Читать книгу Engaged - Amy Bucher - Страница 36

As a user of technology, you’ve probably received invitations to complete surveys related to a product you’re using. These surveys are a way for companies to learn something about their users that isn’t detectable within the product itself. They can be a helpful tool because they’re inexpensive to develop and distribute, so you can potentially reach a large number of users quickly and cheaply. Surveys are also an opportunity to ask people about their behaviors outside of your product that may influence their results. Do resist the temptation to ask lots of questions that you don’t have a clear reason for wanting the answer to; overloading the survey makes it more likely people will not complete it, and you’ll be stuck with a bloated data set that’s not very useful.

The disadvantages of surveys include that response rates tend to be low (less than 20% on average), and you’re relying on respondents to report their data honestly and accurately. Even people with good intentions may misremember details about their behaviors,³ while others will be motivated to make themselves look good with their answers. Because of the potential for accuracy and honesty issues, one of the best uses of surveys is to assess user satisfaction. People usually have good insight into how much they enjoy a product, and they’re often willing to share.

Surveys are often incorporated into other research approaches such as RCTs. However, they can be used as a stand-alone research method. They’re a flexible tool that can be useful both for uncovering product efficacy and learning how to improve a product, which is covered in the next section.