Learning patterns/Communications for surveys

A learning pattern forSurvey

Learning Pattern Library

Communications for surveys

problemThere are many parts to communicating surveys

solutionBe aware of the different opportunities, and plan for them

creator• EGalvez (WMF)

created on4 November, 2015

What problem does this solve?

There are many different rounds of communications involved with surveys that take up time. This learning pattern is a summary of fairly common communications and a few boiler plates to help you get started

What is the solution?

• Documenting the survey - While it might not look like communications, we are a wiki, so everything is communications. Be sure to prepare a survey project in Research:Index. It is often helpful to include a page with Frequently Asked Questions for users to find key information
• Communicating to translators - If you need help translating your survey, make sure that you communicate with translators in a positive and useful way. They are here to help. You can often use the translate-l mailing list.
• Preparing invitations - There are a few ways to invite users to take a survey. Make sure they feel special, especially if they have been randomly selected. Surveys are an opportunity to voice opinion and be heard.
• Sending reminders - Make sure to send out reminder! Plan when you are going to send reminders ahead of time so that you can send it on time.
• Sending Thank you's - Saying a quick thank you to everyone who took your survey is often a good idea.
• Promoting survey results - Its not about sharing the data or sharing the report. But most importantly, many people have volunteered their time for your survey. How will you use the data? What did you learn and what action will you take from the survey?

Examples of Survey Communications

Survey project management

• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Tech_support_satisfaction_poll

Data collection announcements

• (needs links!)

Public survey results

• https://wikiedu.org/blog/2016/03/25/fall-2015-survey
• http://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2015

Related patterns

This is a Survey Support Desk learning pattern