Product feedback survey: ask about use, tasks and obstacles

Product feedback asks people who have used a product about one task they tried to finish, how hard it was, and what got in the way. Ask about recent use before opinions, because a rating from someone who has not used a feature says little about it. Keep the form short enough to finish on a phone, and leave out any question you have no plan to act on.

Question bank

Questions that point to a product decision

How often have you used this product in the past month?

Not at all / Once / A few times a week / Most days

Separates current users from people reacting to a first look. Read every other answer in light of this one.

What were you trying to do the last time you used it?

Open text, a sentence or two

Names the job behind the feedback. A rating means little until you know which job it was judged against.

How easy was it to finish that task?

Very difficult / Difficult / Neither easy nor difficult / Easy / Very easy / Not used yet

Measures effort on the task itself, separate from whether the person likes the product overall.

What got in the way?

Open text, one obstacle

Asks for a specific obstacle. A general complaint is harder to act on than the step where the person stopped.

What would make you use it more often?

Open text, one request

One request in the person's own words is easier to sort than a long wish list that nobody reads closely.

Field blueprint

A short product feedback form for a phone

FieldTypeRequiredWhy you ask it

How often have you used the product in the past month?

Not at allOnceA few times a weekMost days
Single choiceRequired

Shows whether the feedback comes from current use or from a first look.

Which part of the product did you use most?

Setup and sign-inCore daily taskReports or exportsMobile appSomething else
DropdownRequired

Tells the team which area the rest of the answers describe, so ratings are not read as applying to the whole product.

What were you trying to do?

A sentence or two is enough.

Long textRequired

The job behind the rating, in the person's own words.

How easy was it to finish that task?

Very difficultDifficultNeither easy nor difficultEasyVery easyNot used yet
Single choiceRequired

Measures effort on the task, not the overall opinion. Not used yet keeps people who never tried the feature from guessing.

What got in the way?

For example: I could not find the export button

Long textOptional

The specific obstacle. Ask about the obstacle rather than what the person disliked, which invites a general complaint.

How likely are you to keep using it over the next month?

Very unlikelyUnlikelyUnsureLikelyVery likely
Single choiceOptional

A forward-looking view of intent. Read it next to actual use, because people can overstate their plans.

What would make you use it more often?

Long textOptional

A single request is easier to sort into themes than a list of ideas.

May we contact you about your answers?

YesNo
Single choiceOptional

Keeps follow-up a separate choice. Only people who say yes should expect a follow-up question.

Email for a follow-up question

Leave this blank if you answered no above.

EmailOptional

Gives the team a route to ask one clarifying question.

Try it

Fill it in the way a customer would

Preview · not a real form
How often have you used the product in the past month? Required

A sentence or two is enough.

How easy was it to finish that task? Required
How likely are you to keep using it over the next month?
May we contact you about your answers?

Leave this blank if you answered no above.

At a glance

What this form asks of a respondent

9Fields
4Required fields
5Estimated time (minutes)

Estimate based on question types; actual completion time varies.

Read the results

Read the answers in the right order

  1. Start with use, then read the ratings

    A rating from someone who used the product once and a rating from someone who uses it most days describe different things. Group the answers by how often people use the product before you compare them.

  2. Show how many people answered each question

    Not every respondent answers every optional question. Put the count beside each result, so an average from six answers is not read like one from six hundred.

  3. Code the open answers into a few themes

    Read the job and the obstacle in each answer, count how many people named each theme, and keep one or two quotes that show the problem in the person's words.

  4. Turn one theme into one owned change

    Pick the theme with the most evidence and a clear fix, name an owner, and write down what you expect to see in the next round. Without that expectation, the next survey cannot show whether the change worked.

Mistakes to avoid

Wording that blurs what the product needs

Rating features the person never used

A feature the respondent has never touched should not get a rating. Give each rating a Not used yet choice, because this form cannot skip a question for people who have not used the feature.

Rating several features in one question

How do you like the dashboard, the exports and the sharing? cannot tell you which of the three needs work. Ask about one area at a time, or ask for the area in the field above.

Promising that every request will ship

Reading a request is not a commitment. If the introduction promises that the team will build what people ask for, the next round of answers will be about the promise rather than the product.

Closing with a sales offer

A feedback form that ends with a purchase offer can teach people to skip the next one. Keep the thank-you message to what the team will do with the answers.

Frequently asked questions

What questions should a product feedback survey ask?

Ask how often the person has used the product, what they were trying to do, how hard the task was, and what got in the way. Add one forward-looking question and one open request. Keep the form short, because extra questions can lower the share of people who finish it, and an unfinished survey answers nothing.

Is there a product feedback form template I can download?

Read this guide for the questions and their order rather than a Word or PDF file. Attain OS builds the form as a web page you share by link, and CSV export gives you a copy for your records.

How often should we send a product feedback survey?

Send it after people have had time to use the change, not on a fixed calendar. A survey about a feature nobody has tried yet produces a list of guesses, and those guesses cost the team time to read.

Can the form skip questions for people who have not used a feature?

No. This form has no conditional logic, so every respondent sees every question in the same order. Add a Not used yet choice to the rating questions, and explain in the help text when to pick it.

Browse by category

More surveys in Product & Engineering

How to build it

  1. Choose a category and a form type in the wizard. Answer three Atty Suggestions questions, then give the form a title. Atty builds the fields in the background. Edit the fields and ask Atty to refine them, then publish and share the /f/ link.

Attain OS BETA