Research Instrument Pilot Test Evaluation
Collects structured feedback from pilot participants on instrument clarity, cognitive burden, ambiguity sources, and session flow to guide pre-launch refinement of research questionnaires.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
Which device did you primarily use during today's pilot session?
- Laptop or desktop
- Tablet
- Smartphone
- Other (please specify)
How clear were the instructions provided throughout the pilot session?
Overall, how mentally taxing was today's pilot session?
Overall, how smooth was the flow of the session from start to finish?
We'd like to explore your pilot experience in a bit more depth. An AI moderator will ask you a few follow-up questions based on your responses.
What is your age group?
- 18–24
- 25–34
- 35–44
- 45–54
- 55–64
- 65+
- Prefer not to say
Thank you for completing this feedback session. Your responses will directly help us improve the research instruments before the main study. If you have any questions, please contact the research team.
Approximately how long did it take you to complete today's pilot session?
- Less than 5 minutes
- 5–10 minutes
- 11–15 minutes
- 16–20 minutes
- 21–30 minutes
- More than 30 minutes
How clear was the wording of individual questions?
To what extent did the session feel repetitive?
Which of the following issues, if any, did you encounter? Select all that apply.
- Confusing skip or branching logic
- Unable to select or change an answer
- An item did not load properly
- Progress indicator was unclear
- Instructions were missing or inconsistent
- Other (please specify)
- None of the above
Based on your experience today, is there anything else you would like to share about the pilot session?
Which of the following best describes your gender? Select all that apply.
- Woman
- Man
- Non-binary
- Prefer to self-describe
- Prefer not to say
How clear were the response options and scale labels?
Rank the following factors by how much they contributed to any fatigue you experienced. Drag the biggest contributor to the top.
- Length of session
- Repetitive items
- Complex or technical wording
- Unclear instructions or scale labels
- Visual layout or design
- Technical issues (e.g., slow loading)
Please describe or paste any specific items, phrases, or instructions that were confusing (optional).
If you selected "Prefer to self-describe," please specify (optional).
How many items, if any, felt ambiguous or hard to interpret?
- None
- 1–2 items
- 3–5 items
- 6–10 items
- More than 10 items
In which region do you currently live?
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
- North America
- Oceania
- South America
- Prefer not to say
Rank the following factors by how much they contributed to any ambiguity you experienced. Drag the biggest contributor to the top.
- Vague wording
- Technical terms or jargon
- Double-barreled items
- Missing response options
- Unclear scale labels
- Visual layout or formatting
What is the highest level of education you have completed?
- High school or less
- Some college / Associate degree
- Bachelor's degree
- Master's degree
- Doctorate
- Other
- Prefer not to say
What is your current employment status?
- Employed full-time
- Employed part-time
- Self-employed
- Student
- Retired
- Unemployed and looking for work
- Not seeking work
- Prefer not to say
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
Why this template
What this template is built to do — we found no directly comparable template from other survey tools to review.
What sets it apart
- Includes a dedicated AI follow-up interview segment that lets an AI moderator probe deeper into a participant's pilot experience in real time, something static form builders can't do
- Uses ranking questions to isolate specific contributors to ambiguity and to fatigue, rather than relying on a single generic satisfaction score
- Pairs opinion-scale ratings on instruction clarity, question wording clarity, response-option clarity, cognitive burden, repetitiveness, and overall flow with open-text prompts for verbatim problem examples
- Captures pilot-session context (device used, completion time, issues encountered) plus standard demographic segmentation (age, gender, region, education, employment) to support pre-launch instrument refinement
Frequently asked questions
What questions are in the “Research Instrument Pilot Test Evaluation” template?
The template includes 23 ready-to-use questions, starting with: “Welcome and thank you for participating in this feedback session. The purpose of this survey is to gather your honest i…” · “Which device did you primarily use during today's pilot session?” · “How clear were the instructions provided throughout the pilot session?”. The full set is previewed above, and every question is editable.
How long does this survey take to complete?
Respondents typically finish the 23 questions in about 10 minutes.
Can I customize this template?
Yes — every question, answer option, and the ordering is editable before you launch. You can add or remove questions, or ask the AI editor to rework the survey around your research goal.
Is this template free to use?
Yes. Open it in the editor and start customizing right away — no account required to try it, and the free plan covers launching your survey.
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.
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