Here’s how our public conversation on StartupNorth unfolded.

Lee Dale: I don’t understand what the first 6 questions have to do with your product. (Point being, I gave up filling out this survey because it’s needlessly invasive.)

WonJune Tai: They give us a better understanding of how different demographics answer the rest of our questions differently. For example, there difference between how much the average male cares about healthy eating vs how much the average female cares about healthy eating. It’s for context, mainly.

Lee Dale: Sure, more information helps you segment groups, but if it doesn’t get to the heart of what you want to learn about the product, why turn people off by asking questions about marital status, education, ethnicity, and employment?

In other words, those are terribly personal questions and they all come in advance of any interesting questions related to your actual product, which would help users understand that the purpose of your survey is more than just ad sales.

If you’re hung up on segmenting, ask the product questions first, and then include an optional section where you first ask for their email and then ask demographic questions, preferably with an explanation as to what product related value you’ll get out of an answer to such personal questions.

WonJune Tai: I’m sorry you were offended by our questions.

Lee Dale: I’m not offended, just sharing some friendly advice on how to get more responses and more email addresses.

Are you looking to gain insights on markets and users through surveying?

We’ve conducted numerous surveys for both public and private sector organizations to help plan MVPs, better understand existing products and services, uncover new market opportunities, and learn how internal teams function.

Get in touch for surveying assistance

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The gist of it being:

We need to lead real conversations about what success is because it comes in many shapes and forms.

The article begins:

The moments we choose to celebrate say a lot about what we consider important. They’re a proxy for the metrics we value, because we’re signalling to others by their very celebration. And yet, I’ve always been of the belief that startups tend to celebrate the wrong things.

Instead of celebrating product launches, funding announcements, and winning pitch contests, Brydon challenges with a change in perspective:

Here’s an initial list of milestones and accomplishments worth celebrating to get you started.

• Performed 30 interviews with real potential users. First customer acquired.
• First customer acquired and you have no idea where they came from.
• Covering your monthly personal costs.
• Identifying the first product feature a potential customer will pay cash for.

Get in on this and other great startup discussions with Brydon and friends on the July 10 Startup Train from Guelph to Toronto to this year’s International Startup Festival in Montreal.

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Traction, not ambition, defines a ‘world-changing’ idea.

The post Traction, not ambition appeared first on Say Yeah!.