How I helped SurveyMonkey use AI to make it easy for anybody to create a survey

Overview

Build with AI is a new way to create surveys, and it’s powered by OpenAI. The user types short instructions. Then AI generates a survey accordingly. It’s fast, accurate, and results in high-quality surveys.

My role

I wrote all the user interface copy, led feature naming efforts, and tested the content for usability. Keep reading to find out how I wrote outstanding instructions and other content that made this feature the #1 way new users create surveys.

The challenge

It’s hard to write a good survey. You have to know what questions to ask, how to ask them, and in what order. And even if you can do all those things, writing a survey can take a lot of time. How could AI help?

Business goals

We wanted to see a high number of customers deploying (sending) surveys with this feature. People who deploy tend to stick around. And we hoped to increase conversions from free to paid accounts.

Process

Step 1: Identify content needs

I conducted the following foundational research:

• Conversation mining
• Competitive analysis
• Prompt engineering exploration

Here’s my key takeaway: Nearly all GPT products offered sample prompts to help users get started. The product designer and I discussed these findings. We agreed that prompt writing would be our key challenge.

Step 2: Name the feature

I organized a feature naming workshop with cross functional stakeholders. Our activities were as follows:

• Align on criteria for the name.
• Brainstorm names according to those criteria.
• Choose three of our best options.
• Then I surveyed 200 people and asked them which of those three names they liked best. Names appeared in random order to each respondent to prevent bias. I announced the winner to stakeholders and started working it into the product.

Step 3: Write the UI copy

I knew from my research that many users wouldn’t be able to write prompts without guidance. So I built on the idea of sample prompts from other products.

• Novice users could use the prompts without making changes.
• More articulate users could edit the prompts to suit their needs.
• Savvy users could model their own prompts after our samples.

I worked with one of our survey methodology experts to develop and test the right prompt structure.

Step 4: Test the content

I tested a prototype with five real users to answer these questions:

• Will people know what a prompt is?
• Is the purpose of the sample prompts clear?
• Does the term “sample prompt” make sense?

Participants attempted tasks like using one of the sample prompts and defining the word “prompt.” All participants were able to complete all tasks.

Results / impact

There are five ways to create a survey with SurveyMonkey. Here’s where Build with AI ranks among them all:

• 1st place in activations
  • Indicates test surveys sent to at least one person
• 2nd place in deploys
  • Indicates surveys with several real responses

User quote

“SurveyMonkey’s Build with AI feature made creating surveys a breeze, even for someone with zero AI experience like myself. The AI feature exceeded my expectations, allowing me to effortlessly craft a comprehensive and professional survey for our sister non-profit groups. In just three attempts, I had a survey ready for board approval. Thank you, SurveyMonkey, for making survey creation not only simple and intuitive but also enjoyable!”