Instagram, DM me.

Today’s question makeover is for Instagram (insert ominous music here). They’ve been doing some surveying about how people use their platform, and it’s… interesting. You’d think for all the $$$ that Meta has, they could invest in some better research.

Below is one of the questions that Instagram posed to current users:

I have so many questions about this question. Really — this question is a doozy. What does Instagram actually want to know?

Any thoughts on why this may not be a good question? By “good,” I mean it isn’t a question that will get Instagram information that they can use to better understand people’s response habits.

Let’s take a look.

For any of you on Instagram, I wonder if you are immediately struck by grouping “friends” and “family” together, or even just “family.” I’m likely to hear from a sibling within a day, but a parent? I don’t know if mine even get messages.

Which then has me thinking: I assumed when Instagram asked about responses, they meant DMs, but what kind of response does Instagram mean? Now that I think about it, you can respond with a comment, by liking a story, or you could actually type out a message to send someone.

Don’t even get me started on how subjective definitions of “quickly” and “slowly” are.

Good survey questions are specific — they don’t leave room for guesswork or misinterpretation — the designer is very clear about what they want to know. Because clarity = good data.

Furthermore, good survey questions provide enough context for you to know exactly who or what you should be thinking of when answering the question. In this case — we have no idea what kind of “responses” you should reflect on.

Good survey questions are also designed to get you the information you want to know. In this case — I’m not sure what Instagram wants to know, but I know they can’t possibly be learning it. This question is too confusing on too many fronts!

Let’s change it up for them:

Can you see the difference? This new question gives you a specific person to think about and, rather than using your subjective definition of speed, provides you with time frames for replies.

Now, this question may not be what Instagram wants to know — again underscoring the importance of having conversations with people about the goals of their surveys! Nevertheless, it’s an improvement over what they are putting out there.

There are lots of other options for a rewrite here: You could ask about the last person someone messaged, you could clarify that you want to know about ANY kind of interaction on Instagram (not just DMs), You could have a person name 5 people and their relationship with them and report a “speed” of response for each one, you could decide that you WANT to look at people’s subjective perception of speed — but even then, I’d say lose the “neither quickly or slowly” because this meaningless either way you cut it.

If you were Instagram, what would you want to know? 

To be frank, the data Instagram is getting from their current survey question is garbage. And, it’s slightly terrifying that they may be using this to make some sort of business decision.

Good survey questions get you information that you can trust and that you can use. In order to trust and use the data from a question, you MUST make sure that your question is clear, understandable, and aligns with your goals. Certainly, we could craft a better set of questions to help Instagram learn more about how people use their platform.

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