Test the Water Before you Jump: The Importance of Pre-testing

I’m always surprised (and frankly, a little alarmed) when clients don’t want to pre-test a questionnaire. This strikes me as a little bit like launching an ad campaign without testing the content.

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Storytelling with Data

“There is always a story in the data—you just have to find it.” This simple advice from an old boss got me through last week, when I got a desperate

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Here is a sample of topics I’ve done surveys and focus groups on in the past few months: Challenges to immunizing children experienced by health workers in 14 developing countries

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Open Ended Questions: A Cautionary Tale

When I teach Survey Design Boot Camp, I like to remind students that open ended questions are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. I

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I meet a lot of people who tell me their company or organization can’t afford research. I almost always tell them,  “Actually, you can’t afford NOT to do research! What kind

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 When I ventured out to work on my own, I was really excited about working from home. I quickly learned, though, that working alone all the time is not for

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After qualitative research, my clients often ask questions like “What were the key take-aways from respondents in this market?” This is what they’re concerned about, and rightfully so; it’s their

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I recently did a week-long juice fast at a wellness center.  Upon arrival, I was handed a questionnaire asking about my eating habits and how often I suffered from each

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Survey design is a linguistically intense undertaking.  Every respondent should get the same meaning from your questions—and it should be the meaning you had in mind when you wrote the

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What I Do and How I Got Here

I’m still looking for the perfect description of what I do. “Research” conjures images of white coats and Bunsen burners, and “survey” often leads people down the path of topography. 

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