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Product & UX

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.

23 questions · ~10 min
Q01
Message

Welcome and thank you for participating in this feedback session. The purpose of this survey is to gather your honest impressions of the research instrument you just completed during the pilot session. Your feedback will help us identify areas for improvement before the main study launch. This survey should take approximately 6–8 minutes. There are no right or wrong answers — we are interested in your genuine experience. Your responses are confidential, will be anonymized, and reported only in aggregate. Participation is voluntary, and you may stop at any time. Please click 'Next' to begin.

Q02
Multiple Choice

Which device did you primarily use during today's pilot session?

  • Laptop or desktop
  • Tablet
  • Smartphone
  • Other (please specify)
Q03
Opinion Scale

How clear were the instructions provided throughout the pilot session?

Scale: 17
Min:Not at all clearMax:Extremely clear
Q04
Opinion Scale

Overall, how mentally taxing was today's pilot session?

Scale: 17
Min:Not at all taxingMax:Extremely taxing
Q05
Opinion Scale

Overall, how smooth was the flow of the session from start to finish?

Scale: 17
Min:Not at all smoothMax:Extremely smooth
Q06
AI Interview

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.

Q07
Dropdown

What is your age group?

  • 18–24
  • 25–34
  • 35–44
  • 45–54
  • 55–64
  • 65+
  • Prefer not to say
Q08
Message

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.

Q09
Dropdown

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
Q10
Opinion Scale

How clear was the wording of individual questions?

Scale: 17
Min:Not at all clearMax:Extremely clear
Q11
Opinion Scale

To what extent did the session feel repetitive?

Scale: 15
Min:Not at allMax:Extremely
Q12
Multiple Choice

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
Q13
Long Text

Based on your experience today, is there anything else you would like to share about the pilot session?

Q14
Multiple Choice

Which of the following best describes your gender? Select all that apply.

  • Woman
  • Man
  • Non-binary
  • Prefer to self-describe
  • Prefer not to say
Q15
Opinion Scale

How clear were the response options and scale labels?

Scale: 17
Min:Not at all clearMax:Extremely clear
Q16
Ranking

Rank the following factors by how much they contributed to any fatigue you experienced. Drag the biggest contributor to the top.

  1. Length of session
  2. Repetitive items
  3. Complex or technical wording
  4. Unclear instructions or scale labels
  5. Visual layout or design
  6. Technical issues (e.g., slow loading)
Drag to rank
Q17
Long Text

Please describe or paste any specific items, phrases, or instructions that were confusing (optional).

Q18
Long Text

If you selected "Prefer to self-describe," please specify (optional).

Q19
Multiple Choice

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
Q20
Dropdown

In which region do you currently live?

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • North America
  • Oceania
  • South America
  • Prefer not to say
Q21
Ranking

Rank the following factors by how much they contributed to any ambiguity you experienced. Drag the biggest contributor to the top.

  1. Vague wording
  2. Technical terms or jargon
  3. Double-barreled items
  4. Missing response options
  5. Unclear scale labels
  6. Visual layout or formatting
Drag to rank
Q22
Dropdown

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
Q23
Multiple Choice

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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