

How Savvy Startups Use Unique Data to Go Viral - bishvili
https://www.techinasia.com/talk/how-savvy-startups-use-unique-data-to-go-viral/

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jasode
> This survey about how people use their phones while on the toilet only had
> ten questions,

The problem with surveys asking about _behaviors_ is that it gathers
unreliable data.

That's why you get contradictions where men/women say they want features x,y,z
in a partner but they end up being attracted to something else.

Or you survey people about 2 food menu choices and the respondents answer with
the "healthier" choice but the real data from point-of-sale system shows they
ordered the unhealthier option.

Or they say they look at X 1st and then Y 2nd on websites but eye-tracking
software doesn't agree.

It's not that people are dishonest; it's that people are terrible at self-
reporting how they actually behave. The counter-intuitive results need to come
from hidden cameras, point-of-sale data, functional MRI scans, etc instead of
questionnaires.

If the survey is asking about _nouns_ (what they have) instead of _verbs_
(what they think they do), it's more reliable. For example, a survey asking _"
what's your shoe size?"_ or _" how many children do you have?"_ doesn't cause
people to give contradictory answers.

I'm also skeptical of websites using "focus groups" asking people " _would you
pay for X if it had Y?_ " type of questions. You may get better answers by
just trying different things and parsing server logs to measure actual user
engagement. People don't know what they want, or they'll tell you what you
want to hear. When it comes time to actually make a decision about spending
money, their actions contradict the survey answers.

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gee_totes
> The problem with surveys asking about behaviors is that it gathers
> unreliable data.

But the point of doing the surveys is not to gather reliable data -- it's to
generate clickbait headlines that will go viral. Even if the sample size is 10
and p is hacked to bits, people are going to share your "Android Users 3 Times
More Likely to Drop Their Phone in Toilet" blog post.

