

Question - How do you get people to complete a market research survey? - sparknlaunch

We are currently gathering feedback on our business idea. We have created a short survey on Survey Monkey. How do we find people willing to complete the survey? http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/753VK7N
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Tzunamitom
Lower the barriers to entry. Simplify the survey, make it fun and engaging to
enter, take feedback in a place where people have nothing better to do.

Unfortunately SurveyMonkey isn't best suited to gathering consumer feedback.
The best examples I've seen have been Innocent Smoothies (throw your empty
bottles in one trash can or the other to give your "response"), and the taxis
here in Dubai, which have a 5 question electronic survey on the back of the
drivers' seats. Go for the win and put the survey in a public urinal and have
people "respond" by peeing in one direction or another.

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sparknlaunch
Thanks. Some good ideas. In terms of gathering feedback online - is survey
monkey completely ineffective? Maybe a simple yes/no via twitter? However this
lacks the detail. Has anyone had success with online surveys. What incentive
did you use?

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skrish
I agree with parent that you should showcase your survey where people have
nothing better to do. Couldn't find a better place than FB to find people in
that mood. ;-)

In my experience posting survey links in facebook groups has brought out
better response. And I am talking about formal surveys in targeted groups like
open coffee club, location specific geeks group etc., in our context.

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sparknlaunch12
Thanks for the suggestions. I will try this approach and see what happens.

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ArekDymalski
The question will depend on the project development phase you are currently
in. I assume that you're on the real beginning - verifying the assumptions
about the customer's problem, right? So, you need to identify the actual
target group, provide them some more information about the problem you're
aiming to solve and ask about details of the problem - not the solution (as
some of the questions in you survey are). So, people who have this problem
will provide you with info without any inncentives. Those who don't feel any
problem - will quit but that's ok coz they're not your target group. So the
challenge is not to get lots of data, but data from small, but accurate
sample. You can check how we used this approach on <http://www.nanokoan.com>
If you're the leader of the project don't hesitate to fill the survey - you're
our target group :)

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sparknlaunch
Thanks. Some good suggestions. We are in the early stages of product design.
We have assumptions of the product however are looking to test this with
potential customers.

Could we rework our survey and go out to who we believe are our target market?
Or do we need to go a further step and just present the problem to anyone for
initial validation?

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ArekDymalski
I believe that starting with testing of the assumptions about the problem is
beneficial. You can check: how many people have it, how painful it is for
them, what is the actual nature of the problem? Especially the last question
might be very inspiring and lead you to the new features. You can check these
assumptions both online with a survey as well as by talking to some
friends/colleagues to get more in-depth info. And naturally in the meantime
you can build the mockup/MVP of solution and then test it again. This 2nd test
should provide more valuable results (when compared to your current survey)
because people will already see how your product will look like and work. Now
they have to imagine it and the results might be misleading.

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sparknlaunch
Sounds like I have approached this the wrong way/order. I have built a very
early prototype (early MVP). I was going to try promote this and gain
feedback. What I should have done earlier is test 1 and 2. I have found
getting attention and finding people online difficult. Is face to face better
for initial evaluation? Is gaining traction easier once you know your target
market?

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ArekDymalski
"Wrong" sounds too strong as many startups proceed this way and some people
(like Seth Godin yesterday) more or less suggest this approach. However I'm
strongly convinced that verifying problem before solution can bring extra
value and inspiration for relatively small effort. If I was you I'd proceed in
that order: 1. Talk to at least 10-20 friends&acquaintances about their
experiences with job interviews: What's the most difficult (stressing etc.)
thing for them? How exactly do they prepare? How much time does it take? What
specific information, advice, tips are they looking for? Where do they search?
How often do they find it? How helpful these tips are? How strong is their
desire to prepare better? And similar questions to deeply understand what is
the problem, how they are trying to solve it and how satisfied they are with
the current solution. This info will provide you qualitative data that will
help you build better survey for online problem verification. These interviews
will also probably suggest you online sources for survey respondents (specific
forums, communities, Q&A sites etc.) where people searching for such solution
are gathering. I guess Quora and LinkedIn might be such places. At this moment
the survey will work for you amassing the quantitative data about the problem
assumptions. And even more - interviews will help you identify specific
keywords related to your service which might be used to gain traffic for the
survey and later for the product itself. When you have this you can finally
test the solution itself and I guess it'll be better than the initial idea. As
a summary: definitely you need to define and understand you target group (who
are they? how do they think and feel? what are the best channels to
communicate with them? etc.) to bring them solution they need and present it
in a way that will be attractive for them. In addition to obligatory ;) stuff
by by Eric Ries (Lean Startup) and Steve Blank (Customer Development) you may
find "This service design thinking" book inspiring. And in case you would need
some specific feedback about your project feel free to contact me via Google+.
I'll be happy to help because recruitment field is in my scope of interested.
And I've experienced my share of unprepared candidates already :)

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sparknlaunch12
Thanks for the further information. I will put these into action and let you
know how they work out.

