How difficult was your workout?
This new year I’ve been on a quest to workout more — for both my physical and mental health. I just hadn’t been feeling great. So, I decided to start small — by getting in 10,000 steps a day. And, wow. As someone who works at a computer, this has been more challenging than I anticipated.
Since working out has been on my mind, it’s no surprise that this week’s question makeover has to do with fitness. This survey has been on my mind for YEARS. It’s from a fitness app that I used to use. It haunts me.
At the end of every workout, the app asks you to rate your workout in terms of difficulty. They share that information with your trainer so that they can use your feedback to improve your workout experience. Sounds like a good idea, right? I mean, I want my workouts to meet my needs! Alas, this survey did not help with that. At all.
Here’s why.
Below is the question from the Future personal training app:
Any thoughts on why this may not be a good question? By “good,” I mean it isn’t a question that is going to get your personal trainer information they can use to tweak your workouts to better meet your needs.
Let’s take a look.
When you’re writing a survey question it is SO IMPORTANT for you to start by defining your goals: What do you want to learn from the survey question? How do you plan on using the information?
Here’s what I’m wondering: What is a “good” response? If I tell my trainer I was at a 7… does that mean they need to make my workout harder or easier? Is “10” what the goal is? Who knows! I don’t even think the people at Future Fit App know.
You get this same question no matter what workout you do or when you do it. The only feedback that the trainers are getting is how difficult you thought your workout was.
Let me ask you this: Is the goal of a workout always for it to be as difficult as possible? It’s definitely not for me! Some days I’m doing yoga, and I want it to be easy! So, if my trainer gave me a yoga workout and I said it was extremely easy… that would mean it was PERFECT. Because really the response to this question depends on MY GOALS for the workout. But it isn’t presented in terms of my goals. It’s overly broad and unless my trainer has asked me how hard I want each workout to be (spoiler: they do not) the information you gain from asking this question is USELESS.
If Future wants to cater to me and my preferences, then they need to write a question that gets at how close or far they are to my workout preferences.
Try this on for size:
Can you see the difference? This reworked question allows the client to give feedback on both the intensity and the length of the workout. This provides the trainer with feedback in two clear areas that they have control over and could change for future workouts. (I underlined intensity and length because you may want to choose more clear/accessible language depending on who you are surveying).
If Future started using this question, my trainer would’ve known quickly and easily after each session if I wanted sessions to be shorter or longer, easier or more difficult, or if they were completely hitting the mark.
Sadly, instead, they got a difficulty score that they would be hard-pressed to use in a meaningful way.
If you are taking the time to survey people and asking them to take the time to respond to your question(s), make sure that you have thought through the goal of your question(s) and how you will use the information.
If the people at Future had done a little exercise (ha!) where they pretended they got the data from this question back, I would hope they would’ve quickly realized that the data was not actionable or meaningful.
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