It’s just a LinkedIn Poll…
It’s Wednesday, which means it is time for another question makeover—yay! This one may be a little controversial because it comes from a LinkedIn Poll.
That’s right. I’m going to make over a LinkedIn Poll. Why? Because I don’t care if your survey question is just for a little fun engagement on LinkedIn (or Instagram, Facebook, whatever) — it should still be a good question!!! I’m assuming you’re asking the question because, on some level, you want to know the answer or learn something from people’s responses. Right? Let’s hope so. If not, stop wasting everyone’s time.
So, let’s dive in. Maybe you’ll learn something you can apply to your questions!
Below is a question I saw posted on LinkedIn by a recruiter:
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 this recruiter information they can actually depend on and use to make good decisions.
Let’s take a look. I always pretend like I’m going to answer the survey question myself and annotate what I’m thinking as I read through to choose my response.
Good survey questions are: specific, simple, provide context, ask about only one thing at a time, and are designed to get you the information YOU want.
This question lacks important context and is not designed to get the information the recruiter wants. Why? Not only do they have overlapping answer categories (that’s when your response fits into more than one possible answer choice), but it is also missing answer choices (so your response might not fit anywhere!).
Let’s say the recruiter keeps this question as is.
Well, then, when they get back the results, they will be looking at data about people’s mystery jobs (maybe their current one, maybe their first one, maybe a funky average of all their jobs) — we’ll never know! And that’s a problem. You want to know what people are thinking of when they answer your questions, and you want them all to think about the same point of reference. How do you explain mystery job data? You can’t really; you’ll just have to be vague in your reporting. Eek. Not to mention, if anyone found a job in under a month or in 10 or 11 months, then they had to lie in their response (or skip the question). So now the data is confusing and not inclusive of all experiences.
To put it bluntly, the data is garbage. How can this recruiter possibly make meaning of this data? They can’t. But, experience says, they’ll share it out all snazzy-like: “It takes most people over a year to find a job” (cue my eye roll). And the comments will pour in, validating this “finding” — “yes, it took me so long to find a job!” So the vicious cycle of misinformation will continue.
Let’s break the cycle.
Can you see the difference? This reworked question defines what job I want you to think about when you answer it and even goes a step further to define the period of time you should be reflecting on. We love clarity! It also adds answer choices to cover the full range of possibilities and gets rid of any overlap. No matter how long it took you to get your current job, there is one box for you to check.
This level of simplicity and specificity will get you good data that you can actually use!
Here’s the thing—EVEN if you are writing a cute little fun poll for your social media or for an icebreaker at an event, you should use best practices in survey design! Please. How we collect information matters—it matters for what we want to learn and because we have eyes on us and we are modeling asking questions for others.
Pause and take a minute to review your questions before releasing them into the wild. And, if you want support mastering the art and science of survey design — I’m only a message away.
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