Planning survey projects: expert tips on project management

Project management for surveys

Like any other project, a survey needs a systematic plan with clearly assigned responsibilities. If required, you can create multiple accounts in the LamaPoll backend so that several people involved in implementation can access the questionnaire.

General tips

Remain as objective as possible. The people responsible for planning and conducting the survey project should avoid being guided by their own assumptions and expectations, and instead try to examine the facts with an open mind.

To avoid unnecessary delays alone, it is important to inform all relevant parties about the survey project as early as possible and involve them where necessary. To prevent complications later on, your organisation's data protection officer should be involved. For employee surveys, early contact with the works council is essential. Larger organisations will usually have an established procedure for handling surveys.

From the outset, you should consider the decision-making context in which the survey results will be used and which stakeholder groups are likely or potentially to be affected. For this reason, possible areas for action should also be identified at an early stage.

Data collection method(s)

Online surveys have the considerable advantage of allowing large groups to be surveyed quickly and efficiently. Depending on the circumstances, however, it may also make sense to conduct interviews beforehand or alongside the survey, for example with colleagues or specialists in your organisation, as a personal conversation may provide important information. Many organisations also have useful material in existing data sources, such as customer journey data, complaint management statistics, social media analyses or comments in an employee blog.

Tip: Do not dismiss additional sources of information too quickly, as they may be useful both when designing the survey and later when interpreting the results.

Communication strategy

To help your survey succeed, it is worth putting some thought into how you communicate and promote it.

• Announce the survey at an early stage and provide information about the project, including its objectives, topics, benefits for respondents, responsible persons and contact details, data protection measures and how results will be communicated. Identify the most suitable communication channels, such as internal platforms, other internal media or newsletters, and prepare appropriate content.
• Where possible, involve influential people. For example, managers can communicate the topic proactively, or in a B2B survey key account managers can raise it directly with customers.

Tip: For employee surveys, it can be useful to set up a project group so that employees can contribute their perspective during the design phase. This can help encourage participation across the workforce.

Tip: If appropriate for your project, make the results available to participants. In all cases, respondents should be informed about how and for what purpose the results will be used.

Incentives

Incentives are small rewards offered for taking part and are used to increase the response rate. Their effect should not be overstated, however, as the decision to participate is primarily influenced by other factors such as interest in the topic and the time required.

Tip: If you want to show your appreciation, avoid generic giveaways and think of something genuinely relevant and original for your target group.

Recruitment

If you want to invite participants to the survey by email, you need an address list that is as complete and accurate as possible. LamaPoll offers extensive options for participant and response management. You can find guidance on identifying suitable participants under Find survey participants and Step 4: Recruitment.

Tip: Start sourcing the required contact details as early as possible and clarify the relevant GDPR requirements, ideally with expert support.

Tip: If you cannot or are not permitted to contact your target group directly, consider alternative ways of reaching them. For example, you could include the survey link in your newsletter, link to the questionnaire from company websites or forums, or ask management contacts to cascade the survey within their area.

Tip: If you are planning to survey a sample of your target population, our sample size calculator can help you estimate the required sample size.

If you plan to organise your survey through an online access panel, consider not only the price but also the provider's quality assurance measures, in particular:

• validation of participants' identities
• scope and currency of profile information
• monitoring of participation rates and response quality
• limits on participation frequency
• sanctions for breaches of the rules

Planning the survey process

It is generally best to send the invitation at the beginning of the week so that it does not get forgotten over the weekend. The survey invitation email should give respondents all the information they need to decide whether to participate:

• survey topic
• reasons to take part
• person or people responsible
• time required
• data protection
• survey period
• link to the survey

Once your survey is live, real-time reporting keeps you informed about current participation levels. Response patterns for online surveys are usually fairly typical: experience shows that most responses arrive in the first few days after launch. A reminder can generate a noticeable additional response. As a rule, the right time to send a reminder is around one week after the survey starts.

Timeline

To complete your survey project within the planned timeframe, allow time for the following work packages. Adapt the schedule to the requirements of your project.

• operationalising the research objectives, wording the questions and structuring the questionnaire
• contacting and coordinating with relevant parties
• technical implementation of the online questionnaire
• collecting contact details
• translation(s)
• pretest
• preparing the invitation email
• fieldwork, including the reminder
• time for detailed analysis, the survey report and, where applicable, PR content