There are many ways to design a questionnaire, but the three most used patterns are explained below.
In PRAIORITIZE, we distinguish the following hierarchical levels in a questionnaire:
A Questionnaire consists of …
one or more Topics that consist of …
one or more Sub-Topics that contain …
the individual Questions.
These hierarchical levels are combined in the following three patterns below.
The Domino
The first pattern is the Domino. Think about various topics in a sequence: one topic leads to another. The best example is a process assessment. The process has several steps that fit into a sequence of Topics. Here is what a Salesforce Preparation Assessment (the Questionnaire) could look like. We only show a part of the Questionnaire; the items are specified in the line(s) below:
Topics:
Before the sales visit, During the sales visit, After the sales visit.
Underlying Sub-Topics of the "Before the sales visit"-topic:
Understanding the product, Understanding the client, Visit preparation
Sample Questions belonging to the "Understanding the client"-sub-topic:
How have you been trained about the client's industry segment?
To what extent do you have access to a client's CRM file?
How is your relationship with the client's decision-makers?
The Bag of Fries
The second pattern is the Bag of Fries. It's the metaphor for a Questionnaire that zooms in on a specific topic: from general to specific. Here is an example of a ‘Do we work data-driven?’- assessment where the business strategy leads to new business processes that need to be supported by information technology/ data. The last Topic checks whether the new business processes have been translated into IT objectives and, hence, updated information streams. These updated information streams impact the data requirements needed for these streams.
Topics
Strategy, Processes, Information Technology:
Underlying Sub-Topics of the "Information Technology"-topic:
IT objectives, Information streams, Data requirements
Sample Questions belonging to the "Data requirements"-sub-topic:
To what extent is there a Data strategy?
Data requirements checked with the Business?
Are there owners per Data group?
Is the data available, up-to-date, and managed?
The Pizza
Metaphorically, you could say that the Domino is horizontally oriented and the Bag of Fries vertically oriented: process flow versus zooming-in. The third pattern is the Pizza that combines topics that are part of a bigger whole but do not have some hierarchical relation to one another. An example is this team effectiveness assessment:
Topics:
Objectives, Communication, Collaboration
Underlying Sub-Topics of the "Communication"-topic:
Alignment, Feedback, Appreciation
Sample Questions belonging to the "Feedback"-sub-topic:
How is feedback organized within your team?
Does your manager give you feedback?
May you show you disagree with something?
Length of the questionnaire
The direct, verifiable descriptions of the multiple-choice answers in PRAIORITIZE make it easy for respondents to answer the questionnaires. There is no need to think extensively about whether he/she disagrees with a statement or how a specific situation needs to be translated into what score. The rule-of-thumb for duration:
10 questions will take approximately 5 minutes
30 questions will take approximately 10 minutes
50 questions will take approximately 25 minutes
100 questions will take approximately 45 minutes
These estimated durations are for Questions with three answers. With three answers there are three comparisons for a respondent to make, but with five answers, there are ten comparisons to make before answering.
That means a questionnaire with ten ‘5-answer’-questions requires more ‘comparison-effort’ than a questionnaire with thirty ‘3-answer’-questions. We believe that the perceived accuracy in the former does not outweigh the amount of detail that comes from asking this bigger amount of questions of the latter.
Avoid overeating
The most common mistake when seeing the possibilities of PRAIORITIZE is that consultants indulge in Question overload. “This is also interesting.” “Let's ask that, too!”. And soon, the questionnaire balloons to unhealthy proportions. We once had a consultant with a competency assessment of 474 (!) IT-skills. We have the following rule-of-thumb for audiences-versus-length-of-the-questionnaire. Anything above these numbers will quickly deteriorate the attention and concentration of the respondent.
Customers (Business-to-Consumer) - 3 to 7 questions
Clients (Business-to-Business) - 10 to 15 questions
Employees (generic questionnaire) - 15 to 35 questions
Employees (specialist questionnaire) - 25 to 60 questions