3 builders who never spoke to each other

Run the survey the same way every time

Where you do ask, keep the wording, sourcing and provider identical between rounds so the comparison across years means something. A poll on the page pulls research out of readers who would otherwise leave silently, and the one question worth a threshold is how people would feel if the product vanished.

The method

1. 01

   Ask existing users how they would feel if the product vanished, with four fixed options, and treat 40% answering that they would be very disappointed as the fit threshold.

2. 02

   Repeat an old survey with identical wording, sourcing and provider, so the comparison across years actually means something.

3. 03

   Put a poll on the page to pull interaction and free audience research out of readers who would otherwise leave silently.

4. 04

   Never put the answer inside the question: ask which benefit appeals most rather than whether they bought because of one.

What it returned

• 2009

  Sean Ellis used the question on Dropbox in 2009 and set the bar after comparing results at nearly 100 startups: the ones struggling for traction always came in under 40%, the ones with strong traction above it, though he conceded the cutoff was somewhat arbitrary.

• 2024

  Rand Fishkin's 2024 respondents rated the value of attending marketing events at 6.4 on average against 6.7 from his 2017 survey, run with the same phrasing, the same respondent sourcing and the same provider and layout.

• 1,200

  One poll live on Valnet's GameRant had over 1,200 votes, and Glen Allsopp likes the call to action inviting readers to go and discuss the poll.

• Katelyn Bourgoin names the three biases doing the damage: respondents agreeing with whatever you propose, answering to fit social norms, and changing their opinion simply because they are being surveyed.

Sources

• Surveys - Why We Buy 🧠Katelyn Bourgoin · customercamp.co · Avoid asking biased questions · undated
• How 16 Companies are Dominating the World's Google Search Results (2024 Edition) - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · I Forgot How Every Website Used to Use Polls Until I Kept Seeing Them Across the Valnet Network · 2023-03-07
• Is the Product-Market Fit survey accurate?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · The Product/Market Fit Survey · undated
• Why Are Marketing Conferences Shrinking? And What Do Attendees Say They Want? - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · 2024-05-16