Question Craft in Customer Research
Launch library · evergreen read
Customer research questions face a particular temptation: the desire to hear confirmation of a decision already made, which quietly shapes how questions get worded even when the researcher believes they are being entirely neutral.
Well designed research questions are built to allow for a genuinely disappointing answer, phrased in a way that would feel equally natural whether the response turns out to be positive or negative about the product being tested.
Researchers who catch themselves hoping for a particular answer before a question has even been asked are usually looking at a sign that the question itself needs to be rewritten with more genuine neutrality.
Independent researchers, brought in specifically because they have no stake in the outcome, are sometimes used for exactly this reason, since their questions are less likely to be quietly shaped by a hope for a particular, convenient result. A second pair of eyes on the draft questions, someone with no personal stake in the result, often catches this drift quickly.