Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How Much Data Is Enough To Trust A Survey Result

• posted by: Brad Rhoads on 2014-08-19
• tagged: business-plan, marketing, statistics
• score: 4

I’m working on a survey to validate my business idea. Assuming I have a good sample, how many responses is enough.

Say there was just one question: “Would you use a service like this?”. How many yes’s should I want to have enough confidence to move forward?

Answer 387

• posted by: JonnyZoo on 2014-08-19
• score: 5

Be careful about numbers. It isn’t only about the amount of people you ask. More important is how you ask. Some guidelines:

• Ask some questions around the problem your product will solve. Does the person have/see the same problems?
• If you present your product and price they aren’t that cold hearted to decline. So try to remove the emotional part (by online survey or describing the product as your friends product and you only do the survey
• how many of the answers are really persons of your target customer group? Collect demographics to find out.

There are many more hints for interviews and surveys. I reccomend the book “The Mom Test” by Rob Fitzpatrick.

Answer 390

• posted by: JezC on 2014-08-19
• score: 5

The first problem, even before getting to the numbers, is the question. You’ve used a “forward facing question”. Asking people to project themselves into the future and guess how they will respond to a conjectured future event… is the most risky thing you’re doing.

When you want to know about behaviours, ask historical questions. They’re a better guide to reality. Ask:

How much do you spend to solve this problem now?

Ask:

How do you solve this problem now?

Ask:

How much does it cost your business to solve this problem today?

Because if they don’t know, it isn’t important enough to build a business around :)

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