There are many types of survey questions to choose from when designing your survey. Determining which kind of survey question to choose to use depends on the data you need to collect. Below are some of the more common survey question types that we use at GitLab.
Rating scale - Allows the respondent to select a number as their response.
Likert scale - A type of a rating scale question that lets respondents choose words/phrases that align with their feelings.
Matrix - A set of questions that all have the same scale and are presented as a grid. Often used in conjunction with Rating scale or Likert scale questions.
Ranking - Allows respondents to rank a list of items, typically by preference.
Question type | Goal of this sample question | Poor wording version | Problem with the wording | Better wording version |
---|---|---|---|---|
Open-ended | Acquire feedback on the GitLab experience | “How great is the GitLab experience?” | Positively biased | “Tell us about your experience using GitLab.” |
Multiple choice | Understanding how many hours respondents use GitLab per day | “How many hours do you use GitLab per day?” (1-2 | 2-3 | 3-4 | 4-5 | 5-6) | Overlapping options, lack of scoped timeframe, no option for ‘other___’ | “Within the last week, how many hours have you used GitLab per day?” (1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | Other:_) |
Rating scale | Net Promoter Score | “How likely are you to recommend GitLab…” (0-10) | Scale is not defined | “How likely are you to recommend GitLab…” (0 (not likely) -10 (very likely)) |
Likert scale | Understand satisfaction of the GitLab experience | “How was your GitLab experience?” (Awesome | Amazing | Great | Good | OK) | Unbalanced scale | “How satisfied were you with the GitLab experience?” (Very dissatisfied | Dissatisfied | Neutral | Satisfied | Very satisfied) |