Survey instrument engineering for market, health and social research

Survey Scripting  ·  Independent Audit  ·  Data Integrity

The questionnaire is an intention. The script is the study.

Wisfield Survey Engineering programs, verifies and stewards survey instruments for research agencies and insight teams whose findings will be relied upon. Every skip, quota, terminate and data map is specified, built and independently verified before a single respondent sees it, on timelines most shops only meet by skipping that step.

Request a Written Scope The Verification Standard

  • i.One principal programmer. No account managers, no hand-offs, no queue.
  • ii.Every build audited by an independent firm that is paid for every defect it finds.
  • iii.Fast without shortcuts: a written quote in two business days, an audited test link in three.
The Exposure

Why survey scripting is not a commodity

Sampling is reviewed by statisticians. The questionnaire is reviewed by the client. The analysis is reviewed by the team presenting it. The script, the one artefact that decides who is asked what, is often reviewed by no one but the person who wrote it.

Table 1  ·  Where research quietly fails
Scripting failure Consequence in the data Typically discovered
Skip logic leakRespondents answer questions they should never have seen; every downstream base is wrong.At tabulation
Quota misconfigurationCells overfill or close early; sample costs rise and the achieved mix is distorted.Mid-field, or not at all
Terminate misroutingQualified respondents are screened out, or unqualified respondents admitted.Rarely
Piping and text-fill errorsRespondents evaluate the wrong brand, product, condition or concept.After delivery, by the client
Randomisation faultsOrder bias enters a monadic, MaxDiff or conjoint design.Usually never
Data map divergenceVariables do not match the questionnaire; trackers break wave on wave.At the next wave

None of these errors announce themselves. All of them are preventable at the scripting stage. Almost none of them are recoverable afterwards.

Wisfield would rather lose the project than field an instrument it cannot stand behind.

Wisfield engagement principle
The Practice

One discipline, practised to a written standard

Written Scoping

Send the questionnaire. Receive a written scope.

A written scope and a fixed quote, with the main risks flagged, within two business days.

Request a Written Scope