User Research Survey Template

Most "user research surveys" are satisfaction forms wearing a lab coat. Real discovery research asks about behavior, not opinions — what people actually did last Tuesday, not what they imagine they would like. This template is built on that distinction, and its centerpiece question breaks the usual survey rules on purpose.

The story question is the instrument. "Walk us through the last time you tackled it" collects a narrative, not a rating. Narratives contain the sequence (what came first), the tools (what got opened), and the dead ends (where time went to die) — the raw material of journey maps and the source of insights no scale question can produce. It is required because a research survey without the story is just a screener. Everything around it is scaffolding: the role and frequency questions let you segment stories by who and how often, the current-tool question maps the competitive landscape as users see it (spreadsheets and group chats included), the 1–10 pain scale sizes the opportunity, and the magic-wand question points at which step to fix first.

Sizing beats counting. Read the pain scale multiplied by the frequency answer, not either alone: a daily problem rated six outranks a rare one rated nine for a roadmap, though the rare-but-awful cluster may name your premium tier. The 1–10 anchors run from "mildly annoying" to "genuinely awful" precisely to stretch answers across the range instead of piling them at seven.

Consent-first recruiting. The interview question demonstrates respectful research mechanics: the email field does not exist until someone says yes or maybe — a conditional-logic rule reveals it only then. Nobody who declined is asked for contact details, which is both better ethics and cleaner data, and the email field's description promises scheduling-only use. Mention compensation honestly; it doubles opt-in rates and filters for people who take the call seriously.

What we left out. Feature wish-lists ("would you use X?" invites polite lies), NPS and satisfaction scores (wrong instrument for discovery), and demographics beyond role — in B2B-flavored research, what someone does explains behavior far better than their age does.

Who runs this. Product teams before a roadmap bet, founders doing problem discovery pre-build, UX researchers scaling beyond the interviews they have time for, and agencies grounding a redesign in something sturdier than stakeholder opinion.

Make it yours. Replace "the problem this product tries to solve" with the actual job — "planning team offsites", "reconciling invoices" — everywhere it appears. Read story answers weekly rather than at the end; the Summary view surfaces recent text responses, and the CSV export gives you the full corpus for affinity mapping. When interview slots fill, close the form on a date so the recruiting promise stays honest.