What Makes a Good Research Question?

It sounds simple, but the questions you ask can completely change the quality of the answers you receive.

A well-written question can uncover useful information and help people explain what they really think.

A poorly written one can confuse respondents, influence their answers or leave you with data that's difficult to use.

So, what actually makes a good research question?

Keep It Simple

Research questions don't need to sound clever.

In fact, the simpler they are, the better.

People should be able to read a question once and immediately understand what you're asking.

Long sentences, technical language and unnecessary jargon can all make surveys harder to complete.

Instead of:

"To what extent would you agree that the accessibility of our customer support provision meets your expectations?"

You could simply ask:

"How satisfied are you with the support available to you?"

Clear questions usually produce clearer answers.

Ask One Thing at a Time

One of the most common survey mistakes is asking two questions at once.

For example:

"How satisfied are you with the speed and quality of our service?"

What happens if someone thinks the service was excellent but incredibly slow?

They don't have an obvious answer.

It's better to separate these into two questions so each response tells you something useful.

Avoid Leading People

The wording of a question shouldn't suggest that there's a "correct" answer.

For example:

"How helpful did you find our excellent customer service team?"

The question already assumes the service was excellent.

Something like:

"How would you rate the service you received from our customer service team?"

gives the respondent more freedom to answer honestly.

Neutral wording matters, particularly when organisations are researching their own performance.

Give People the Right Answer Options

The question itself might be perfectly written, but the answer choices can still cause problems.

Imagine asking someone how often they use a service and giving them these options:

Daily / Weekly / Never

What should someone who uses it once a month select?

Answer options should cover the realistic range of responses and avoid unnecessary overlap.

It's also worth considering whether people need a "Don't know" or "Not applicable" option rather than forcing them to choose an answer that doesn't fit.

Don't Make People Guess

People aren't always good at remembering exact details.

Ask someone how many times they contacted your organisation during the last two years and you'll probably get a rough estimate.

Ask about the last time they contacted you and they'll likely remember much more.

Where possible, focus questions on experiences people can realistically recall.

Use Open Questions Carefully

Questions that allow people to answer in their own words can provide some of the most useful feedback.

They give respondents an opportunity to explain experiences you may not have anticipated.

But a survey filled with open questions can quickly become tiring.

A good questionnaire usually combines structured questions with a smaller number of opportunities for people to explain their answers.

Think About What You'll Do With the Answer

Before adding a question, ask yourself:

Why do we need to know this?

It's surprisingly easy for surveys to grow because different people want to add "just one more question".

If you don't know how you'll use the answer, there's a good chance the question doesn't need to be there.

Shorter, more focused surveys are generally easier for respondents and easier to analyse afterwards.

Test Your Questions Before You Launch

Something that seems completely clear when you're writing a questionnaire might be confusing to someone seeing it for the first time.

Testing a survey with a small number of people can highlight unclear wording, missing answer options and questions that are being interpreted differently than intended.

Fixing these problems before the research starts is much easier than discovering them after hundreds of responses have been collected.

Better Questions Lead to Better Insight

Good research isn't about asking as many questions as possible.

It's about asking the right questions in a way that people can understand and answer honestly.

Clear wording, neutral language and carefully chosen answer options all help improve the quality of the information you collect.

At Viewpoint Research, we help organisations design research that produces useful, reliable results. From questionnaire design and customer surveys to telephone interviews and qualitative research, we make sure the questions being asked help answer the things organisations actually need to know.