One of the first lessons I teach in survey design is deceptively simple:
If you don't plan to use the answer, don't ask the question.
I learned this the hard way.
A brilliant staff member had just moved from academia to the public sector. She was sharp, committed, and incredibly thorough. But her survey drafts? Enormous. Every possible angle was covered. Every question she might one day want an answer to was included.
When I asked her why she'd added a question completely unrelated to our project's goals, she replied:
"Just in case it's interesting."
And in academia, that logic holds up. You often collect broadly , you never know what might prove useful later. Exploratory data collection is part of the game.
But in the public sector, it's a different world.
Resources are tight. Communities are busy. Trust is hard-won and easily lost. Every question you ask has a cost — in time, in goodwill, and sometimes, in ethics.
When you ask people for data you'll never use, it sends the message that their time doesn't matter. Even worse, you risk collecting information you're not equipped or approved to analyse or act on.
The Hard Truth:
👉 If you don't know what you'll do with the answer, you have no business asking the question.
Every question in your survey should earn its place. It should be tied to a decision, a service improvement, or an action. Otherwise, it's clutter. Worse, it's disrespect.
3 Ways to Pressure Test Your Survey Questions
1. Trace each question to a decision. If you can't say what you'll do with the data, it probably doesn't belong in the survey.
2. Prioritise "need to know" over "nice to know." Curiosity isn't a good enough reason. Ask only what's critical to your goals.
3. Do a "So what?" review. Have someone outside the project ask "so what?" for each question. If your answer is fuzzy or defensive, it needs work — or it needs to go.
Data isn't free. Trust isn't free.
Don't waste either.
Don't ask what you won't use.
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