Over the course of my career, I’ve seen numerous badly worded questions and poorly constructed questionnaires (yes, I’ve written many myself). There are three basic ways to fail in asking the “Right” questions: Asking the “Wrong” questions Failing to ask all the “Right” questions Asking the “Right” questions in the “Wrong” way First, to avoid asking the “Wrong” questions, it is important to keep a laser focus on the objectives of the research. Losing sight of your objectives can cause you to stray off into topics and issues that are not relevant. This is especially true when there are many levels of people providing input to the questionnaire design. One solution is to design a mock report or outline before you start writing the questionnaire. Knowing the key components of the report will define the information that you need to include in the questionnaire. Over the course of my career, I’ve seen numerous badly worded questions and poorly constructed questionnaires (yes, I’ve written many myself). There are three basic ways to fail in asking the “Right” questions: Asking the “Wrong” questions Failing to ask all the “Right” questions Asking the “Right” questions in the “Wrong” way First, to avoid asking the “Wrong” questions, it is important to keep a laser focus on the objectives of the research. Losing sight of your objectives can cause you to stray off into topics and issues that are not relevant. This is especially true when there are many levels of people providing input to the questionnaire design. One solution is to design a mock report or outline before you start writing the questionnaire. Knowing the key components of the report will define the information that you need to include in the questionnaire.