness, and expand leadership capabilities.
    • Academic Solutions
      Integrate HBS Online courses into your curriculum to support programs and create unique educational opportunities.
    • Need Help?
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Contact Us
  • Insights
    Open Insights Mega Menu
    • Business Insights Blog
      • Career Development
      • Communication
      • Decision-Making
      • Earning Your MBA
      • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Finance
      • Leadership
      • Management
      • Negotiation
      • Strategy
    • All Topics
    • Free Business Lessons and E-Books

      Gain actionable skills and insights to advance your career.

    • Free Guide

      Learn how to formulate a successful business strategy.

  • More Info
    Open More Info Mega Menu
    • Learning Experience
      Master real-world business skills with our immersive platform and engaged community.
    • Certificates, Credentials, & Credits
      Learn how completing courses can boost your resume and move your career forward.
    • Learning Tracks
      Take your career to the next level with this specialization.
    • Financing & Policies
      • Employer Reimbursement
      • Payment & Financial Aid
      • Policies
    • Connect
      • Student Stories
      • Community
    • Need Help?
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Request Information
    • Apply Now
Login
My Courses
Access your courses and engage with your peers
My Account
Manage your account, applications, and payments.
HBS Home
  • About HBS
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
HBS Online
  • Courses
  • Business Essentials
  • Leadership & Management
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Strategy
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Business in Society
  • For Organizations
  • Insights
  • More Info
  • About
  • Media Coverage
  • Founding Donors
  • Leadership Team
  • Careers
  • My Courses
  • My Account
  • Apply Now
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • HBS Online→
  • Business Insights→

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

 
Filter Results Arrow Down Arrow Up

Topics

Topics

  • Accounting
  • Analytics
  • Business Essentials
  • Business in Society
  • Career Development
  • Communication
  • Community
  • ConneXt
  • Decision-Making
  • Earning Your MBA
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Negotiation
  • News & Events
  • Productivity
  • Staff Spotlight
  • Strategy
  • Student Profiles
  • Technology
  • Work-Life Balance

Courses

Courses

  • Alternative Investments
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Strategy
  • CORe
  • Design Thinking and Innovation
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Entrepreneurship Essentials
  • Financial Accounting
  • Global Business
  • Leadership Principles
  • Leading with Finance
  • Management Essentials
  • Negotiation Mastery
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy
  • Sustainable Investing
Subscribe to the Blog
RSS feed

Topics

Topics

  • Accounting
  • Analytics
  • Business Essentials
  • Business in Society
  • Career Development
  • Communication
  • Community
  • ConneXt
  • Decision-Making
  • Earning Your MBA
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Negotiation
  • News & Events
  • Productivity
  • Staff Spotlight
  • Strategy
  • Student Profiles
  • Technology
  • Work-Life Balance

Courses

Courses

  • Alternative Investments
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Strategy
  • CORe
  • Design Thinking and Innovation
  • Disruptive Strategy
  • Economics for Managers
  • Entrepreneurship Essentials
  • Financial Accounting
  • Global Business
  • Leadership Principles
  • Leading with Finance
  • Management Essentials
  • Negotiation Mastery
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Power and Influence for Positive Impact
  • Strategy Execution
  • Sustainable Business Strategy
  • Sustainable Investing
Subscribe to the Blog
RSS feed

3 Examples of Bad Survey Questions & How To Fix Them

person taking a survey at a desk
  • 26 Jan 2021
HBS Online Author Staff
tag
  • Analytics
  • Business Analytics
  • CORe

Surveys are a data collection tool that can help your company identify opportunities, assess challenges, and set direction. Surveying your customers, internal team members, and other key stakeholders can reveal powerful insights that enable you to make data-driven decisions and propel your business forward.

The quality of the data captured, however, can only be as good as the questions themselves. If you're looking to design a survey for your organization, you should be aware of the common pitfalls that novice survey creators encounter.

Here are three survey question development mistakes made by startups and well-established companies alike.


Free E-Book: A Beginner's Guide to Data & Analytics

Access your free e-book today.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Examples of Bad Survey Questions to Avoid

1. The Biased or Leading Question

“Our product reduces your tension by 10 percent. Would you like to buy it?”

A biased survey question, like the one above, prompts or leads a respondent to answer in favor or against a specific outcome, resulting in inaccurate data. The example mentions a reduction in tension that might influence the respondent to indicate they would make a purchase. A better question would be, "How likely are you to buy this product?" Examples don’t need to be as extreme as the one highlighted to be considered biased.

Tips to avoid bias:

  • Use neutral language. Don’t favor one option—explicitly or implicitly—and don’t lead a respondent to an answer.
  • Vary the order of options in a list. This should be done across questions with similar answers to ensure a respondent won’t make a decision based on chronological sequencing.

2. The Ambiguous Question

“How do you feel about your purchase?”

This question uses ambiguous and imprecise language. Quantifying or assessing subjective attitudes is difficult, and the burden shouldn’t fall on the respondent. A better approach is to provide options: "How satisfied are you with your purchase? Extremely satisfied, somewhat satisfied, neutral, somewhat unsatisfied, or extremely unsatisfied?"

Tips to avoid ambiguity:

  • Think critically and develop precise questions. Add options for respondents to choose from. These can be “yes” or “no” options, multiple choice answers, or a Likert scale that prompts the respondent to select a number that indicates their level of agreement with a statement, satisfaction with your product, or another measure of their feelings.
  • Additionally, consider conjoint analysis, which is conducted via a specialized survey to reveal how much a customer values a certain set of attributes in a product or service. Its tailored design ensures each question is direct and specific.

3. The Complex Question

“If you had to get to work using a bicycle, bus, train, car, or on foot, which would you choose? Consider annual precipitation, your transportation budget, and carpooling opportunities.”

The question above assesses propensity for transportation methods, perhaps to help a city decide whether to allocate funding to bike-share programs, commuter rail services, or bus routes. However, this question is overly complex, making it difficult for the respondent to answer.

When a researcher overcomplicates a question, it can become what’s known as a double-barreled question, or one that asks about more than one subject but requires a single answer. Such questions can confuse the reader and greatly diminish the quality of the data collected.

Tips to avoid complexity:

  • Trim the fat. Cutting unnecessary qualifiers could ease the intellectual burden. Understand, however, that you risk perpetuating the ambiguity discussed previously by making assessments more open-ended.
  • Split a complex question into multiple questions that each have one focus. By doing so, you can ensure you get your questions answered without overwhelming respondents or sacrificing data quality.
  • Employ a pairwise ranking system, which prompts respondents to rank options in order of preference or compare each option to the others to determine a hierarchy of preference.

In addition, qualitative interviews and focus groups are alternative methods of receiving detailed answers if time and effort allow.

A Beginner's Guide to Data & Analytics | Access Your Free E-Book | Download Now

Collecting Reliable Insights

When thoughtfully executed, surveys can be an effective means of collecting data and unlock powerful business insights.

To ensure your data is reliable, design clear, concise survey questions. When your company conducts surveys, look for red flags that could lead to inaccurate conclusions.

These three tips are only the beginning of becoming a proficient survey designer. Knowing the best way to design assessments—and being aware of when other tools may be more appropriate—can lead to more informative company research.

Are you interested in unlocking the full potential of your organization’s data? Explore our online analytics courses to get started.

 
All FAQs

Top FAQs

How are HBS Online courses delivered?

+–

We offer self-paced programs (with weekly deadlines) on the HBS Online course platform.

Our platform features short, highly produced videos of HBS faculty and guest business experts, interactive graphs and exercises, cold calls to keep you engaged, and opportunities to contribute to a vibrant online community.

Do I need to come to campus to participate in HBS Online programs?

+–

No, all of our programs are 100 percent online, and available to participants regardless of their location.

How do I enroll in a course?

+–

All programs require the completion of a brief application. The applications vary slightly from program to program, but all ask for some personal background information. You can apply for and enroll in programs here. If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before starting an application for the program of your choice.

Our easy online application is free, and no special documentation is required. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.

After submitting your application, you should receive an email confirmation from HBS Online. If you do not receive this email, please check your junk email folders and double-check your account to make sure the application was successfully submitted.

Updates to your application and enrollment status will be shown on your Dashboard. We confirm enrollment eligibility within one week of your application.

Does Harvard Business School Online offer an online MBA?

+–

No, Harvard Business School Online offers business certificate programs.

What are my payment options?

+–

We accept payments via credit card, Western Union, and (when available) bank loan. Some candidates may qualify for scholarships or financial aid, which will be credited against the Program Fee once eligibility is determined. Please refer to the Payment & Financial Aid page for further information.

We also allow you to split your payment across 2 separate credit card transactions or send a payment link email to another person on your behalf. If splitting your payment into 2 transactions, a minimum payment of $350 is required for the first transaction.

In all cases, net Program Fees must be paid in full (in US Dollars) to complete registration.

What are the policies for refunds and deferrals?

+–

After enrolling in a program, you may request a withdrawal with refund (minus a $100 nonrefundable enrollment fee) up until 24 hours after the start of your program. Please review the Program Policies page for more details on refunds and deferrals. If your employer has contracted with HBS Online for participation in a program, or if you elect to enroll in the undergraduate credit option of the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program, note that policies for these options may differ.

 

Sign up for News & Announcements

Subject Areas

  • Business Essentials
  • Leadership & Management
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
  • Strategy
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Business & Society

Quick Links

  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Request Info
  • Apply Now

About

  • About Us
  • Media Coverage
  • Founding Donors
  • Leadership Team
  • Careers @ HBS Online

Legal

  • Legal
  • Policies
Harvard Business School
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College
  • Site Map
  • Trademark Notice
  • Digital Accessibility