You can create custom questions to use in your Teamspective pulse surveys, and this article tells you how to design the questions successfully.
Before creating custom questions, we recommend using Teamspective's standard questions if possible. Those come with several benefits: measuring science backed themes, question and answer scale optimized with 1000s of responses, you get benchmark from other companies etc.
The golden rules to good survey questions
Measure only one topic per question.
Ask about responder's experience or opinion.
Use response scale that goes from worst to best option (or vice versa)
Use neutral response options, with equal "distance" between options
1. Measure only one topic per question.
Focusing on one topic increases response quality by helping everyone interpret the question in the same way. It also makes results more meaningful and actionable, as you won't need to guess which part about the phenomena caused the results to be good or bad.
Here are few examples:
Good: Is it clear what you should focus on and prioritize?
Bad: Is it clear what you should focus on and what others expect from you?
Bad: Is it clear what your manager, colleagues and customers expect from you?
2. Ask about responder's experience or opinion.
Avoid questions which can be interpreted in many ways, or which ask people to make evaluations on something else than their own experience. It's extremely hard for people to evaluate other people's experiences, so you should ask about the experiences and opinions they are directly in touch with - their own.
Here are some examples:
Good: How often do you find it hard to fit in at work?
Bad: Is it easy to become included in our team?
Bad: Are employees at your company finding it hard to fit in at work?
Bad: Are your colleagues struggling to fit in at work?
3. Use a response scale that goes from worst to best option (or vice versa)
For most accurate and actionable results, it's best to stick with a linear scale which moves from worst to best, or best to worst option. This format is easy for the responders to understand and use, and results will be easy and reliable to analyze.
Example of a good scale: Almost always / Usually / Sometimes / Rarely / Almost never
Note: sometimes it may be justified to use a "balanced scale" where the best option is in the middle. For example "Too little ... just right ... too much". Just be mindful that this is not ideal.
4. Use neutral response options, with equal "distance" between options
Response scale should have predictable "distance" between options, so it's easy for the responder to position themselves on the scale. If some response options are very similar to each other, responding becomes confusing and results become less reliable.
Neutral wording should be used to avoid interpretations and bias, and to avoid influencing the responses.
You can use Teamspective's default response scales to satisfy this rule easily.
Examples:
Good: Almost always / Usually / Sometimes / Rarely / Almost never
Bad: Always / Usually / Occasionally / Sometimes / Never (big gap from sometimes to never)
Bad: Always / Frequently / Quite frequently / Rarely / Never (frequently and quite frequently are similar to each other)
Bad: Always / Usually / As much as I expect / Not enough / Never (two options leave room for interpretation, as responders have varying expectations)