Survey & instrument design

A survey is the one part of a project you cannot fix afterwards. Once responses are in, a double-barrelled item is a double-barrelled item forever, a missing screening question is missing, and an unvalidated scale invites the reviewer question you cannot answer. Time spent on the instrument is the cheapest time in the whole study.

We write items that measure one thing each, in language your respondents use, and we start from validated scales wherever one exists — because a published instrument brings its own reliability evidence and comparability with prior work.

Then the practical side: sampling strategy and a power calculation that says how many responses you actually need, the questionnaire built in Qualtrics, KoBoToolbox or Google Forms with logic, quotas and validation configured, and a pilot run so the problems surface while they are still free to fix.

What you receive

• A drafted, reviewed questionnaire with item rationale
• Validated scales identified, cited and correctly reproduced
• Sampling strategy and sample-size / power calculation
• The live instrument built and tested in your platform
• Skip logic, quotas, validation and mobile checking
• Interview and focus-group guides for qualitative arms

How this service runs

• Send the brief — Email us the data type, the volume (audio hours or cases), your method if you have one, and the deadline. No form-filling marathon.
• Scope call & fixed quote — We come back with clarifying questions, then a written scope and a fixed price. NDA signed first if you'd rather talk under one.
• Analysis with checkpoints — You see the codebook or the analysis plan before we run the whole dataset — so the direction is agreed while it's still cheap to change.
• Delivery & walkthrough — Files, project files, syntax and write-up delivered together, plus a call to walk you through the reasoning. Revisions included.

New studies at design stage, scale adaptation, multi-site data collection, and field surveys on tablets.