Lessons that Last: How Designing a Survey Helped Me Grow
“Designing a survey taught me more than any textbook or consulting club ever could.”
Writing is inherently challenging, but when you're crafting questions that will inform the direction of a $500,000 grant, the stakes feel even higher.
Next Path
Next Path is an upskilling program born out of the READI grant where we manage and disburse upskilling programs in 3 core areas: coding, gen AI and cloud. The coursework is free and open to all community members.
For the first time, I applied what I’d learned in the classroom to a real-world problem, leading an end-to-end process from collecting primary data to generating insights and delivering strategic recommendations.
Bridging the Gap Between School and Real Life
Learning in a classroom is one thing, but applying that learning to high-impact, real-world situations is something else entirely. Nothing compares to leading the design of a survey where the results will directly influence funding and social outcomes.
In school, the datasets we work with are typically clean and well-organized. In this case, the survey produced messy, real-world data. I had to build a process that made the results accessible and usable for my team, something no assignment had fully prepared me for.
Getting It Right Matters
When decisions are made based on what customers or participants tell us, accuracy is everything. A small error in question wording, logic, or response options can distort results and lead to poor decisions. The saying "garbage in, garbage out" took on new meaning for me.
Designing with a Purpose
Before jumping into Qualtrics, our team took the time to define clear hypotheses: Who are we surveying? What matters most to them in a training program? What outcomes are they seeing? These questions shaped every element of the survey and helped us design a tool that directly tested our assumptions.
Prioritizing Inclusive Design
One idea stuck with me throughout the project: “If you take care of the edge cases, everyone else fits in.” A professor shared that thought during a freshman-year brainstorming session, and it became a guiding principle. I wanted the survey to reflect all perspectives, including those that might be easy to overlook.
We tested the draft with our sponsors, project managers, and even past participants. I thought the survey was ready, but after collecting feedback, I made more than 15 changes.
“It was a good reminder that strong work often comes from iteration, not perfection on the first try.”
Collaboration Made It Better
Steve Jobs once said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” That sentiment rang true throughout this experience. What began as an individual assignment became a team effort that benefited from everyone’s input.
Each time I brought a draft to the team, they raised questions I hadn’t considered. I leaned on their expertise in Qualtrics, valued their candid feedback, and appreciated their willingness to help refine the work. The final product was stronger because we built it together.
