Speed Meets Accessibility

Perfect for Agile and DIY Market Research

Customizable for Business Decision Frameworks

But Tools Alone Aren’t Enough

SurveyMonkey is most effective when:

• You need quick, iterative consumer feedback
• Your internal team is stretched or missing research expertise
• You want to validate ideas before larger spend or rollout
• You’re building an internal culture of data-driven decision-making

1. Drivers – What Motivates Action?

• "Which of the following factors influenced your decision to choose [product/service]?"
• "How important are the following features when choosing a [category] provider?"

2. Barriers – What Holds Customers Back?

• "What prevented you from trying [product/service]?"
• "What concerns did you have before making your decision?"

3. Preferences – How Do People Differ?

• "Which features do you use most often?"
• "Please select your preferred method for [activity/interaction]."

Context of Use: Don’t Forget the Setting

• "When do you typically use this solution – at home, work, on-the-go?"
• "Under what conditions is this product most helpful?"

Pro Tip: Expert Input Strengthens Survey Design

Tips for Writing Decision-Focused Survey Questions

When crafting a decision-making survey in SurveyMonkey, the quality of your questions directly impacts the quality of your insights. Each question should be designed with your business objective in mind – whether you're validating a product concept, mapping customer decision drivers, or identifying unmet needs.

Effective decision-focused surveys strike a balance between clarity and depth. Questions should be specific enough to yield actionable insights, yet broad enough to capture the full picture. Most importantly, they must align with a strategic business decision. This is where understanding your decision framework helps – are you trying to launch, pivot, or improve?

Ask questions that get to the “why” behind the “what”

Don’t stop at understanding what customers do – dig into why they do it. These deeper motivations often reveal critical decision-making drivers or barriers you may not anticipate.

For example:

• Instead of: “Which product features are most important to you?”
• Try: “What features made you choose Product A over others, and why?”

This slight shift uncovers priorities and context, not just checkboxes.

Include all elements of the decision journey

To build a complete business case, your survey questions should touch on:

• Usage context: When, where, and how do customers use your product or service?
• Purchase triggers: What issues or desires led to their decision?
• Selection criteria: What mattered most during evaluation?
• Barriers to adoption: What hesitations or pain points stopped them?

By accounting for these areas, you can better predict behavior and tailor your offering based on real consumer preferences.

Use plain language and limit survey fatigue

Overly technical or leading questions can confuse respondents or bias results. Keep language simple and neutral. Also, aim for surveys under 10 minutes – too many complex questions can lead to drop-offs and less accurate data.

Lastly, consider piloting your survey. A quick internal test or a small soft launch helps flag unclear questions before wider distribution.

Good survey design isn’t just about what you ask – it’s about asking with purpose. In strategic surveys, every question should move you closer to a decision.

How On Demand Talent Enhances DIY Survey Tools

Tools like SurveyMonkey make it easier than ever to launch surveys quickly and affordably. But while DIY market research tools are powerful, they can’t replace the strategic understanding of an experienced insights professional. That’s where On Demand Talent comes in.

On Demand Talent offers flexible access to seasoned market research experts who can elevate every stage of the survey process – from design to analysis. Whether you’re short on bandwidth, missing key expertise, or want to maximize your investment in DIY tools, these professionals fill critical gaps without long-term hiring commitments.

Bringing research expertise into your DIY process

SurveyMonkey can do a lot, but its effectiveness hinges on thoughtful, strategic use. On Demand Talent ensures you're not just collecting data – you’re collecting the right data to make smart business decisions.

Here’s how they support teams using DIY tools:

• Strategic survey design: They help frame objectives clearly, identify the best question types, and avoid common pitfalls like bias or misalignment with business goals.
• Audience targeting: They guide sample selection to ensure your data reflects the population that matters to your decision.
• Data interpretation: These experts transform raw data into meaningful, strategic insights – not just charts and tables.
• Capability building: They don’t just do the work – they build your team’s confidence in using tools like SurveyMonkey more effectively over time.

For example, say your brand team wants to understand why a new product is underperforming. An On Demand Talent expert might work with your internal team to refine the survey focus, redesign questions to better capture barriers to purchase, and provide a synthesis report with scenario modeling for next-step decisions. All of this can be done within your existing tool stack – no new platform required.

Compared to hiring freelancers or external agencies, On Demand Talent offers business leaders a smarter, more integrated way to expand research capabilities. With SIVO’s network, you gain access to talent who can plug in immediately and work within your existing workflows – helping you scale consumer insights without sacrificing quality or speed.

From Data to Action: Making Surveys Count in Strategy

A survey is only as valuable as the action it drives. In today’s resource-constrained environments, the true value of a decision-making survey lies in how well it supports smart, strategic moves. That means moving beyond data collection to insight-driven action planning.

Good DIY survey data should help you answer questions like: What should we do next? What’s the biggest risk or opportunity? How should we prioritize features, audiences, or messaging?

Turning survey results into strategic insight

Once data is collected via SurveyMonkey, the next step is synthesis – finding patterns, contradictions, and priority signals. Instead of focusing on isolated percentages, look at the data through a decision-making lens:

• Which drivers most strongly influence behavior?
• Where are customers getting stuck, confused, or turned off?
• What changes could reduce risk or increase likelihood of success?

For example (fictional), a retailer used SurveyMonkey to test customer reactions to a new delivery model. While 65% were interested, open-end responses revealed logistics were confusing and hidden fees a major turnoff. Realizing the issue was more about clarity than concept, the team simplified communications and retested.

Involve cross-functional teams early

For surveys to make a strategic difference, the insights must reach the right hands. Involve stakeholders from product, marketing, CX, and finance before launching the survey. This ensures that questions align with real decisions each team needs to make – and that the insights won't sit in a slide deck.

Also consider creating summary visuals like decision trees, persona snapshots, or journey maps. These make it easier for leadership to see the path from insight to action.

Let the findings shape – not just validate – decisions

Often, surveys are used to confirm an already-planned course of action. But the most effective use of market research is to let your audience shape your direction. When you treat surveys as part of a two-way dialogue, they can reveal unexpected opportunities or flaws in assumptions.

By grounding business strategy in authentic, well-interpreted consumer insights, surveys become more than diagnostic tools – they become growth enablers.