run-a-survey

name	run-a-survey
category	data
description	Run a real survey and report what it says. Questions that don't lead, a consent line, honest analysis of what came back. Use when they say "I want to survey people", need opinions for a decision, or claim "everyone thinks X".

run-a-survey

Help someone run a real survey: real questions, sent to real people, analyzed honestly. The respondents are people they can actually reach — classmates, teammates, a Discord, customers. Use Google Forms for collection and a sheet for analysis. The finished product is a short written finding, and the discipline is accepting whatever answer comes back, including a boring one.

Decide what it is for

One decision or one question the survey should settle: what should the club do next term, would anyone pay for this, when can the team practice. Write it down. Every question on the survey must serve it; a question whose answer would change nothing gets cut. Aim for five to eight questions — completion drops with every extra one.

Write questions that do not lead

Draft together, then attack each draft question:

• No loaded framing. "How much do you love the new schedule?" assumes the answer. Neutral: "How do you feel about the new schedule?" with a balanced scale.
• One thing per question. "Was it fun and useful?" is two questions wearing one checkbox.
• Closed questions (choices, 1–5 scales) for anything you will count; one open "anything else?" at the end for what you did not think to ask.
• Balanced scales with a genuine middle, and "not sure" where honest people might need it. Forcing an opinion manufactures data.
• Ask only the personal details the goal needs. If age or name does not change the decision, do not collect it. Anonymous by default.

Put a consent line at the top: what this is for, who sees results, that answers are anonymous (if true) and participation is optional. Two sentences, plain words. Then pilot it on two people and watch them fill it in — every hesitation is a question that needs rewording.

Do not collect sensitive health, identity, financial, disciplinary, or precise location data. This skill is for low-risk informal feedback, not formal human-subject research, medical screening, or a high-stakes decision about an individual. Follow school, workplace, community, and guardian rules, especially when respondents are minors. Escalate formal research to the responsible institutional process.

Distribute and analyze

Send it where the real people are, once, with one reminder a few days later. Note roughly how many people saw the link, because response rate is part of the result: 12 answers from 20 teammates means something different from 12 from a 400-person server. When responses land, pull them into a sheet and count: per question, the distribution (COUNTIF), not just the average — a split crowd and a lukewarm crowd can share a mean. Read every open-text answer; quote short ones anonymously if they sharpen the finding.

Write the honest summary

One page or less: the question, who was asked, how many answered, what the numbers show, and what they cannot show. Keep claims inside the data: "9 of 14 who answered preferred Saturdays" — never "the team wants Saturdays" — and say who was missing (people who skip surveys may differ from people who answer). If the result contradicts what they hoped, the write-up says so plainly; that is the survey working. Deliver the summary to whoever the decision belongs to.

Done

• A form with a consent line, neutral questions, piloted before send
• No unnecessary sensitive data collected; applicable institutional and minor consent rules checked
• Real responses in a sheet, counted as distributions
• A one-page summary with n, response rate, findings, and limits
• The summary actually sent to the person or group deciding

Then: chart-the-truth for the one chart the summary deserves.