open ended questions research definition

Skip navigation

World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Open-ended vs. closed questions in user research.

January 26, 2024 2024-01-26

• Email article
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Twitter

When conducting user research, asking questions helps you uncover insights. However, how you ask questions impacts what and how much you can discover .

In This Article:

Open-ended vs. closed questions, why asking open-ended questions is important, how to ask open-ended questions.

There are two types of questions we can use in research studies: open-ended and closed.

  Open-ended questions allow participants to give a free-form text answer. Closed questions (or closed-ended questions) restrict participants to one of a limited set of possible answers.

Open-ended questions encourage exploration of a topic; a participant can choose what to share and in how much detail. Participants are encouraged to give a reasoned response rather than a one-word answer or a short phrase.

Examples of open-ended questions include:

• Walk me through a typical day.
• Tell me about the last time you used the website.
• What are you thinking?
• How did you feel about using the website to do this task?

Note that the first two open-ended questions are commands but act as questions. These are common questions asked in user interviews to get participants to share stories. Questions 3 and 4 are common questions that a usability-test facilitator may ask during and after a user attempts a task, respectively.

Closed questions have a short and limited response. Examples of closed questions include:

• What’s your job title?
• Have you used the website before?
• Approximately, how many times have you used the website?
• When was the last time you used the website?

Strictly speaking, questions 3 and 4 would only be considered “closed” if they were accompanied by answer options, such as (a) never, (b) once, (c) two times or more. This is because the number of times and days could be infinite. That being said, in UX, we treat questions like these as closed questions.

In the dialog between a facilitator and a user below, closed questions provide a short, clarifying response, while open-ended questions result in the user describing an experience.

Using Closed Questions in Surveys

Closed questions are heavily utilized in surveys because the responses can be analyzed statistically (and surveys are usually a quantitative exercise). When used in surveys, they often take the form of multiple-choice questions or rating-scale items , rather than open-text questions. This way, the respondent has the answer options provided, and researchers can easily quantify how popular certain responses are. That being said, some closed questions could be answered through an open-text field to provide a better experience for the respondent. Consider the following closed questions:

• In which industry do you work?
• What is your gender?

Both questions could be presented as multiple-choice questions in a survey. However, the respondent might find it more comfortable to share their industry and gender in a free-text field if they feel the survey does not provide an option that directly aligns with their situation or if there are too many options to review.

Another reason closed questions are used in surveys is that they are much easier to answer than open-ended ones. A survey with many open-ended questions will usually have a lower completion rate than one with more closed questions.

Using Closed Questions in Interviews and Usability Tests

Closed questions are used occasionally in interviews and usability tests to get clarification and extra details. They are often used when asking followup questions. For example, a facilitator might ask:

• Has this happened to you before?
• When was the last time this happened?
• Was this a different time than the time you mentioned previously?

Closed questions help facilitators gather important details. However, they should be used sparingly in qualitative research as they can limit what you can learn.

The greatest benefit of open-ended questions is that they allow you to find more than you anticipate. You don’t know what you don’t know.   People may share motivations you didn’t expect and mention behaviors and concerns you knew nothing about. When you ask people to explain things, they often reveal surprising mental models , problem-solving strategies, hopes, and fears.

On the other hand, closed questions stop the conversation. If an interviewer or usability-test facilitator were to ask only closed questions, the conversation would be stilted and surface-level. The facilitator might not learn important things they didn’t think to ask because closed questions eliminate surprises: what you expect is what you get.

Closed Questions Can Sometimes Be Leading

When you ask closed questions, you may accidentally reveal what you’re interested in and prime participants to volunteer only specific information. This is why researchers use the funnel technique , where the session or followup questions begin with broad, open-ended questions before introducing specific, closed questions.

Not all closed questions are leading. That being said, it’s easy for a closed question to become leading if it suggests an answer.

The table below shows examples of leading closed questions . Reworking a question so it’s not leading often involves making it open-ended, as shown in column 2 of the table below.

One way to spot a leading, closed question is to look at how the question begins. Leading closed questions often start with the words “did,” “was,” or “is.” Open-ended questions often begin with “how” or “what.”

New interviewers and usability-test facilitators often struggle to ask enough open-ended questions. A new interviewer might be tempted to ask many factual, closed questions in quick succession, such as the following:

• Do you have children?
• Do you work?
• How old are you?
• Do you ever [insert behavior]?

However, these questions could be answered in response to a broad, open-ended question like Tell me a bit about yourself .

When constructing an interview guide for a user interview, try to think of a broad, open-ended version of a closed question that might get the participant talking about the question you want answered, like in the example above.

When asking questions in a usability test, try to favor questions that begin with “how,” or “what,” over “do,” or “did” like in the table below.

Another tip to help you ask open-ended questions is to use one of the following question stems :

• Walk me through [how/what]...
• Tell me a bit about…
• Tell me about a time where…

Finally, you can ask open-ended questions when probing. Probing questions are open-ended and are used in response to what a participant shares. They are designed to solicit more information. You can use the following probing questions in interviews and usability tests.

• Tell me more about that.
• What do you mean by that?
• Can you expand on that?
• What do you think about that?
• Why do you think that?

Ask open-ended questions in conversations with users to discover unanticipated answers and important insights. Use closed questions to gather additional small details, gain clarification, or when you want to analyze responses quantitatively.

Related Topics

• Research Methods Research Methods

Learn More:

Please accept marketing cookies to view the embedded video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpV3tMy_WZ0

Open vs. Closed Questions in User Research

Always Pilot Test User Research Studies

Kim Salazar · 3 min

Level Up Your Focus Groups

Therese Fessenden · 5 min

Inductively Analyzing Qualitative Data

Tanner Kohler · 3 min

Related Articles:

Field Studies Done Right: Fast and Observational

Jakob Nielsen · 3 min

Should You Run a Survey?

Maddie Brown · 6 min

The Funnel Technique in Qualitative User Research

Maria Rosala and Kate Moran · 7 min

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer
• QuestionPro

• Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case NPS+ Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
• Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

Home Surveys Question Types

Open-Ended Questions: Examples & Advantages

When designing surveys , we often need to describe whether to use open-ended questions versus closed-ended questions to get specific information. Yet we need to be aware that open-ended and closed-ended questions have their strengths and weaknesses and perform in different ways.

Open-ended are those questions that a sender makes to encourage one or several receivers to obtain some information in response. For example: Where is my wallet?

LEARN ABOUT: Testimonial Questions

Open-Ended Questions: Definition

Open-ended questions are free-form survey questions that allow and encourage respondents to answer in open-text format to answer based on their complete knowledge, feeling, and understanding. The detailed response to this question is not limited to a set of options.

Unlike a closed-ended question that leaves survey responses limited and narrow to the given options, an open-ended question allows you to probe deep into the respondent’s detailed answers, gaining valuable information about the subject or project. The responses to these qualitative research questions can be used to attain detailed and descriptive information on a subject.

LEARN ABOUT: course evaluation survey examples

They are an integral part of Qualitative Market Research . This research process depends heavily on open and subjective questions and answers on a given topic of discussion or conversation, with room for further probing by the researcher based on the answer given by the respondent. In a typical scenario, closed-ended questions are used to gather qualitative data from respondents.

Learn  more: Qualitative Research- Definition, Types, Methods and Examples

Examples of Open-Ended Questions

Respondents like open-ended questions as they get 100% control over what they want to respond to, and they don’t feel restricted by the limited number of options. The beauty of the process is that there can never be a one-word answer. They’ll either be in the form of lists, sentences or something longer like speech/paragraph.

So, to understand this more, here are some open-ended question examples:

• Interview method : How do you plan to use your existing skills to improve organizational growth, if hired by the company?
• Customer-facing: Please describe a scenario where our online marketplace helps a person make day-to-day purchases in daily life.
• Technical: Can you please explain the back-end Javascript code template used for this webpage or blog post?
• Demographic: What is your age? (asked without survey options)
• Personal / Psychographic: How do you typically deal with stress and anxiety in your life?

In a study conducted by Pew Research, respondents were asked, “What mattered most to you while deciding how you voted for president?” One group was asked this question in a close-ended question format, while the other was asked in an open-ended one. The results are displayed below:

In the close-ended questions format, 58% of respondents chose “The economy”. In the other format, only 35% wrote an answer that indicated “The economy.” Note that only 8% of respondents selected “Other” in the format of the close-ended question. With an open-ended format, 43% of respondents wrote in a response that would have been categorized as “Other.”

Open-Ended Questions vs Close Ended Questions

Open-ended questions motivate the respondents to put their feedback into words without restricting people’s thoughts. They aren’t as objective and dominant as close-ended questions.

By using these leading questions, the researcher understands the respondents’ true feelings. They have an element that will give you information about different thought processes across your clientele, troubleshooting suggestions, and getting a peek into their inhibitions too.

• The open-ended and closed-ended questions are different tasks for respondents. In the open-ended task, respondents write down what is readily available in their minds. In the close-ended question task, respondents focus their “attention on specific responses chosen by the investigator” (Converse and Presser, 1986).
• Asking the same question in these two different formats will almost always produce different results. Many investigators have demonstrated this over several decades.
• Few respondents are going to select the “Other” category and enter responses that are different from the answer choices that are listed.

So what does this mean for us? If you can, do qualitative research first and ensure your close-ended questions represent the items in people’s heads. We need the list of items to be complete since few respondents will select the “Other” category. It may also be necessary to list items not readily available to respondents if they are important to you.

LEARN ABOUT: Survey Sample Sizes

When presenting results , I have found it helpful to explain the fundamental differences between open-ended and closed-ended question examples in a sentence or two. It helps them understand that these are not necessarily precise measurements but measurements that require some interpretation relative to other questions in the survey and additional information from steps in qualitative research . Hence, that is why they need an analyst like you or me!

Why Use Open-Ended Questions?

Unrestricted opinions:.

The customers need a platform to voice their opinions without limits on the answers. Happy or unhappy. As answer options for questions aren’t provided, the respondent has the liberty to include details about good life, feelings, attitudes, and views that they usually wouldn’t get to submit in single word answers.

Creative Expression:

These questions are more appreciative of the respondents than close-ended questions as users aren’t expected to just “fill” them out for the sake of it.

Spellbinding Vision and Creativity:

Respondents may stun you with the vision and creativity they show with their more detailed answers. Links to their blogs or a verse or two of their poetry will leave you spellbound.

Embracing Freedom of Response:

If there are only close-ended questions in a microsurvey, the users usually get disconnected and fill it out without giving it much thought. With the kind of freedom that open-ended questions offer, users can respond the way they’d like to, be it the number of words or the details or the tone of the message.

LEARN ABOUT: Send Surveys Using Text Message

Driving Marketing and Innovation:

These responses may be marketing tips for improving the organization’s branding or some creative ideas that can lead to monetary gains in future.

Tackling Complexity:

Knotty situations need more than just a mere Yes/No feedback. Single-select or multiple choice questions cannot do justice to the detail process or scrutiny required for some critical and complex situations.

Exploring Feedback and Troubles:

These questions work best in situations where the respondents are expected to explain their feedback or describe the troubles they’re facing with the products.

Unveiling Customer Insights:

You can learn from your respondents. The open-ended questions offer the freedom to these respondents to be vocal about their opinion that would be insightful for a company.

Revealing Thought Patterns:

Respondent logic, thoughts, language, and reference choices can be known from these questions that can reveal a lot about how the respondent’s brain functions.

Always think before designing a survey as to what your objective is. Scrutinize the purpose, evaluate the positives and negatives of using an open or closed answer for your research study. Try it by sending out to a selected database, analyzing the results, and planning improvements for the next round of surveys.

LEARN ABOUT: Speaker evaluation form

How to Ask an Open-Ended Question?

Everything easy or complicated requires competence. Asking the right question is also one such thing that requires capabilities. Capability to understand and segment the target audience , determine the kind of questions that will work well with that audience, and determine the efficiency of them.

Here are four ways to create effective open-ended questions:

Understand the difference between open-ended question and closed-ended question:

Before you start putting questions to paper, you need to have absolute clarity on open-ended vs closed-ended questions . Your objective of sending out an online survey should be clear, and based on that, you can evaluate the kind of questions you would want to use. These are usually used where the feelings and feedback of the customer are highly valued. To receive 100% transparent feedback on these questions, make sure that you don’t lead the respondents with your questions and give them complete liberty to fill in whatever they want.

Create a list of open-ended questions before curating the survey:

Once you get clarity on what are open-ended questions and how to implement them, figure out a list of survey questions that you’d want to use. First, you can have a fair share of open-ended questions in your survey, which can fluctuate depending on your responses.

LEARN ABOUT:  Social Communication Questionnaire

Examples of open-ended questions like these are extremely popular and give you more value-added insights:

• Why do you think competitive market research is important before launching a new business?
• How do you think you’ll overcome these obstacles in our project?
• Tell us about your experience with our onboarding process.
• What are your professional priorities at the moment?
• What domain of work motivates you?
• You can make a list of similar questions before you start executing the survey.

Reconstruct any question into an open-ended question:

Observation is the key here. Observe what kind of questions you usually ask your customers, prospects, and every other person you come across. Analyze whether your questions are closed-ended or open-ended. Try and convert those closed questions into open-end ones wherever you think the latter would fetch you better results and valuable insights.

Follow up a closed-ended question with an open-ended question:

This trick works wonders. It’s not always possible to convert a closed question into an open one, but you can follow up by getting a question answered.

For example, if you have a closed question like – “Do you think the product was efficient?” with the options “Yes” and “No”, you can follow it up with an open question like “How do you think we can make the product better in future?”

Regarding surveys, the advantages of open questions surpass that of closed ones.

How to Add Open-Ended Questions?

1. Goto: Login » Surveys » Edit » Workspace

2. Click on the Add Question button to add a question.

3. Select Basic, then go to the Text section and select Comment Box.

4. Enter the question text.

5. Select the data type: Single Row Text, Multiple Rows Text, Email address, or Numeric Data.

6. Select the Text Box Location (below or next to question text). Enabling “next to question text” will put the text box to the right of the question.

How to view the data collected by an open-ended question?

1. Click on Login » Surveys » Analytics » Text Analytics » Text Report

Please note that analysis for open-ended text questions is not included in the Real-Time Summary or Analysis Report. To view the analysis of open-ended questions, you can see the Word Cloud report.

LEARN ABOUT: Easy Test Maker

Can You Limit The Number of Characters in a Text Question?

You can set the limit of the number of characters that respondents can enter in the textbox.

How to Mark The Question as Mandatory?

To make the question mandatory, you can toggle the validation on and select ‘Force Response’. It is off by default. When ‘Force Response’ is not enabled, respondents can continue with the survey without selecting answers. If respondents go through all the pages in the online questionnaire without selecting answers, the response is still considered complete. You can enable the required option to make a question required so that respondents can continue with the survey only after responding to the questions.

LEARN ABOUT: Structured Questionnaire

Closed-ended questions, like open questions, are used in both spoken and written language and in formal and informal situations. It is common to find questions of this type in school or academic evaluations, interrogations, and job interviews, among many other options.

LEARN ABOUT: This or that questions

Whether you need a simple survey tool or a collaborative research solution, with our Academic licenses for universities and educational institutions, you get access to all the best features used by our Enterprise research clients.

• Advanced logic and workflows for smarter surveys
• Over 5000 universities & colleges and over 1 million+ students use QuestionPro
• Academic license supports multi-admin role environment

Open-ended questions are essential to note that crafting practical open-ended questions requires skill and careful consideration. Questions should be clear, concise, and relevant to the topic. They should avoid leading or biased language, allowing individuals to express their views without undue influence.

Overall, open-ended questions are powerful to gather information, foster communication, and gain deeper insights. Whether used in research, professional settings, or personal conversations, they enable individuals to explore ideas, share perspectives, critical thinking of a person, and engage in meaningful discussions. By embracing the openness and curiosity of open ended questions, we can uncover new knowledge, challenge assumptions, and broaden our understanding of the world.

MORE LIKE THIS

Customer Communication Tool: Types, Methods, Uses, & Tools

Apr 23, 2024

Top 12 Sentiment Analysis Tools for Understanding Emotions

QuestionPro BI: From Research Data to Actionable Dashboards

Apr 22, 2024

21 Best Customer Experience Management Software in 2024

Other categories.

• Academic Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assessments
• Brand Awareness
• Case Studies
• Communities
• Consumer Insights
• Customer effort score
• Customer Engagement
• Customer Experience
• Customer Loyalty
• Customer Research
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Benefits
• Employee Engagement
• Employee Retention
• Friday Five
• General Data Protection Regulation
• Insights Hub
• Life@QuestionPro
• Market Research
• Mobile diaries
• Mobile Surveys
• New Features
• Online Communities
• Question Types
• Questionnaire
• QuestionPro Products
• Release Notes
• Research Tools and Apps
• Revenue at Risk
• Survey Templates
• Training Tips
• Uncategorized
• Video Learning Series
• What’s Coming Up
• Workforce Intelligence

Root out friction in every digital experience, super-charge conversion rates, and optimize digital self-service

Uncover insights from any interaction, deliver AI-powered agent coaching, and reduce cost to serve

Increase revenue and loyalty with real-time insights and recommendations delivered to teams on the ground

Know how your people feel and empower managers to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention

Take action in the moments that matter most along the employee journey and drive bottom line growth

Whatever they’re are saying, wherever they’re saying it, know exactly what’s going on with your people

Get faster, richer insights with qual and quant tools that make powerful market research available to everyone

Run concept tests, pricing studies, prototyping + more with fast, powerful studies designed by UX research experts

Track your brand performance 24/7 and act quickly to respond to opportunities and challenges in your market

Explore the platform powering Experience Management

• Free Account
• For Digital
• For Customer Care
• For Human Resources
• For Researchers
• Financial Services
• All Industries

Popular Use Cases

• Customer Experience
• Employee Experience
• Employee Exit Interviews
• Net Promoter Score
• Voice of Customer
• Customer Success Hub
• Product Documentation
• Training & Certification
• XM Institute
• Popular Resources
• Customer Stories
• Market Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Partnerships
• Marketplace

The annual gathering of the experience leaders at the world’s iconic brands building breakthrough business results, live in Salt Lake City.

• English/AU & NZ
• Español/Europa
• Español/América Latina
• Português Brasileiro
• REQUEST DEMO
• Experience Management
• What is a survey?
• Open Ended Questions

Try Qualtrics for free

Your quick guide to open-ended questions in surveys.

17 min read In this guide, find out how you can use open-ended survey questions to glean more meaningful insights from your research, as well as how to analyse them and best practices.

When you want to get more comprehensive responses to a survey – answers beyond just yes or no – you’ll want to consider open-ended questions.

But what are open-ended questions? In this guide, we’ll go through what open-ended questions are, including how they can help gather information and provide greater context to your research findings.

What are open-ended questions?

Open-ended questions can offer you incredibly helpful insights into your respondent’s viewpoints. Here’s an explanation below of what they are and what they can do:

Free-form and not governed by simple one word answers (e.g. yes or no responses), an open-ended question allows respondents to answer in open-text format, giving them the creative thinking, freedom and space to answer in as much (or as little) detail as they like.

Open-ended questions help you to see things from the respondent’s perspective, as you get feedback in their own words instead of stock answers. Also, as you’re getting more meaningful answers and accurate responses, you can better analyze sentiment amongst your audience.

Get started with our free survey maker tool

Open-ended versus closed-ended questions

Open-ended questions provide more qualitative research data; contextual insights that accentuate quantitative information. With open-ended questions, you get more meaningful user research data.

Closed-ended questions, on the other hand, provide quantitative data ; limited insight but easy to analyze and compile into reports. Market researchers often add commentary to this kind of data to provide readers with background and further food for thought.

Here are the main differences with examples of open-ended and closed-ended questions:

For example, an open-ended question might be: “What do you think of statistical analysis software?”.

Whereas closed-ended questions would simply be: “Do you use statistical analysis software?” or “Have you used statistical analysis software in the past?”.

Open-ended questions afford much more freedom to respondents and can result in deeper and more meaningful insights. A closed question can be useful and fast, but doesn’t provide much context. Open-ended questions are helpful for understanding the “why”.

When and why should you use an open-ended question?

Open-ended questions are great for going more in-depth on a topic. Closed-ended questions may tell you the “what,” but open-ended questions will tell you the “why.”

Another benefit of open-ended questions is that they allow you to get answers from your respondents in their words. For example, it can help to know the language that customers use to describe a product of feature, so that the company can match the language in their product description to increase discoverability.

Open-ended questions can also help you to learn things you didn’t expect, especially as they encourage creativity, and get answers to slightly more complex issues. For example, you could ask the question “What are the main reasons you canceled your subscription?” as a closed-ended question by providing a list of reasons (too expensive, don’t use it anymore). However, you are limited only to reasons that you can think of. But if you don’t know why people are canceling, then it might be better to ask as an open-ended question.

You might ask open-ended questions when you are doing a pilot out preliminary research to validate a product idea. You can then use that information to generate closed-ended questions for a larger follow-up study.

However, it can be wise to limit the overall number of open-ended questions in a survey because they are burdensome.

In terms of what provides more valuable information, only you can decide that based on the requirements of your research study. You also have to take into account variables such as the cost and scale of your research study, as well as when you need the information. Open-ended questions can provide you with more context, but they’re also more information to sift through, whereas closed-ended questions provide you with a tidy, finite response.

If you still prefer the invaluable responses and data from open-ended questions, using software like Qualtrics Text IQ can automate this complicated process. Through AI technology Text IQ can understand sentiment and articulate thousands of open-ended responses into simplified dashboards.

Learn More: Qualtrics Text IQ

Open-ended question examples

While there are no set rules to the number of open-ended questions you can ask, of course you want to ask an open-ended question that correlates with your research objective.

Here are a few examples of open-ended survey questions related to your product:

• What do you like most about this product?
• What do you like least about this product?
• How does our product compare to competitor products?
• If someone asked you about our product, what would you say to them?
• How can we improve our product?

You could even supplement closed-ended questions with an open-ended question to get more detail, e.g. “How often do you use our product?” — with a multiple choice, single word answers approach. These might be simple answers such as “Frequently”, “Sometimes”, “Never” — and if a respondent answers “Never”, you could follow with: “If you have never used our product, why not?”. This is a really easy way to understand why potential customers don’t use your product.

Also, incorporating open-ended questions into your surveys can provide useful information for salespeople throughout the sales process. For example, you might uncover insights that help your salespeople to reposition your products or improve the way they sell to new customers based on what existing customers feel. Though you might get helpful answers from a closed-ended question, open-ended questions give you more than a surface-level insight into their sentiments, emotions and thoughts.

It doesn’t need to be complicated, it can be as simple as what you see below. The survey doesn’t need to speak for itself, let your survey respondents say everything.

Asking open-ended questions: Crafting question that generate the best insights

Open responses can be difficult to quantify. Framing them correctly is key to getting useful data from your answers. Below are some open ended questions examples of what to avoid.

1. Avoid questions that are too broad or vague

Example :  “What changes has your company made in the last five years due to external events?”

Problem : There are too many potential responses to this query, which means you’ll get too broad a range of answers. What kind of changes are being referred to, economic, strategic, personnel etc.? What external events are useful to know about? Don’t overwhelm your respondent with an overly broadquestion – ask the right questions and get precise answers.

Solution : Target your questions with a specific clarification of what you want. For example, “What policy changes has your company made about working from home in the last 6 months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?”. Alternatively, use a close-ended question, or offer examples to give respondents something to work from.

2. Make sure that the purpose of the question is clear

Example :  “Why did you buy our product?”

Problem : This type of unclear-purpose question can lead to short, unhelpful answers. “Because I needed it” or “I fancied it” don’t necessarily give you data to work with.

Solution : Make it clear what you actually want to know. “When you bought our product, how did you intend to use it?” or “What are the main reasons you purchased [Our Brand] instead of another brand?” might be two alternatives that provide more context.

3. Keep questions simple and quick to answer

  Example :  “Please explain the required process that your brand uses to manage its contact center (i.e. technical software stack, approval process, employee review, data security, management, compliance management etc.). Please be as detailed as possible.”

Problem : The higher the level of effort, the lower the chances of getting a good range of responses or high quality answers. It’s unlikely that a survey respondent will take the time to give a detailed answer on something that’s not their favorite subject. This results in either short, unhelpful answers, or even worse, the respondent quits the survey and decides not to participate after seeing the length of time and effort required. This can end up causing bias with the type of respondents that answer the survey.

Solution : If you really need the level of detail, there are a few options to try. You can break up the question into multiple questions or share some information on why you really need this insight. You could offer a different way of submitting an answer, such as a voice to text or video recording functionality, or make the question optional to help respondents to keep progressing through the survey. Possibly the best solution is to change from open-ended questions in a survey to a qualitative research method, such as focus groups or one-to-one interviews, where lengthier responses and more effort are expected.

4. Ask only one  question at a time

Example :  “When was the last time you used our product? How was your experience?”

Problem : Too many queries at once can cause a feeling of mental burden in your respondents, which means you risk losing their interest. Some survey takers might read the first question but miss the second, or forget about it when writing their response.

Solution : Only ask one thing at a time!

5. Don’t ask for a minimum word count

Example :  “Please provide a summary of why you chose our brand over a competitor brand. [Minimum 50 characters].”

Problem : Even though making a minimum word count might seem like a way to get higher quality responses, this is often not the case. Respondents may well give up, or type gibberish to fill in the word count. Ideally, the responses you gather will be the natural response of the person you’re surveying – mandating a word count impedes this.

Solution : Leave off the word count. If you need to encourage longer responses, you can expand the text box size to fit more words in. Offer speech to text or video recording options to encourage lengthier responses, and explain why you need a detailed answer.

6. Don’t ask an open-ended question when a closed-ended question would be enough  

Example :  “Where are you from?”

Problem : It’s harder to control the data you’ll collect when you use an open question when a closed one would work. For example, someone could respond to the above question with “The US”, “The United States” or “America”.

Solution : To save time and effort on both your side and the participant’s side, use a drop-down with standardized responses.

7. Limit the total number of open-ended questions you ask  

Example :  “How do you feel about product 1?” “How do you feel about product 2?” “How do you feel about product 3?”

Problem : An open question requires more thought and effort than a closed one. Respondents can usually answer 4-6 closed questions in the same time as only 1 open one, and prefer to be able to answer quickly.

Solution : To reduce survey fatigue,lower drop-off rates, and save costs, only ask as many questions as you think you can get an answer for. Limit open-ended questions for ones where you really need context. Unless your respondents are highly motivated, keep it to 5 open-ended questions or fewer. Space them out to keep drop-offs to a minimum.

8. Don’t force respondents to answer open-ended questions

Example :  “How could your experience today have been improved? Please provide a detailed response.”

Problem : A customer may not have any suggestions for improvements. By requiring an answer, though, the customer is now forced to think of something that can be improved even if it would not make them more likely to use the service again.  Making these respondents answer means you risk bias. It could lead to prioritizing unnecessary improvements.

Solution : Give respondents the option to say “No” or “Not applicable” or “I don’t know” to queries, or to skip the question entirely.

How to analyze the results from open-ended questions

Step 1: collect and structure your responses.

Online survey tools can simplify the process of creating and sending questionnaires, as well as gathering responses to open-ended questions. These tools often have simple, customisable templates to make the process much more efficient and tailored to your requirements.

Some solutions offer different targeting variables, from geolocation to customer segments and site behavior. This allows you to offer customized promotions to drive conversions and gather the right feedback at every stage in the online journey.

Upon receipt, your data should be in a clear, structured format and you can then export it to a CSV or Excel file before automatic analysis. At this point, you’ll want to check the data (spelling, duplication, symbols) so that it’s easier for a machine to process and analyze.

Step 2: Use text analytics

One method that’s increasingly applied to open-ended responses is automation. These new tools make it easy to extract data from open-text question responses with minimal human intervention. It makes an open-ended question response as accessible and easy to analyze as that of a closed question, but with more detail provided.

For example, you could use automated coding via artificial intelligence to look into buckets of responses to your open-ended questions and assign them accordingly for review. This can save a great deal of time, but the accuracy depends on your choice of solution.

Alternatively, you could use sentiment analysis — a form of natural language processing — to systematically identify, extract and quantify information. With sentiment analysis, you can determine whether responses are positive or negative, which can be really useful for unstructured responses or for quick, large-scale reviews.

Some solutions also offer custom programming so you can apply your own code to analyze survey results, giving complete flexibility and accuracy.

Step 3: Visualize your results

With the right data analysis and visualization tools, you can see your survey results in the format most applicable to you and your stakeholders. For example, C-Suite may want to see information displayed using graphs rather than tables — whereas your research team might want a comprehensive breakdown of responses, including response percentages for each question.

This might be easier for a survey with closed-ended questions, but with the right analysis for open-ended questions’ responses, you can easily collate response data that’s easy to quantify.

With the survey tools that exist today, it’s incredibly easy to import and analyze data at scale to uncover trends and develop actionable insights. You can also apply your own programming code and data visualization techniques to get the information you need. No matter whether you’re using open-ended questions or getting one-word answers in emojis, you’re able to surface the most useful insights for action.

Ask the right open-ended questions with Qualtrics

With Qualtrics’ survey software , used by more than 13,000 brands and 99 of the top 100 business schools, you can get answers to the most important market, brand, customer, and product questions with ease. Choose from a huge range of multiple-choice questions (both open-ended questions and closed-ended) and tailor your survey to get the most in-depth responses to your queries.

You can build a positive relationship with your respondents and get a deeper understanding of what they think and feel with Qualtrics-powered surveys. The best part? It’s completely free to get started with.

Get started with our free survey maker tool today

Related resources

Post event survey questions 10 min read, best survey software 16 min read, close-ended questions 7 min read, survey vs questionnaire 12 min read, response bias 13 min read, double barreled question 11 min read, likert scales 14 min read, request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Privacy policy

Open-Ended Questions in Qualitative Research: Strategies, Examples, and Best Practices

Table of content, understanding open-ended questions, designing open-ended questions, types of open-ended questions, conducting interviews and focus groups with open-ended questions, analyzing and interpreting open-ended responses, challenges and limitations of using open-ended questions, best practices for using open-ended questions in qualitative research, definition of open-ended questions.

Open-ended questions are a research tool that allows for a wide range of possible answers and encourages respondents to provide detailed and personalized responses. These types of questions typically begin with phrases such as “ How ,” “ What ,” or “ Why “, and require the respondent to provide their thoughts and opinions.

Open-ended questions are crucial in the following scenarios:

Understanding complex phenomena : When a topic is complex, multi-faceted, or difficult to measure with numerical data, qualitative research can provide a more nuanced and detailed understanding.

Studying subjective experiences: When the focus is on people’s perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, or experiences, qualitative research is better suited to capture the richness and diversity of their perspectives.

Developing theories: When a researcher wants to develop a model or theory to explain a phenomenon, qualitative research can provide a rich source of data to support the development of such hypotheses.

Evaluating programs or interventions: Qualitative research can help to evaluate the effectiveness of programs or interventions by collecting feedback from participants, stakeholders, or experts.

Researchers use open-ended methods in research, interviews, counseling, and other situations that may require detailed and in-depth responses.

Benefits of Using Open-Ended Questions in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is most appropriate when the research question is exploratory, complex, subjective, theoretical, or evaluative. These questions are valuable in qualitative research for the following reasons:

More In-depth Responses

Open-ended questions allow participants to share their experiences and opinions in their own words, often leading to more in-depth and detailed responses.  For example, if a researcher is studying cancer survivors’ experiences, an open-ended question like, “Can you tell me about your experience with cancer?” may elicit a more detailed and nuanced response than a closed-ended question like “Did you find your cancer diagnosis to be difficult?”

Flexibility

Open-ended questions give the participant flexibility to respond to the questions in a way that makes sense to them, often revealing vital information that the researcher may have overlooked.

Better Understanding

Open-ended questions provide the researcher with a better understanding of the participant’s perspectives, beliefs, attitudes, and experiences, which is crucial in gaining insights into complex issues.

Uncovering New Insights

Open-ended questions can often lead to unexpected responses and reveal new information. When participants freely express themselves in their own words, they may bring up topics or perspectives that the researcher had not considered.

Building Rapport

Open-ended questions help build rapport with the participant, allowing the researcher to show interest in the participant’s responses and provide a space for them to share their experiences without feeling judged. This can lead to a positive research experience for participants, which may increase the likelihood of their continued participation in future studies.

Validating or Challenging Existing Theories

By allowing participants to provide their own perspectives and experiences, researchers can compare and contrast these responses with existing theories to see if they align or diverge. If the data from participants align with existing hypotheses, this can provide additional support for this data. On the other hand, if the information diverges from existing theories, this can indicate a need for further investigation or revision of the existing data.

Avoiding Bias and Preconceived Notions

Researchers may unintentionally guide participants towards a particular answer or perspective when using close-ended questions. This can introduce bias into the data and limit the range of responses that participants provide. By using open-ended questions, researchers can avoid this potential source of bias and allow participants to express their unique perspectives.

Differences Between Open-Ended and Closed-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions encourage numerous responses and allow respondents to provide their thoughts and opinions. “ What ,” “ How, ” or “ Why ” are some of the words used to phrase open-ended questions and are designed to elicit more detailed and expansive answers. Researchers use open-ended questions in ethnography, interviews , and focus groups to gather comprehensive information and participants’ insights.

Some examples of open-ended questions include:

• What do you think about the current state of the economy?
• How do you feel about global warming?
• Why did you choose to pursue a career in law?

On the other hand, closed-ended questions only allow for a limited set of responses and are typically answered with a “Yes” or “No” or a specific option from a list of multiple choices. These questions are handy in surveys, customer service interactions and questionnaires to collect quantitative data that can be easily analyzed and quantified. They are significant when you want to gather specific information hastily or when you need to confirm or deny a particular fact.

Some examples of closed-ended questions include:

• What was your shopping experience with our company like?
• Have you ever traveled to Europe before?
• Which of these brands do you prefer: Nike, Adidas, or Puma?

Both open-ended and closed-ended questions have their place in research and communication. Open-ended questions can provide rich and detailed information, while closed-ended questions can provide specific and measurable data. The appropriate question type typically depends on the research or communication goals, context and the information required.

Designing open-ended questions requires careful consideration and planning. Open-ended questions elicit more than just a simple “yes” or “no” response and instead allow for a broad range of answers that provide insight into the respondent’s thoughts, feelings, or experiences. When designing open-ended questions in qualitative research, it is critical to consider the best practices below:

Before designing your questions, you must predetermine what you want to learn from your respondents. This, in turn, will help you craft clear and concise questions that are relevant to your research goals. Use simple language and avoid technical terms or jargon that might confuse respondents.

Avoid leading or biased language that could influence and limit the respondents’ answers. Instead, use neutral wording that allows participants to share their authentic thoughts and opinions. For example, instead of asking, “Did you enjoy the food you ate?” ask, “What was your experience at the restaurant?”

One of the advantages of open-ended questions is that they allow respondents to provide detailed and personalized responses. Encourage participants to elaborate on their answers by asking follow-up questions or probing for additional information.

One can deliver open-ended questions in various formats, including interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Consider which one is most appropriate for your research goals and target audience. Additionally, before using your questions in a survey or interview, test them with a small group of people to make sure they are clear and functional.

Open-ended questions give a participant the freedom to answer without restriction. Furthermore, these questions evoke detailed responses from participants, unlike close-ended questions that tend to lead to one-word answers.

Open-Ended Questions Categories

When a researcher wants to explore a topic or phenomenon that is not well understood, qualitative research can help generate hypotheses and insights. For instance, “Can you tell me more about your thoughts on animal poaching in Africa?” or “What is your opinion on the future of social media in business?”

Researchers use these questions to prompt respondents to think more deeply about a particular topic or experience, sometimes using anecdotes related to a specific topic. For example, “What did you learn from that experience?” or “How do you think you could have handled that situation differently?

Researchers use probing questions to gain deeper insight into a participant’s response. These questions aim to understand the reasoning and emotion behind a particular answer. For example, “What did you learn from that mistake?” or “How do you think you could have handled that situation differently?

These questions get more information or clarify a point. For example, “Can you explain that further?” or “Can you give me an example?”

These questions ask the respondents to imagine a hypothetical scenario and provide their thoughts or reactions. Examples of hypothetical questions include “What would you do if you won the lottery?” or “How do you think society would be different if everyone had access to free healthcare?”

These questions ask the respondent to describe something in detail, such as a person, place, or event. Examples of descriptive questions include “Can you tell me about your favorite vacation?” or “How would you describe your ideal job?”

When preparing for an interview , it is important to understand the types of interviews available, what topics will be covered, and how to ask open-ended questions.

Questions should be asked in terms of past, present, and future experiences and should be worded in such a way as to invite a more detailed response from the participant. It is also important to establish a clear sequence of questions so that all topics are addressed without interrupting the flow of conversation.

Planning and Preparing For Interviews and Focus Groups

Before starting an interview or focus group, creating a list of topics or areas you want to explore during your research is essential. Consider what questions will help you gain the most insight into the topic.

Once you’ve identified the topics, you can create more specific questions that will be used to guide the conversation. It can be helpful to categorize your questions into themes to ensure all topics are addressed during the interview.

As you write your questions, aim to keep them as open-ended as possible so that the participant has space to provide detailed feedback. Avoid leading questions and try to avoid yes or no answers. Also, allow participants to provide any additional thoughts they may have on the topic.

Let’s say you’re researching customer experience with an online store. Your broad topic categories might be customer service, product selection, ease of use, and shipping. Your questions could cover things like:

• How satisfied are you with the customer service?
• What do you think about the product selection?
• Is it easy to find the products you’re looking for?

 Best Practices

During the conversation, only one person can talk at a time, and everyone should be able to contribute. To ensure participants understand the questions being asked, try asking them in multiple ways.

It is also important to pause briefly and review the question that has just been discussed before moving on. In addition, brief pauses and silences before and after asking a new question may help facilitate the discussion. If participants begin talking about something that may be an answer to a different question during the discussion, then feel free to allow the conversation to go in that direction.

With these strategies, examples, and best practices in mind, you can ensure that your interviews and focus groups are successful.

Tips For Asking Open-Ended Questions During Interviews and Focus Groups

Asking open-ended questions during interviews and focus groups is critical to qualitative research. Open-ended questions allow you to explore topics in-depth, uncover deeper insights, and gain valuable participant feedback.

However, crafting your questions with intention and purpose is important to ensure that you get the most out of your research.

Start With General Questions

When crafting open-ended questions for interviews or focus groups, it’s important to start with general questions and move towards more specific ones. This strategy helps you uncover various perspectives and ideas before getting into the details.

Using neutral language helps to avoid bias and encourages honest answers from participants. It’s important to determine the goal of the focus group or interview before asking any questions. These findings will help guide your conversation and keep it on track.

Use of Engagement Questions

To get the conversation started during interviews or focus groups, engagement questions are a great way to break the ice. These types of questions can be about anything from personal experiences to interests.

For example: “How did you get here, and what was one unusual thing you saw on your way in?”, “What do you like to do to unwind in your free time?” or “When did you last purchase a product from this line?”.

Use of Exploratory Questions

Exploratory questions about features are also useful in this type of research. Questions such as: “What features would you talk about when recommending this product to a friend?”, “If you could change one thing about this product, what would you change?”, or “Do you prefer this product or that product, and why?” all help to uncover participants’ opinions and preferences.

Exploratory questions about experiences are also helpful; questions such as: “Tell me about a time you experienced a mishap when using this product?” help to identify potential problems that need to be addressed.

Researchers can gain valuable insights from participants by using these tips for asking open-ended questions during interviews and focus groups.

Strategies For Active Listening and Follow-Up Questioning

Active listening is an important skill to possess when conducting qualitative research. It’s essential to ensure you understand and respond to the person you are interviewing effectively. Here are some strategies for active listening and follow-up questioning:

Pay Attention to Non-Verbal Cues

It is important to pay attention to non-verbal cues such as body language and voice when listening. Pay attention to their facial expressions and tone of voice to better understand what they are saying. Make sure not to interrupt the other person, as this can make them feel like their opinions aren’t being heard.

Listen Without Judging or Jumping to Conclusions

It is important to listen without judgment or jumping to conclusions. Don’t plan what to say next while listening, as this will stop you from understanding what the other person is saying.

Use Non-Verbal Signals to Show That You’re Listening

Nodding, smiling, and making small noises like “yes” and “uh huh” can show that you are listening. These signals can help the person feel more comfortable and open up more.

Don’t Impose Your Opinions or Solutions

When interviewing someone, it is important not to impose your opinions or solutions. It is more important to understand the other person and try to find common ground than it is to be right.

Stay Focused While Listening

Finally, it is critical to stay focused while listening. Don’t let yourself get distracted by your own thoughts or daydreaming. Remain attentive and listen with an open mind.

These are all key elements in effectively gathering data and insights through qualitative research.

Qualitative research depends on understanding the context and content of the responses to open-ended questions. Analyzing and interpreting these responses can be challenging for researchers, so it’s important to have a plan and strategies for getting the most value out of open-ended responses.

Strategies For Coding and Categorizing Responses

Coding qualitative data categorizes and organizes responses to open-ended questions in a research study. It is an essential part of the qualitative data analysis process and helps identify the responses’ patterns, themes, and trends.

Thematic Analysis and Qualitative Data Analysis Software

These are two methods for automated coding of customer feedback. Thematic analysis is the process of identifying patterns within qualitative data. This process can be done by manually sorting through customer feedback or using a software program to do the work for you.

Qualitative data analysis software also facilitates coding by providing powerful visualizations that allow users to identify trends and correlations between different customer responses.

Manual Coding

Manual coding is another method of coding qualitative data, where coders sort through responses and manually assign labels based on common themes. Coding the qualitative data, it makes it easier to interpret customer feedback and draw meaningful conclusions from it.

Coding customer feedback helps researchers make data-driven decisions based on customer satisfaction. It helps quantify the common themes in customer language, making it easier to interpret and analyze customer feedback accurately.

Strategies for manual coding include using predetermined codes for common words or phrases and assigning labels to customers’ responses according to certain categories. Examples of best practices for coding include using multiple coders to review responses for accuracy and consistency and creating a library of codes for ease of use.

Identifying Themes and Patterns in Responses

These processes involve reviewing the responses and searching for commonalities regarding words, phrases, topics, or ideas. Doing so can help researchers to gain a better understanding of the material they are analyzing.

There are several strategies that researchers can use when it comes to identifying themes and patterns in open-ended responses.

Manual Scan

One strategy is manually scanning the data and looking for words or phrases that appear multiple times.

Automatic Scan

Another approach is to use qualitative analysis software that can provide coding, categorization, and data analysis.

For example, if a survey asked people about their experience with a product, a researcher could look for common phrases such as “it was easy to use” or “I didn’t like it.” The researcher could then look for patterns regarding how frequently these phrases were used.

Concept Indicator Model

This model is an important part of the coding process in classic grounded theory. It involves a continuous process of exploring and understanding open-ended responses, which can often lead to the development of new conceptual ideas.

Coding Process

The coding process is broken down into two parts: substantive coding and theoretical coding. Substantive coding involves organizing data into meaningful categories, while theoretical coding looks at how those categories relate.

Forms of Coding

Within the concept indicator model are two forms of coding: open coding and selective coding. Open coding is used to explore responses without predetermined theories or preconceived ideas. It is an iterative process involving connecting categories and generating tentative conclusions.

On the other hand, selective coding uses predetermined theories or ideas to guide data analysis.

The concept indicator model also uses a cycling approach known as constant comparison and theoretical sampling. Constant comparison is the process of constantly comparing new data with previous data until saturation is reached.

Theoretical sampling involves examining different data types to determine which ones will be more useful for exploring the concepts and relationships under investigation.

Gaining experience and confidence in exploring and confirming conceptual ideas is essential for success in the concept indicator model.

Strategies such as brainstorming and creating examples can help analysts better understand the various concepts that emerge from the data.

Best practices such as involving multiple coders in the process, triangulating data from different sources, and including contextual information can also help increase the accuracy and reliability of coding results.

Interpreting and Analyzing Open-Ended Responses in Relation to Your Research Questions

• Ensure Objectives are Met: For any study or project, you must ensure your objectives are met. To achieve this, the responses to open-ended questions must be categorized according to their subject, purpose, and theme. This step will help in recognizing patterns and drawing out commonalities.
• Choose A Coding Method: Once you have identified the themes, you must choose a coding method to interpret and analyze the data.

There are various coding strategies that can be employed. For example, a directed coding strategy will help you focus on the themes you have identified in your research objectives. In contrast, an axial coding method can be used to connect related concepts together. With a coding method, it will be easier to make sense of the responses.

Use Narrative Analysis

This process involves looking for story elements such as plot, characters, setting, and conflict in the text. It can be useful for identifying shared experiences or values within a group.

By looking for these narrative elements, you can better understand how individuals perceive their own experiences and those of others.

Analyze the Findings

However, to understand the meanings that the responses may have, it is also important to analyze them. This stage is where techniques such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and textual analysis come in.

These methods provide valuable insights into how the responses are related to each other and can help uncover potential connections and underlying motivations.

Summarize Your Findings

Once you have interpreted and analyzed the data, it is time to decide on your key findings. For example, you can summarize your findings according to different themes, discuss any implications of your research or suggest ways in which further research can be carried out.

These strategies provide valuable insights into the qualitative data collected from open-ended questions. However, to ensure that the data’s most effective outcomes are obtained, you need to familiarize yourself with the best practices in qualitative research.

Open-ended questions have the potential to generate rich and nuanced data in qualitative research. However, they also present certain challenges and limitations that researchers and educators need to be aware of.

We will now explore some of the challenges associated with using open-ended questions, including potential biases and subjectivity in responses, social desirability bias, and response bias.

We will also discuss strategies to address these challenges, such as balancing open-ended and closed-ended questions in research design. By understanding these limitations and employing best practices, researchers and educators can use open-ended questions to gather meaningful data and insights.

Addressing potential biases and subjectivity in responses

When we use open-ended questions in qualitative research, it’s crucial to be mindful of potential biases and subjectivity in responses. It’s natural for participants to bring their own experiences and beliefs to the table, which can impact their answers and skew the data. To tackle these challenges, we can take several steps to ensure that our research findings are as accurate and representative as possible.

One way to minimize subjectivity is to use neutral and unbiased language when framing our questions. By doing so, we can avoid leading or loaded questions that could influence participants’ responses. We can also use multiple methods to verify data and check responses, like conducting follow-up interviews or comparing responses with existing literature.

Another important consideration is to be open and transparent about the research process and participants’ rights. Addressing these biases also includes providing informed consent and guaranteeing confidentiality so that participants feel comfortable sharing their genuine thoughts and feelings. By recruiting diverse participants and ensuring that our data is representative and inclusive, we can also reduce potential biases and increase the validity of our findings.

By tackling biases and subjectivity in responses head-on, we can gather reliable and insightful data that can inform future research and enhance teaching methods.

Dealing with social desirability bias and response bias

In qualitative research, social desirability bias and response bias can pose significant challenges when analyzing data. Social desirability bias occurs when participants tend to respond in ways that align with social norms or expectations, rather than expressing their true feelings or beliefs. Response bias, on the other hand, happens when participants provide incomplete or inaccurate information due to factors like memory lapse or misunderstanding of the question.

To address these biases, researchers can use various strategies to encourage participants to be more candid and honest in their responses.

For instance, researchers can create a safe and supportive environment that fosters trust and openness, allowing participants to feel comfortable sharing their true thoughts and experiences. Researchers can also use probing techniques to encourage participants to elaborate on their answers, helping to uncover underlying beliefs and attitudes.

It’s also a good idea to mix up the types of questions you ask, utilizing both open-ended and closed-ended inquiries to get a variety of responses. Closed-ended questions can aid in the verification or confirmation of participants’ comments, but open-ended questions allow for a more in-depth investigation of themes and encourage participants to submit extensive and personal responses.

Balancing open-ended and closed-ended questions in your research design

An appropriate combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions is essential for developing an effective research design. Open-ended questions allow participants to provide detailed, nuanced responses and offer researchers the opportunity to uncover unexpected insights.

However, too many open-ended questions can make analysis challenging and time-consuming. Closed-ended questions, on the other hand, can provide concise and straightforward data that’s easy to analyze but may not capture the complexity of participants’ experiences.

Balancing the use of open-ended and closed-ended questions necessitates a careful evaluation of the study objectives, target audience, and issue under examination. Researchers must also consider the available time and resources for analysis.

When designing a research study, it’s essential to prioritize the research goals and choose questions that align with those goals. Careful selection of questions guarantees that the data gathered is pertinent and adds to a greater knowledge of the topic under consideration. Researchers should also consider the participants’ backgrounds and experiences and select questions that are appropriate and sensitive to their needs. Furthermore, adopting a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions can assist researchers in triangulating data, which allows them to cross-validate their findings by comparing results from multiple sources or techniques.

Lastly, we will be exploring the best practices for utilizing open-ended questions in qualitative research. We cover a range of helpful tips and strategies for creating a research design that fosters rich and nuanced data while maintaining the integrity of your research.

Building an effective connection with your research participants, developing carefully developed research questions that align with your research objectives, remaining flexible and adaptable in your approach, and prioritizing ethical considerations throughout your research process are some of the key best practices we explore.

Building Rapport with Participants

Building rapport with research participants is an essential component of conducting effective qualitative research. Building rapport is all about creating trust and providing a comfortable environment where participants can feel free to share their thoughts and experiences.

The first thing a researcher should do is to introduce themselves and make the participant understand why the research is significant.  Additionally, active listening is critical in building rapport. Listening attentively to your participants’ responses and asking follow-up questions can demonstrate your interest in their experiences and perspective.

Maintaining a nonjudgmental, impartial position is also essential in developing rapport. Participants must feel free to express their opinions and experiences without fear of being judged or prejudiced.

Using respectful language, maintaining eye contact, and nodding along to participants’ responses can show that you are invested in their stories and care about their experiences.

Overall, establishing rapport with participants is an ongoing process that requires attention, care, and empathy.

Developing clear research questions

In research, developing clear research questions is an essential component of qualitative research using open-ended questions. The research questions provide a clear direction for the research process, enabling researchers to gather relevant and insightful data.

To create effective research questions, they must be specific, concise, and aligned with the overall research objectives. It is crucial to avoid overly broad or narrow questions that could impact the validity of the research.

Additionally, researchers should use language that is easy to understand. Researchers should avoid any technical jargon that may lead to confusion.

The order of the questions is also significant; they should flow logically, building on each other and ensuring they make sense. By developing clear research questions, researchers can collect and analyze data in a more effective and meaningful manner.                      

Maintaining a flexible and adaptable approach

When conducting qualitative research, maintaining a flexible and adaptable approach is crucial. Flexibility enables researchers to adjust their research methods and questions to ensure they capture rich and nuanced data that can answer their research questions.

However, staying adaptable can be a daunting task, as researchers may need to modify their research approach based on participants’ responses or unforeseen circumstances.

To maintain flexibility, researchers must have a clear understanding of their research questions and goals, while also remaining open to modifying their methods if necessary. It is also essential to keep detailed notes and regularly reflect on research progress to determine if adjustments are needed.

Staying adaptable is equally important as it requires researchers to be responsive to changes in participants’ attitudes and perspectives. Being able to pivot research direction and approach based on participant feedback is critical to achieving accurate and meaningful results.

Maintaining a flexible and adaptive strategy allows researchers to collect the most extensive and accurate data possible, resulting in a more in-depth understanding of the research topic. While it can be challenging to remain flexible and adaptable, doing so will ultimately lead to more robust research findings and greater insights into the topic at hand.

Being aware of ethical considerations

When conducting research, It is critical to remember the ethical aspects that control how individuals interact with one another in society and how these factors affect research. Ethical considerations refer to the principles or standards that should guide research to ensure it is conducted in an honest, transparent, and respectful manner.

Before beginning the study, researchers must obtain informed consent from participants. Obtaining consent means providing clear and comprehensive information about the research, its purpose, what participation entails, and the potential risks and benefits. Researchers must ensure that participants understand the information and voluntarily consent to participate.

Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of participants must be essential for researchers. They should look into safeguarding personal information, using pseudonyms or codes to protect identities, and securing any identifying information collected.

Researchers must avoid asking questions that are too personal, sensitive, or potentially harmful. If harm or distress occurs, researchers should provide participants with appropriate support and referral to relevant services.

Using open-ended questions in qualitative research presents both challenges and benefits. To address potential limitations, researchers should remain objective and neutral, create a safe and non-judgmental space, and use probing techniques. Best practices include building rapport, developing clear research questions, and being flexible. Open-ended questions offer the benefits of revealing rich and nuanced data, allowing for flexibility, and building rapport with participants. Ethical considerations must also be a top priority.

Interesting topics

• How to add subtitles to a video? Fast & Easy
• Subtitles, Closed Captions, and SDH Subtitles: How are they different?
• Why captions are important? 8 good reasons
• What is an SRT file, how to create it and use it in a video?
• Everything You Need for Your Subtitle Translation
• Top 10 Closed Captioning and Subtitling Services 2023
• The Best Font for Subtitles : our top 8 picks!
• Davinci Resolve
• Adobe After Effects
• Final Cut Pro X
• Adobe Premiere Rush
• Canvas Network
• What is Transcription
• Interview Transcription
• Transcription guidelines
• Audio transcription using Google Docs
• MP3 to Text
• How to transcribe YouTube Videos
• Verbatim vs Edited Transcription
• Legal Transcriptions
• Transcription for students
• Transcribe a Google hangouts meeting
• Best Transcription Services
• Best Transcription Softwares
• Save time research interview transcription
• The best apps to record a phone call
• Improve audio quality with Adobe Audition
• 10 best research tools every scholar should use
• 7 Tips for Transcription in Field Research
• Qualitative and Quantitative research
• Spotify Podcast Guideline
• Podcast Transcription
• How to improve your podcasting skills
• Convert podcasts into transcripts
• Transcription for Lawyers: What is it and why do you need it?
• How transcription can help solve legal challenges
• The Best Transcription Tools for Lawyers and Law Firms

• Survey Software The world’s leading omnichannel survey software
• Online Survey Tools Create sophisticated surveys with ease.
• Mobile Offline Conduct efficient field surveys.
• Text Analysis
• Close The Loop
• Automated Translations
• NPS Dashboard
• CATI Manage high volume phone surveys efficiently
• Cloud/On-premise Dialer TCPA compliant Cloud on-premise dialer
• IVR Survey Software Boost productivity with automated call workflows.
• Analytics Analyze survey data with visual dashboards
• Panel Manager Nurture a loyal community of respondents.
• Survey Portal Best-in-class user friendly survey portal.
• Voxco Audience Conduct targeted sample research in hours.
• Predictive Analytics
• Customer 360
• Customer Loyalty
• Fraud & Risk Management
• AI/ML Enablement Services
• Credit Underwriting

Find the best survey software for you! (Along with a checklist to compare platforms)

Get Buyer’s Guide

• 100+ question types
• Drag-and-drop interface
• Skip logic and branching
• Multi-lingual survey
• Text piping
• Question library
• CSS customization
• White-label surveys
• Customizable ‘Thank You’ page
• Customizable survey theme
• Reminder send-outs
• Survey rewards
• Social media
• SMS surveys
• Website surveys
• Correlation analysis
• Cross-tabulation analysis
• Trend analysis
• Real-time dashboard
• Customizable report
• Email address validation
• Recaptcha validation
• SSL security

Take a peek at our powerful survey features to design surveys that scale discoveries.

Download feature sheet.

• Hospitality
• Financial Services
• Academic Research
• Customer Experience
• Employee Experience
• Product Experience
• Market Research
• Social Research
• Data Analysis
• Banking & Financial Services
• Retail Solution
• Risk Management
• Customer Lifecycle Solutions
• Net Promoter Score
• Customer Behaviour Analytics
• Customer Segmentation
• Data Unification

Explore Voxco 

Need to map Voxco’s features & offerings? We can help!

Watch a Demo 

Download Brochures 

Get a Quote

• NPS Calculator
• CES Calculator
• A/B Testing Calculator
• Margin of Error Calculator
• Sample Size Calculator
• CX Strategy & Management Hub
• Market Research Hub
• Patient Experience Hub
• Employee Experience Hub
• Market Research Guide
• Customer Experience Guide
• The Voxco Guide to Customer Experience
• NPS Knowledge Hub
• Survey Research Guides
• Survey Template Library
• Webinars and Events
• Feature Sheets
• Try a sample survey
• Professional services
• Blogs & White papers
• Case Studies

Find the best customer experience platform

Uncover customer pain points, analyze feedback and run successful CX programs with the best CX platform for your team.

Get the Guide Now

We’ve been avid users of the Voxco platform now for over 20 years. It gives us the flexibility to routinely enhance our survey toolkit and provides our clients with a more robust dataset and story to tell their clients.

VP Innovation & Strategic Partnerships, The Logit Group

• Client Stories
• Voxco Reviews
• Why Voxco Research?
• Why Voxco Intelligence?
• Careers at Voxco
• Vulnerabilities and Ethical Hacking

Explore Regional Offices

• Cloud/On-premise Dialer TCPA compliant Cloud & on-premise dialer
• Fraud & Risk Management

Get Buyer’s Guide

• Banking & Financial Services

Explore Voxco 

Watch a Demo 

Download Brochures 

• CX Strategy & Management Hub
• Blogs & White papers

VP Innovation & Strategic Partnerships, The Logit Group

• Our clients
• Client stories
• Featuresheets

Open-ended questions

Transform your insight generation process.

Use our in-depth online survey guide to create an actionable feedback collection survey process.

SHARE THE ARTICLE ON

Deciding the type of data you want to collect is an important task in survey/research. Do you want the data to be objective and quantifiable? Or, do you want to gather more in-depth data?

With open-ended questions, you can ask questions to your audience and get interesting and enlightening answers.

A simple closed-ended question about customer experience would give you the data you need. However, converting it open-ended and asking “can you describe how your experience was with <product> in detail. The answers you get will give you a full picture of customers’ feelings, satisfaction, disappointment, expectation, and experience. 

We will discuss more open-ended questions, how it differs from closed-ended questions, and what questions you can ask. 

What are Open-Ended Questions?

When it comes to market research , open-ended questions play an integral part. The survey depends on open and subjective type questions and gives a responder the opportunity to freely write their review or opinion.

An open-ended question allows the audience to respond to the question based on their understanding and experience. Unlike closed-ended questions, the respondents are not provided with a list of options to choose from, nor is it a yes/no type of question. The detailed and elaborate information received from the audience creates room for further discussion and improvement. An open-ended question creates a scope for learning for the researcher as well as for the responder.

This question type allows you to ask “why” and “how” to your audience. This opens a platform for conversation and helps a researcher to understand the thought process of the responder. The answers to these questions vary for every individual. Hence, this gives an array of unique perspectives and a chance for the researcher to probe.

Let’s check out some examples of open-ended questions to understand how to phrase them. 

Example of Open-Ended Question

Following are some open-ended question examples.

• How are you feeling about this new job?
• How are you feeling working with your new team?
• Which projects are you proud of?
• How can you help grow our organization?
• Please explain how your experience was in our store today.
• Please comment on how you feel about our customer service?
• What would you suggest should we improve in our clothing store?
• How can we improve our shopping app for a better experience?
• What categories would you like for us to add to our convenience store?
• Personal questions
• How do you feel about your current situation?
• What do you do when you feel stressed or anxious?
• How would you define your relationship with your neighbor?
• How has your health been lately?

Open-ended questions influence the respondent to share their review and opinion with you. Such question patterns make them feel valued, and they share their feedback without limiting their thoughts.

When to use Open-ended Questions

An open-ended question is a form of qualitative research . You can ask open-ended questions when you wish to establish a platform for better understanding.

They permit the audience to write what’s on their mind. Hence, it gives you more insight and context. As a result, it helps the researcher collect feedback that can improve the status of the organization, be it a hotel, online store, offline store, or a company. 

The audience can freely express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with you.

• “What almost stopped you from continuing your purchase?” or,
• “What did you like the best in our store and why?”

You can conduct a survey in your office to better understand your employees.

• “Do you have any suggestions to increase our sales value?” or,
• “In what projects would you like to work on and why?”

How to ask Open-ended Questions 

Creating open-ended questions is neither a difficult nor an easy task. You have to understand what the open-ended questions are. 

Also, establish how they are relevant to your objective and determine the kind of audience who can help you with your purpose. You cannot ask women questions related to men’s health or vice-versa. Asking “did you like our shopping app?” also leaves room for “yes” or “no” as answers without further information.

Here are some ways you can create Open-Ended questions

• Create a questionnaire before conducting the survey. You can create a list of all sorts of questions that you have ever come across. The list can help you create a questionnaire that is meant for your market research survey and can benefit from it.
• Change any question into an open-ended question . 

If you find closed-ended questions that can be replaced with open-ended questions, you should revise them. For instance, change the question “did you like our app?” to “What did you like/dislike about our app?”

Follow a close-ended question with an open-ended question. You can always add a “why” or “what” after a close-ended question to start a discussion. For instance, “did you like our customer service ? ” follow it with “ Please elaborate on what you liked about the service.”

Conducting an open-ended question survey should also mean that the researcher is listening to the complaints and praises and taking notes on how to improve the performance of the company.

Create an actionable feedback collection process.

Characteristics of Open-Ended Question

Before you create surveys or questionnaires it is best to understand the features of open-ended questions. This will help you create a better structure for the questionnaire & also help decide where such questions should be used. 

Free answer:

It gives the audience room to voice what they feel about your service. They are not limited by options, and so they have the liberty to answer in detail. This is also beneficial for the ones asking questions because they can learn about the feeling and views of their audience, which is not the case with close-ended questions.

The audience gives a lot of thought before answering an open-ended question because they are allowed to think. They can respond however they want and express their happiness or unhappiness in a thorough description.

Such questions cannot be restricted to yes or no questions, nor to objective questions.

Open-ended questions can help you receive valuable customer feedback that can help you and your company.

Honest customer insight: 

Open-text questions enable your customers to share their perceptions, thoughts, and opinions in words that are true to their feelings. They feel empowered to express themselves in all honesty. Whether it is to complain about a bad service/ product experience or, it is to praise you for excellent service and product experience; respondents can share what’s on their minds. 

The surprise element: 

You may have used the open-ended question to ask for customer feedback or thoughts, however, customers may surprise you by sharing something unexpected. Having the freedom to respond in their own words, respondents may share some ideas or opinions that they think might work well for your company. 

• They may surprise you with a novel idea that your team may not have thought of.
• They can also reveal an outsider’s point-of-view which as a part of the company, you may not have noticed. 

Limitations in Open-Ended Questions

With benefits, there must also be some limitations. Learning about the limitations can help you in asking the right question the right way. 

Here are some limitations you need to look into: 

Difficult to analyze: 

Open-ended questions gather qualitative data for you. So, if your intention is to organize data into tables and charts, open-ended questions are not a good option. 

You cannot analyze open-ended questions as easily as closed-ended questions. Each respondent will have different things to say and you will have to sift through each response and code them in order to analyze them. 

The open-text response is hard to analyze and convert into reports. 

Too many questions can harm the response rate: 

Creating a survey with too many open-ended questions can lead to respondents dropping off mid-way. You cannot expect the respondents to read through the questions, sort through their opinions and respond using coherent words. 

The respondents may become frustrated and may not respond honestly. They may provide irrelevant information. When using the open-ended question you have to carefully select the most relevant questions and limit the numbers. 

Gather irrelevant data: 

Respondents are free to use their words to express their opinion. While this brings you qualitative data, it may also bring you irrelevant data. Respondents may go off-track with their responses which will leave you with too much irrelevant information. You may end up gathering data that is of no use to your business. 

What is the difference between Closed-ended and Open-ended Questions?

• Open-ended questions allow respondents the freedom to respond however they wish.

Close-ended questions limit a respondent with a pre-selected range of options to choose answers from. 

• Open-ended questions require respondents to elaborate their answers. 

Close-ended questions can be answered by selecting an option from a given list. 

• The data from Open-ended questions are difficult to analyze and interpret. 

Closed-ended questions provide quantitative data which can be analyzed using analytics software.  Open-ended questions are used when you want to gain a better understanding of customers or want to gain context behind their behavior, attitude, or perception. Closed-ended questions are used to track changes, identify trends, and show percentages.

Browse through all that Voxco surveys have to offer!

6 Examples of Open-ended Questions

1. how did you find out about our company.

Open-ended questions allow users to give you proper information on how exactly they found out about you. You may gain new information about where customers are looking for information related to your business. Whether they found out via word-of-mouth or online ad, the information can help you plan your marketing effort. 

2. What’s your opinion about our Customer Service?

Learning about your customer-facing team from the words of customers can help you see how your employees are representing your company to the audience. The response can help you identify any gap in the way your company presents itself and the way you want it to present itself. 

3. What stopped you from making a purchase today?

Open-ended questions like this can help you identify if there is any barrier from your side that is stopping your customers from taking the last step. It can give you information on why they are abandoning their cart and dropping it off. 

The response can highlight any issue that customers might be facing in their purchase journey. You can immediately take action and fix them for the rest of the users. 

4. What did you enjoy about our website?

By using this type of positive question you can engage customers to talk about the positive aspect of your website. Customers may point out the unique factors of your website that attracted them to use your company. It can help you identify your USP and you can leverage it to attract more prospects. 

5. What are your concerns about our Company website?

Customers can be very helpful with their candid responses to highlight what may be the problem with your website. When you cannot identify why prospects are not converting, asking customers about it can bring you valuable insight. 

6. How would you describe your experience with our company?

Every customer experiences a service differently. Such open-ended questions will help you gather diverse perspectives and opinions. You can gather a wide range of insights and use them to understand every kind of customer. 

See how you can conduct cost-effective research with Voxco

Wrapping Up;

It’s always better to start with deciding what kind of data you are looking for. This helps you decide the questions you should be asking the survey takers and will help in a successful survey. 

Use closed-ended questions to ask for facts and open-ended questions to collect details on those facts. If you need more help in deciding how to go about it you can contact us .

Some advantages of using open-ended questions in your surveys are:

• It allows respondents to honestly express their opinion.
• It helps you gather qualitative and insightful data.
• The responses can help you gain a deeper understanding of your customers.
• Customers can openly share their feedback, complaints as well as praise without any limitation.

Open-ended questions encourage respondents to share their perception in detail. It empowers them to express their thoughts and feedback with you.

Closed-ended questions use a set of options which limit a respondent’s answer.  Respondents cannot share their opinion freely.

Example of Open-ended questions: “What do you like about our new range of <product category>? ”

Questions like this encourage respondents to share their positive experience with the product. This helps you identify what feature or aspect of the product stands apart.

The major disadvantage of open-ended questions is that respondents have to sort through their opinions and then write their response to the question. This may tire or frustrate the respondents and they may leave the survey mid-way.

Open-ended questions require contextual response, thus, it is best used when your aim is to gain deeper understanding of your survey topic. When you need to gather insightful and knowledgeable data, open-ended questions work the best. 

An open-ended question cannot be answered with a simple “Yes/No” answer. 

An open-ended question gives respondents the freedom to answer as they wish. They can respond to the questions without any limitation. 

Explore Voxco Survey Software

+ Omnichannel Survey Software  

+ Online Survey Software 

+ CATI Survey Software 

+ IVR Survey Software 

+ Market Research Tool

+ Customer Experience Tool 

+ Product Experience Software 

+ Enterprise Survey Software 

We use cookies in our website to give you the best browsing experience and to tailor advertising. By continuing to use our website, you give us consent to the use of cookies. Read More

surveys | December 18, 2019

Open-Ended Question: What it is, How to Use it (+Examples)

Daniel Ndukwu

Customer research is a large discipline with multiple methods to get the right information from your audience or customer base. 

Surveys are among the most effective ways to get deep insights from your most engaged users. It helps you understand how they feel about specific topics and give you perspectives – through open-ended questions – you might have otherwise missed.

These insights, also known as the voice of the customer , can expand your marketing , improve your products, and cancel out objections. In a world of choice, this is becoming even more important.

In this article, you’ll learn what open-ended questions are, their advantages, how to use them, and solid examples to make them easier to implement.

Table of Contents

What is an Open-Ended Question?

Open-ended questions are a type of unstructured survey question that allows the respondent more room to reply in an open text format thereby providing the opportunity to give more detailed answers. The only limitation usually imposed is a character limit so open-ended questions can be divided into long answer and short answer questions. 

Put another way, a respondent can draw on their knowledge, feelings, and understanding of the question and topic to give more insightful answers. They’re not limited by preset question options. 

An example of an open-ended question could be “how do you feel about your new job?”

Research from Vision Critical found that 87% of consumers want to have a say in a company’s products and services. Open-ended questions give them the opportunity to share information in a way that close ended questions don’t. 

Open-Ended Vs Close Ended Questions

As shared in the last section, open-ended questions are free-form and allow respondents to use an open text format to give replies. They’re able to say whatever they want in response to your questions. 

Close ended questions, on the other hand, are structured and have a preset group of questions a respondent can answer. Though they can still help you, you’re not able to use the voice of the customer to inform your decisions. 

Each one has merits and demerits. For example, an open-ended question allows you to probe much deeper but a close ended question allows you to get concise information that can be quantified. It’s much easier to quantify yes or nos than a paragraph of text. 

A relatable example comes from the standardized tests most of us took in school. They usually had two parts – the multiple-choice questions which are equivalent to close ended questions and the essay questions which are equal to open-ended questions. 

A close ended question: Yes or No – Was George Washington was the first president of the United States? 

An open-ended question: From the perspective of the British, what was the cause of the Revolutionary War?

As you can see from the examples, the open-ended survey questions will give you a look into the thought process of your customers. 

Advantages of open-ended questions

Some advantages are obvious while others aren’t but they tend to be more important than the disadvantages because the responses you get have so many direct tangible uses for your business. A few of the advantages include:  

Thoughtful responses

With a series of multiple-choice questions, respondents can quickly scan and choose an answer. That answer may or may not be indicative of how they feel. Open-ended questions force your respondents to slow down long enough to consider the question and give a thoughtful answer. 

Even if they give a short answer that doesn’t shed much light on the situation, it’s still helpful. It tells you the respondent’s answers shouldn’t have as much weight. 

Customers can share their feelings 

The internet is crowded. The lifespan of a Tweet is about 30 minutes and that of a Facebook post is roughly 1 hour. Anything you say is lost in a short amount of time. 

With surveys and open-ended questions, you give your customers an opportunity to voice their opinions and create in a way that can create change in your organization. If they like what you’re doing and care about your products then they’ll take the time to give you useful feedback. 

Identifying weak spots 

Close ended questions are notorious for only giving you half the answer you need. For example, if you ask a customer “how was your experience with us today?” and they answer “disappointing”, there’s no room to ask them why. This can leave you wondering if you have a real problem.

An open-ended question gives them the opportunity to tell you it was disappointing and lay out the reasons why. With that information, you can determine if it was an isolated incident or something that demands immediate attention. 

More Detailed Information

Open-ended questions were built to deliver qualitative information and, like we talk about in our free course , the more detailed the information you get from a respondent the more engaged they are. 

That information is indicative of your hottest buyer segment and the details they reveal will help you create better messages, identify your ideal target market , and otherwise make the right decisions in your business. 

The key to using the extra information these types of survey questions can give you is to look for patterns in the data. If one person says something then you may or may not be on the verge of a breakthrough. If five or ten people say something similar then there’s promise. 

When you should use open-ended questions

These questions lend themselves well to qualitative research. That means they should be used when quality is more important than the quantity of data. 

In other words, it’s used when you want to use the answers to find deep insights into the mind of your target audience. For example, you’d use them in the following situations: 

•   When a detailed response is needed so you can use the voice of the customer or detect patterns in the types of responses you get.
•   When you want your prospects to think critically about the question and the possible response they’ll give
•   If varied answers will help you develop a better understanding of the topic or field (like when you want to enter a new market ).
•   When you need to ask complicated questions and your respondents will benefit from being able to work through their thought process.

When to avoid open-ended questions

Unfortunately, you can’t always use open-ended questions. Sometimes,  a quick answer is ideal. For example, you want to know if someone has heard of your brand before. There’s no need to wax poetic about the possible reasons why they’ve not heard of it. Yes or no will do.

There are multiple situations in which free-form questions would do more harm than good. A few of them include: 

• When you have a longer survey and are short on resources to analyze the patterns in text answers 
• If you want to make a quick and automated analysis of the data
• Only have basic questions that don’t need much expansion
• Have a structured survey that derives it’s usefulness when a respondent chooses one of the available answers (like an NPS style survey or a Likert scale survey ) 

The correct way to ask open-ended questions

There is a right way and a wrong way to ask questions – especially open-ended questions. Like all surveys, you want to collect unbiased data so you can make decisions that move the needle in the right direction. The wording of your questions can have a big impact on how its perceived by your respondent. 

Don’t lead respondents

Surveys are not the time to convince someone of your view or to purposely elicit a positive response. Avoid wording that would predispose someone to answer positively or negatively. 

For example, a question like “we’re considered a market leader and have over 10,000 customers, what do you think about our company?” is biased. It predisposes the respondent to give you positive feedback.  

Consider talking to a team member or an impartial third party and showing them your questions to ensure they’re not biased. Put yourself in the shoes of the respondent and ask yourself if the question makes you feel positively or negatively towards the person asking. 

Use close ended and open-ended questions together

This method is a staple of consumer research. The most effective surveys ask a close-ended question and, depending on how the respondent answers, an open-ended question is used as a follow-up. It helps focus the respondent and bring out insights that would otherwise be missed by a close-ended question. 

Another benefit of using these two questions together stems from getting qualitative and quantitative answers. You’re able to say X people were dissatisfied with the product and X people were satisfied. For the ones who were dissatisfied, these are the reasons and places where we can improve.

Be aware of the Difference Between Question Types

At times, it can be difficult to determine if a closed or open question will be better for your needs. There’s a quick way to determine the best type. If you want the reasons behind an answer then use open-ended. If you want the raw answer without explanations then use the close ended questions. 

Of course, this should be determined on a case by case basis. When in doubt, it may be a better idea to change the question or exclude it altogether. It’s more important to get clean data.

Focus on feelings before facts

Phrase your questions so they’ll help you understand the reasons and emotions behind an answer. Instead of “How would you describe your support experience today?” Ask “how do you feel about your support experience today?” 

The difference is subtle but it can help you understand the emotions associated with an experience or product. If it’s a negative sentiment then you can take steps to change that. If it was a positive sentiment then you can focus on doubling down on what’s working.

11 Open-Ended Question Examples 

1. how does x make you feel.

This question leans towards an emotional response instead of a purely objective one. It’s helpful when finding marketing copy that incorporates the voice of the customer.

2. What do you consider fun?

This question is useful because it helps reveal psychographic information and can also help you uncover different ways to position your products. For example, you can be the perfect widget for bike enthusiasts. 

3. What brought you to our website today?

This works on two separate levels. You can find out which advertising channels are working and the reason why people are seeking you out. This will help refine your messaging. 

4. What are your thoughts about ‘Product X’?

The question above reveals unbiased information about how your products are perceived. You’re asking the customer to say what they think is good (or bad) about your products.

5. What can we do better?

This question is direct and assumes that there’s room for improvement in your products and services. Use with caution because it may force your respondent to find problems where none exist.

6. What aspects of our website do you like?

This, again, is a direct question that may force users to mention things they don’t truly like. Use with caution. 

7. How do you prefer to shop (or workout, or travel, etc.)?

Questions like these help you derive insights that make your products fit seamlessly into the lives of your target market. If your people like to work out at home, you can create products that cater to that preference. If they like to travel by road, you can create relevant products. 

8. What do you like about x?

The X here can be general or specific depending on what you chose to focus on. For example, “what do you like about our customer service or what do you like about our company?” One of the questions gives a broad answer and the other is focused.

9. What do you dislike about x?

The opposite perspective of the previous question open-ended question.

10. How can we create a better experience for you? 

These questions focus on the direct improvement of a product or service. For example, what can we do to make your support experience better?

11. How can we make it easier for you to purchase today?

This question may not be ideal for a standard questionnaire because it works best in real-time. Instead, you can use it in your live chat or chatbots to engage people at the point of purchase.

Conclusion 

There are multiple ways to go about customer research. One of the most powerful and inexpensive is surveys. 

They can give you deep insights from a large number of people in a relatively short amount of time. This article has gone through everything you need to know to make effective open-ended questions to improve your business and grow your audience. 

Let me know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to share it. 

Open-ended question FAQ

What is an open-ended question.

Open-ended questions are a type of unstructured survey question that allows the respondent more room to reply in an open text format and provides the opportunity to give more detailed answers

What are the advantages of open-ended questions?

• More thoughtful responses
• Respondents can give more detailed answers which reveal more insights
• Give respondents an opportunity to speak their minds
• Identify weak spots in your organization

What to consider before using open-ended questions?

• The way the question is worded
• How to follow-up with responses for maximum value
• The right time to use open-ended and close ended questions

Are close ended or open-ended questions better?

This depends on the situation and your goals. Open-ended questions give more insights but close ended can help with quantification of responses.                    

Good evening, My name is Cristina Raffaghello, Adjunct Professor at Eastern Piedmont University in Vercelli and online e-campus University Novedrate, Italy. In my opinion, your article is useful for teaching, as well. Do you think I may use in my course of Germanic Philology? This discipline regards the origin and development of Germanic languages (English, German, Frisian Gothic and Islandic) from linguistical, juridical, historical and literary viewpoints. I thank you for your attention. Cheers, Cristina

Of course Cristina, you’re free to use it to teach your students.

I want to write research proposal on knowledge and practices on malnutrition amongst women can I use open or closed questionnaire

Both, of course. It depends on the kind of data you’re looking for and how well-versed you are on the topic before conducting the research.

This is so interesting

Inspiring, educative. I am doing a qualitative research study, and I find both open and closed.-ended questions fitting

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Related Articles

What Are Open-Ended Questions & How Can You Analyze Them?

Gathering information and insights from customers , employees, and target audiences is important to understand their points of view about your company and products.

One of the most effective ways to do this is by asking open-ended questions – whether in person, on phone calls, or online surveys .

Open-ended questions are usually the most valuable way to get the data you need because they provide more detailed information.

In this post, you’ll learn everything there is to know about open-ended questions, from how to write them to analyzing them for fine-grained insights.

• What Are Open-Ended Questions

Open-Ended vs Close-Ended Questions

• Advantages of Open-Ended Questions
• Examples of Open-Ended Questions

How to Analyze Open-Ended Questions

What are open-ended questions.

Open-ended questions are questions that can’t simply be answered “Yes/No” or with a fixed or multiple-choice response. Open-ended questions are worded to require an explanatory response in order to find out new, often subjective, information from the responder in their own words.

Responses that require more than one word will help you find out the “Why?”, “How?,” and “What do you think?” , which can offer far more interesting insights and avoid shutting down discourse.

For example, the open-ended question "What do you like best about our product?" elicits a descriptive response in the customers own words, while “Do you like this product” will be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No” , often leaving you in the dark as to why a customer likes or dislikes a product.

Let’s take a closer look at the difference between the two question types.

Close-ended questions are questions that can only be answered with one of a preset number of responses: “Yes/No,” predefined multiple-choice options, or scaled, e.g., “On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy are you with this product?” Close-ended questions gather quantitative data.

Open-ended questions, on the other hand, gather qualitative data . They lead to more detailed and valuable information because responders are using their own language to explain their ideas and feelings. Open-ended questions can lead to free form answers and actionable insights that the questioner may have never even considered.

Common examples of surveys with both close-ended and open-ended questions are Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys.

NPS, for example, calculates customer loyalty from a simple close-ended question: “How likely from 0 to 10 are you to recommend this product or service to a friend or colleague?”. Then, there’s the option to follow up with an open-ended question, to dig into the details: “Why did you choose the score you did?”

When to Use Open-Ended Over Closed-Ended Questions

Asking the right questions will help you reach your goals, whether you need to improve user experience, generate more leads, or develop your product roadmap.

A closed-ended question will often help you detect if there is a problem in the first place. Text visualization tools can be used to show trends at a glance. For example, one-word answers to the closed-ended question in an NPS survey “How likely are you to recommend our service or product?” can be plotted on a graph to show the number of customers that responded with a positive, moderate, or negative answer. If answers are overwhelmingly negative, you’ll want to find out why.

That’s where open-ended questions come in.

Open-ended questions are ideal for customer surveys to better understand the voice of the customer (VoC) and follow the entire customer journey.

The advantages of open-ended questions often outweigh the disadvantages because they can help businesses find out:

• What customers love about your business?

What does your business already do successfully that makes customers happy? Finding your consistent strong points can maximize marketing and increase sales.

• How/what you can improve?

It may be harder to face than the positive, but no one knows the pain points of your business better than your customers. You just have to ask. In fact, leading product managers say that over 50% of their new products and features are motivated by customer feedback.

• Where have you failed the customer?

Why are customers leaving your company or where specifically have you failed? Maybe you simply promised too much. Improve customer retention by finding out what you can do to meet their expectations – which is especially poignant when it costs 5 times more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.

In a nutshell, open-ended questions reinforce close-ended questions because you:

• Get answers in the responders’ own words. Close-ended questions don’t offer any nuance. Open-ended questions get to the feelings and emotions behind the response.
• Discover information you may not have even considered. Create new product features or discover new applications or use cases for your product you had never thought of.
• Deeper, qualitative data. Close-ended questions offer statistics and numbers, which can be helpful to find out “What is happening,” but open-ended questions can help you understand “ Why it’s happening.”

Examples of Open-Ended Questions vs Closed-Ended Questions

Think about how you can word your questions to maximize the information you’re likely to receive from the responses.

Below are some examples of open-ended and close-ended questions:

Now for some tips on how to ask open-ended customer survey questions:

• Dig into the negative

While negative feedback may be harder to swallow, it’s usually much more useful to guide you to necessary changes. Ask questions about aspects of your business that customers are unhappy with, so you know how to improve them.

And when you receive negative responses, it’s important to close the customer feedback loop by letting customers know you’ve implemented changes or are simply acknowledging their concerns. Just letting your customers know you’re listening is a huge step toward keeping them happy

• Don’t ask leading questions

Don’t ask questions that lead the respondent in a particular direction. Don’t assume you already understand your customers’ points of view. That’s the whole purpose of open-ended questions. You want candid, unvarnished opinions.

• Prompt longer, more detailed responses

Ask questions starting with "why," "how," and "what if?," like you can see in the examples above, to elicit more detailed responses. That way, your customers will feel free to leave as much, or as little, information as they need to.

• Keep your survey short

Nail down your questions to only the information you need to find out, or it could lead to survey fatigue and respondents will just want to get it over with – leading to bad data.

It’s clear that open-ended questions offer more information and more in-depth results. But they’re harder to analyze, so a lot of companies stick to close-ended questions that can easily be calculated in spreadsheets.

However, text analysis with machine learning has made analyzing open-ended responses a whole lot easier.

Text analysis tools, like MonkeyLearn , can automatically analyze thousands of surveys – and all manner of customer feedback, so you don’t have to spend dozens (or hundreds) of hours on manual survey analysis .

MonkeyLearn is a no-code text analysis platform, which offers many ready-made text analysis tools that you can start using right away. However there are some steps you’ll need to follow before putting these tools to work on open-ended results.

How to analyze open-ended questions in 4 steps:

• Collect your data: use online survey tools
• Structure your data: pre-process responses
• Analyze your data: machine learning takes the pain out of data analysis
• Visualize your results: data visualization tools help get the most from your data

1. Collect your data

Online survey tools, like SurveyMonkey , Typeform , and Google Forms simplify the process of creating and sending open-ended surveys. They offer easy-to-use templates, so you can customize your surveys with just a few clicks.

2. Structure your data

With online survey tools, you can output your customer feedback data to a CSV or Excel file to set it up for automated analysis. From there, you just need to do some data cleaning, so that machines can process it.

3. Analyze your data

Here’s where we really get to see machine learning at work. MonkeyLearn can easily be connected to survey tools via the MonkeyLearn API , to help automate survey analysis.

Or, you can use Monkeylearn’s integrations with Zapier, Zendesk, and Google Sheets. Once you’ve connected MonkeyLearn to your data, you’ll need to choose the type of analysis you want to perform:

• Sentiment analysis – to automatically classify survey responses as Positive, Negative, or Neutral .
• Topic analysis – to classify responses by “aspect” (category, topic, feature, etc.).
• Aspect-based sentiment analysis – both of the above combined, to know what aspects of your product or service customers mention positively or negatively.

Sign up to MonkeyLearn to discover other types of text analysis you can perform and check out our tutorial on how to perform text analysis with machine learning .

4. Visualize your results

Data visualization tools, like MonkeyLearn Studio , show your results in a striking, easy-to-understand visual dashboard, so you can see your fresh insights in broad strokes or minute detail.

Check out the MonkeyLearn Studio public dashboard and click around to see how it works. It’s a powerful, all-in-one tool to take you from data collection to analysis to visualization, all in a single dashboard.

It’s clear that open-ended questions and surveys can help dig into customer feelings and opinions much deeper than simple “Yes/No” or multiple choice questions. The analysis is also much more complex, but machine learning text analysis tools, like MonkeyLearn , can walk you through the process to save time and money.

And once you have your tools set up in MonkeyLearn Studio you can analyze your open-ended responses constantly and in real time for immediately actionable insights.

Take a look at MonkeyLearn’s suite of text analysis tools to see what you can do beyond aspect-based sentiment analysis. Or request a demo and we’ll be happy to walk you through how to analyze your open-ended questions.

Tobias Geisler Mesevage

January 11th, 2021

Posts you might like...

Survey Types for Success in 2022

How customer surveys are performed has changed radically for businesses. And this trend will continue long into the future. Fillable…

How to Analyze Questionnaire Data: A Step by Step Guide

Approaching your questionnaire with the right principles in mind and tools in hand will produce easily-understood results packed with…

What Is Survey Data Processing?

Designing and distributing the perfect survey can take a lot of precious resources. So, it's important that you get a return on this…

Text Analysis with Machine Learning

Turn tweets, emails, documents, webpages and more into actionable data. Automate business processes and save hours of manual data processing.

What Are Open-Ended Questions? Definition and Examples

Running a survey with open-ended questions? Read these tips and best practices.

When you’re designing a customer survey and want to collect in-depth data, asking open-ended questions can help you get interesting and even enlightening responses. While simple close-ended questions can provide useful data about a customer’s overall experience, open-ended ones can give you a better look at a customer’s feelings, satisfaction, disappointment, expectation, and overall experience with your brand.

So, what are open-ended questions? Read on to get to know the advantages that come when you include open-ended questions on a customer survey , and how you can use them to get the in-depth answers you need.

What are open-ended questions?

Open-ended questions are commonly used in customer and market research. They give respondents the chance to freely express their review or opinion on a topic, product, service, or even your entire brand in general.

An open-ended question invites the audience to respond based on their experience and understanding. Unlike a close-ended question—where responses are limited and narrow—an open-ended question allows for detailed, elaborate responses that create room for further discussion and improvement.

This question type opens a platform for conversation, helping researchers understand the thought process of their audience. They allow the researcher to ask questions like “why” and “how”—questions that generate thorough answers.

Since the answers to these questions can vary greatly from person to person, researchers often gain some interesting insights and unique perspectives. In the case of customer surveys, these questions help brands delve into the minds of their customers, so they can make choices and changes that improve the customer experience and generate the loyalty that businesses need to stay competitive.

Because open-ended questions encourage detailed responses and spark conversation, a platform like Voiceform can be very effective for asking them. When they have the opportunity to provide voice responses to survey questions, respondents are likely to provide more thorough and useful answers.

Examples of open-ended questions

As you craft a survey, the questions you ask will depend on your goals. If you’re conducting a customer research survey, open-ended questions can help you understand your audience better. By giving your respondents flexibility and freedom to be vocal about their opinion, you can gain new insights and ideas to help you better serve them. Here are some great examples of open-ended questions that you can ask on your next customer research survey:

• What problem does our product/service solve for you?
• What changed for you after you started using our product/service?
• How would you describe your overall buying experience with our brand?
• How can we make the buying experience better?
• What do you like most about our product/service, and what do you like least?
• How can our brand go above and beyond to serve you better?
• What would you change about our product/service?

How to ask effective open-ended questions

If, at the end of a survey, you ask your customer or client, “Did you find our product/service helpful?” you’re asking a close-ended question, since the respondent can only answer “yes” or “no.” While it’s great to know that the customer found value in your product, you don’t know why they did or how.

On the other hand, if you ask a question like, “How does our product/service help you solve a problem?” you give the respondent an opportunity to provide more perspective. Plus, asking customers about value can help reinforce the concept in their own minds—not only are you able to get the in-depth answers you’re seeking, but you’re also able to strengthen their perception of value around the products and services you provide.

How can you ask open-ended questions on your next survey? Simply use the following steps.

Change close-ended questions to open-ended ones

Whenever you’re crafting a survey—or if you’re simply asking questions to prospects, clients, or colleagues—pay attention to the questions you’re asking. Rather than asking questions that generate a yes/no response, use strategic phrasing to ask questions that generate a more detailed response. Start questions with words like “why,” “what,” or “how,” or give respondents a prompt to describe a concept or topic.

Remember that the goal of your survey is to receive transparent feedback from your customers. Make sure you aren’t leading respondents with your questions, and give them a chance to provide any information or details they want.

Create a list of questions before implementing the survey

If you’re conducting a customer research survey, you should always plan ahead and write down all your survey questions before you contact potential respondents. If you find close-ended questions, replace them with open-ended ones. For example, instead of asking, “Did you like our product?” ask, “What did you like about our product?”

If you can’t avoid asking close-ended questions, always have an open-ended follow-up question ready. It’s not hard to add a “why” or “what” question after a close-ended one. Using the example above, you could ask, “Did you like our product?” then follow up with a simple “Why?” or “Why not?”

Use open-ended questions to spark conversation, rather than run through a script

Open-ended questions should be used as conversation starters. You should always expect the unexpected when it comes to respondents’ answers—don’t be surprised or thrown off if the responses lead to discussions of tangential issues. An open-ended question is successful when it sparks conversation, so make sure you’re actively listening to your customers and have a plan in place to ask follow-up questions on related topics or issues.

By asking the right questions, you can gain all sorts of useful insights from your customers. Whether you’re getting ready to launch a new product or you feel like your overall customer experience could be improved, ask the right questions to your target audience and use the insights you uncover to make the changes your customers want and need.

Voice surveys are the ideal platform for asking open-ended questions

When you’re crafting a customer survey, open-ended questions help you dig into the minds of your customers, so you can address their pain points and better serve them. With Voiceform’s voice data solutions, it’s never been easier to ask high-quality questions that help you get to know your customers better. Reach out to our helpful team today to schedule your free demo .

We make collecting, sharing and analyzing data a breeze

Get started for free. Get instant access to Voiceform features that get you amazing data in minutes.

Learn / Blog / Article

Back to blog

Open-ended questions vs. close-ended questions: examples and how to survey users

Unless you’re a mind reader, the only way to find out what your users are thinking is to ask them. That's what surveys are for. 

But the way you ask a question often determines the kind of answer you get—and one of the first decisions you have to make is: are you going to ask an open-ended or a closed-ended question?

Last updated

Reading time.

Understanding the difference between open-ended and close-ended questions helps you ask better, more targeted questions, so you can get actionable answers. The question examples we cover in this article look at open- and closed-ended questions in the context of a website survey, but the principle applies across any type of survey you may want to run. 

Start from the top or skip ahead to 

What’s the difference between open-ended and closed-ended questions?

4 tips on how to craft your survey questions for a maximum response rate

5 critical open-ended questions to ask customers

When to ask open-ended questions vs. closed-ended questions

Open-ended vs. close-ended questions: what’s the difference?

Open-ended questions are questions that cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and instead require the respondent to elaborate on their points.

Open-ended questions help you see things from a customer’s perspective as you get feedback in their own words instead of stock answers. You can analyze open-ended questions using spreadsheets , view qualitative research and data analysis trends, and even spot elements that stand out with word cloud visualizations.

Closed-ended questions are questions that can only be answered by selecting from a limited number of options, usually multiple-choice questions with a single-word answer (‘yes’ or ‘no’) or a rating scale (e.g. from strongly agree to strongly disagree).

Closed-ended questions give limited insight, but can easily be analyzed for quantitative data . For example, one of the most popular closed questions in market research is the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) survey, which asks people “How likely are you to recommend this product/service on a scale from 0 to 10?” and uses numerical answers to calculate overall score trends. Check out our NPS survey template to see this closed-ended question in action.

Let’s take a look at the examples of open-ended questions vs. closed-ended questions above.

All the closed questions in the left column can be responded to with a one-word answer that gives you the general sentiment of each user and a few useful data points about their satisfaction, which help you look at trends and percentages. For example, did the proportion of people who declared themselves happy with your website change in the last three, six, or 12 months?

The open-ended questions in the right column let customers provide detailed responses with additional information so you understand the context behind a problem or learn more about your unique selling points . If you’re after qualitative data like this, the easy way to convert closed-ended into open-ended questions is to consider the range of possible responses and re-word your questions to allow for a free-form answer.

💡 Pro tip : when surveying people on your website with Hotjar Surveys , our Survey Logic feature lets you ask follow-up questions that help you find out the what and the why behind your users’ actions. 

For more inspiration, here are 20+ real examples of open- and closed-ended questions you can ask on your website, along with a bunch of free pre-built survey templates and 50+ more survey questions to help you craft a better questionnaire for your users. 

Or, take advantage of Hotjar’s AI for Surveys , which generates insightful survey questions based on your research goal in seconds and prepares an automated summary report with key takeaways and suggested next steps once results are in.

Use Hotjar to build your survey and get the customer insights you need to grow your business.

How to ask survey questions for maximum responses

It’s often easy to lead your customers to the answer you want, so make sure you’re following these guidelines:

1. Embrace negative feedback

Some customers may find it hard to leave negative feedback if your questions are worded poorly.

For example, “We hope there wasn’t anything bad about your experience with us, but if so, please let us know” is better phrased neutrally as “Let us know if there was anything you’d like us to do differently.” It might sting a little to hear negative comments, but it’s your biggest opportunity to really empathize with customers and fuel your UX improvements moving forward.

2. Don’t lead your customers

“You bought 300 apples over the past year. What's your favorite fruit?” is an example of a leading question . You just planted the idea of an apple in your customers' mind. Valuable survey questions are open and objective—let people answer them in their own words, from their own perspective, and you’ll get more meaningful answers.

3. Avoid asking ‘and why?’

Tacking “and why?” on at the end of a question will only give you simple answers. And, no, adding “and why?” will not turn closed-ended questions into open-ended ones!

Asking “What did you purchase today, and why?” will give you an answer like “3 pairs of socks for a gift” (and that’s if you’re lucky), whereas wording the question as “Why did you choose to make a purchase today?” allows for an open answer like, “I saw your special offer and bought socks for my niece.”

4. Keep your survey simple

Not many folks love filling in a survey that’s 50 questions long and takes an hour to complete. For the most effective data collection (and decent response rates), you need to keep the respondents’ attention span in mind. Here’s how:

Keep question length short : good questions are one-sentence long and worded as concisely as possible

Limit the number of questions : take your list of planned questions and be ruthless when narrowing them down. Keep the questions you know will lead to direct insight and ditch the rest.

Show survey progress : a simple progress bar, or an indication of how many questions are left, motivates users to finish your survey

5 of our favorite open-ended questions to ask customers

Now that you know how to ask good open-ended questions , it’s time to start putting the knowledge into practice.

To survey your website users, use Hotjar's feedback tools to run on-page surveys, collect answers, and visualize results. You can create surveys that run on your entire site, or choose to display them on specific pages (URLs).

Different types of Hotjar surveys

As for what to ask—if you're just getting started, the five open-ended questions below are ideal for any website, whether ecommerce or software-as-a-service:

1. How can we make this page better?

If you missed the expectations set by a customer, you may have over-promised or under-delivered. Ask users where you missed the mark today, and you’ll know how to properly set, and meet, expectations in the future. An open platform for your customers to tell you their pain points is far more valuable for increasing customer satisfaction than guessing what improvements you should make. Issues could range from technical bugs to lack of product range.

2. Where exactly did you first hear about us?

An open “How did you find out about us?” question leaves users to answer freely, without leading them to a stock response, and gives you valuable information that might be harder to track with traditional analytics tools.

We have a traffic attribution survey template ready and waiting for you to get started.

3. What is stopping you from [action] today?

A “What is stopping you?” question can be shown on exit pages ; the open-form answers will help you identify the barriers to conversion that stop people from taking action.

Questions like this can also be triggered in a post-purchase survey on a thank you or order confirmation page. This type of survey only focuses on confirmed customers: after asking what almost stopped them, you can address any potential obstacles they highlight and fix them for the rest of your site visitors.

4. What are your main concerns or questions about [product/service]?

Finding out the concerns and objections of potential customers on your website helps you address them in future versions of the page they’re on and the products they’ll use. It sounds simple, but you’ll be surprised by how candid and helpful your users will be when answering this one.

Do you want to gather feedback on your product specifically? Learn what to improve and understand what users really think with our product feedback survey template and this expert advice on which product questions to ask when your product isn't selling.

5. What persuaded you to [take action] today?

Learning what made a customer click ‘buy now’ or ‘sign up’ helps you identify your levers. Maybe it’s low prices, fast shipping, or excellent customer service—whatever the reason, finding out what draws customers in and convinces them to stay helps you emphasize these benefits to other users and, ultimately, increase conversions.

Ask the right questions at the right time to get the insights you need

Whether you’re part of a marketing, product, sales, or user research team, asking the right questions through customer interviews or on-site surveys helps you collect feedback to create better user experiences and increase conversions and sales.

The type of question you choose depends on what you’re trying to achieve:

Ask a closed-ended question when you want answers that can be plotted on a graph and used to show trends and percentages. For example, answers to the closed-ended question “Do you trust the information on [website]?” helps you understand the proportion of people who find your website trustworthy versus those who do not.

Ask an open-ended question when you want in-depth answers to better understand your customers and their needs , get more context behind their actions, and investigate the reasons behind their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your product. For example, the open-ended question “If you could change anything on this page, what would it be?” allows your customers to express, in their own words, what they think you should be working on next.

Not only is the kind of question you ask important—but the moment you ask it is equally relevant. Hotjar Surveys , our online survey tool , has a user-friendly survey builder that lets you effortlessly craft a survey and embed it anywhere on your web page to ask the right questions at the right time and place.

Related articles

User research

5 tips to recruit user research participants that represent the real world

Whether you’re running focus groups for your pricing strategy or conducting usability testing for a new product, user interviews are one of the most effective research methods to get the needle-moving insights you need. But to discover meaningful data that helps you reach your goals, you need to connect with high-quality participants. This article shares five tips to help you optimize your recruiting efforts and find the right people for any type of research study.

Hotjar team

How to instantly transcribe user interviews—and swiftly unlock actionable insights

After the thrill of a successful user interview, the chore of transcribing dialogue can feel like the ultimate anticlimax. Putting spoken words in writing takes several precious hours—time better invested in sharing your findings with your team or boss.

But the fact remains: you need a clear and accurate user interview transcript to analyze and report data effectively. Enter automatic transcription. This process instantly transcribes recorded dialogue in real time without human help. It ensures data integrity (and preserves your sanity), enabling you to unlock valuable insights in your research.

Shadz Loresco

An 8-step guide to conducting empathetic (and insightful) customer interviews

Customer interviews uncover your ideal users’ challenges and needs in their own words, providing in-depth customer experience insights that inform product development, new features, and decision-making. But to get the most out of your interviews, you need to approach them with empathy. This article explains how to conduct accessible, inclusive, and—above all—insightful interviews to create a smooth (and enjoyable!) process for you and your participants.

• Resources Resources Practical advice from the experts Help Center Get support and explore best practices REST API Check out our API docs Case Studies Delighted customer case studies Blog Industry news and guidance Delighted Core Certification Core training & certification for Delighted CX Delighted Admin Certification Admin training & certification Community Get support and explore best practices
• Contact sales
• Get started
• Experience Management 101
• Creating Surveys
• Distributing Surveys
• Reporting & Analysis
• Taking Action

Open-ended questions: Definition, examples, and tips

Asking open-ended questions in your survey uncovers in-depth insights from respondents in their own words. While close-ended questions also provide valuable information, asking both question types in your survey gives you the data and context to make larger business decisions, act on immediate solutions, and plan long-term goals.

In this post, we’ll explain what open-ended questions are, the difference between closed and open-ended questions (including when to use both), and examples of open-ended questions to use in your surveys. 

What is an open-ended question?

Open-ended questions begin with “why,” “how,” or “what” and require the respondent to provide more than a single-word answer. Unlike close-ended questions that only need a simple “yes” or “no” to answer the question, open-ended questions prompt the respondent to detail their response in a free response format.

With open-ended questions, respondents have the opportunity to convey how they think and feel. Collecting this type of verbatim feedback can unveil insights and recurring sentiment trends that you may not have been aware of.

Open-ended vs. close-ended questions

Open and close-ended questions collect completely different types of survey data. Open-ended questions help survey creators collect qualitative (non-numerical) data to understand respondents’ thoughts and feelings. Close-ended questions, on the other hand, collect quantitative (numerical) data through predetermined answers. 

Gathering both qualitative and quantitative data gives you the full picture of your survey results, with data you can use for statistical analysis and context to fill in the gaps.

15 open-ended question examples

Open-ended questions encourage respondents to explain their answers in their own words, without restriction. Whether you’re gathering insights on the customer, employee, or product experience, we’ve gathered common examples of open-ended questions to use in your surveys.

Open-ended questions for customer feedback

• Tell us a bit more about why you chose [rating/option].
• What motivated you to make this purchase today?
• What made you choose our [product/service] over competitors?
• What are some ways we can improve?
• Is there anything else you would like us to know?

Open-ended questions for employee feedback

• How does this company help you reach your career goals?
• What can your manager do to support development in your role?
• How can this company better support your well-being?
• What resources or technology do you need to work more effectively?
• How trustworthy do you find the leadership of this company?

Open-ended questions for product feedback

• What can we do to improve this product?
• How do you use this product?
• How does this product make you feel and why?
• What do you like about this product and why?
• What do you dislike about this product and why?

When to use open-ended questions: 4 use cases

While open-ended questions are a great addition to any survey, it’s important to understand what type of verbatim feedback you want to collect and why. During the survey creation process, ask yourself, “How will this free response feedback help me reach my survey goals?” 

Here are a few examples of when and why you would want to gather additional information:

1. Get context on answers to close-ended questions and take action.

Asking an open-ended question directly after a close-ended question can help you learn the “why” behind a respondent’s initial score or multiple choice answer. This is specifically useful when you want to take steps to rectify poor experiences across the customer journey . 

For example, if you ask the Yes/No question, “Would you shop with us again?” and 40% of your respondents answered with a simple “No,” understanding why they would not shop again is necessary to make things right and reduce customer churn .

2. Collect information about your target audience and their needs.

Open-ended questions are great for collecting information on customers when you’re developing marketing campaigns and brand messaging. Consider gathering data such as what factors motivate them to make a purchase, brands they already buy from, or simply what they’re looking for in a certain type of product. This information can help you build buyer personas , attract your target audience, and shape your products around what they look for in a brand.

3. Gain a deeper understanding of your employees.

Get a read on employee happiness and employee engagement by allowing employees to answer sensitive organizational questions freely and anonymously. Through this, you can uncover detailed aspects of the current employee experience – including satisfaction with their benefits package, manager’s leadership style, or any changes to company policy.

4. Conduct product-market research.

Consider asking open-ended questions in product/market fit surveys to gather specific information on whether there is a market need for a new product you’re planning to launch or if the product you already launched is meeting the needs of your customers. That way, you can feel confident that your product positioning aligns with market needs and that your product is a highly competitive solution to customer problems.

When to use both open and close-ended questions

As mentioned, including both types of survey questions (instead of one or the other) can provide meaningful answers that paint a more detailed picture of your feedback.

You can use both question types to:

• Find patterns in your survey data from close-ended questions and the story behind those patterns with open-ended questions.
• Collect anonymous data from close-ended questions and specific details like email addresses or products purchased with open-ended questions.
• Formulate a theory based on answers to open-ended questions and verify if the theory was correct with data from close-ended questions.

Tips for asking open-ended questions

Below are some best practice tips to follow as you begin creating your own open-ended questions.

Determine the need for an open-ended question

Before including an open-ended question in your survey, make sure to ask yourself if this question needs to be an open-ended question or if a close-ended question will do. 

For example, demographic questions like age, gender identity, income level, and marital status can be asked with predetermined single select answers. Questions about opinions, feelings, or general thoughts, however, are great opportunities for the respondent to write their answer freely in an open-text box.

Limit how many open-ended questions you ask

Every question in your survey doesn’t need to be open-ended; in fact, they shouldn’t all be. Limiting the number of open-ended questions you ask benefits your survey in that respondents don’t have to spend a significant amount of time writing their answers in their own words. A shorter survey can increase survey response rate , giving you more survey data to work with. 

Rewrite close-ended questions as open-ended questions

One exercise you can use to practice the art of asking open-ended questions is turning close-ended questions into open-ended ones. Take a look at some of your previous surveys to create a list of close-ended questions. Or, select from these example questions .

Then, rewrite each question from your list as an open-ended question. For example, the question “How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or family member?” can be rewritten as an open-ended question like “What would motivate you to recommend our company to a friend or family member?” 

Consider making some open-ended questions optional

Much like including too many open-ended questions, requiring respondents to answer every open-ended question in your survey may hurt your survey completion rate. If respondents aren’t able or willing to provide a written response to all survey questions, they may not complete your survey.

Consider making open-ended questions in your survey optional, especially if your survey has a lot of them. That way, you can meet respondents where they are and get as much information from them as possible.

Ready to put your knowledge of open-ended questions to the test? Sign up for free to create and send surveys in minutes.

Start collecting feedback from customers and employees today

• Free survey maker
• Survey templates
• CX solution
• NPS software
• CSAT software
• Email survey
• Delighted AI
• Testimonials
• Integrations
• What is NPS?
• NPS examples
• NPS calculator
• NPS benchmarks
• What is CSAT?
• What is CES?
• What is product/market fit?
• Employee experience management
• Customer experience metrics
• Sample size calculator
• Surveys Help
• Mobile apps
• Delighted + Qualtrics

© 2013–2024 Delighted, LLC

Security Terms Privacy Cookie Preferences Sitemap

NPS is a registered trademark, and Net Promoter Score is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.

Open-ended survey questions: definition, examples and tips

What is an open-ended question, open-ended questions vs closed-ended questions, when to use open-ended survey questions, 56 examples of great open-ended questions, how to ask open-ended survey questions the right way.

Sometimes market research can be simple.

For example, survey questions can generally be defined as either open-ended questions or closed-ended questions.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about open-ended questions.

How do you successfully combine open-ended questions with closed ended questions? How do you ask them the right way, and how many of them can you/should you put into a single survey? We’ll answer these important points in this guide.

And we’ll give you a few examples of open-ended questions to kick start your new survey.

An open-ended survey question is a question that allows respondents to answer in their own words. Questions like these can be used to gather qualitative data about people’s opinions, perceptions and experiences.

What are they? How should you use them? Read on to find out…

Closed-ended questions

A closed-ended question is one that can be answered with a predetermined set of responses. Closed questions provide quantitative data that can be simpler to analyze than the qualitative research you’ll carry out with open-ended questions.

A closed-ended question provides answer choices—think about multiple-choice questions. This is perfect for simple answers, and when an answer needs to be numeric data. Close-ended questions are typically categorical—they can be assigned to one of a limited number of response categories—and therefore can be counted and compared.

Answers to closed-ended questions can be tallied and compared easily. For example, a closed-ended question might ask respondents to rank a list of potential vacation destinations from best to worst. This would give the researcher a sense of how people feel. Results can be quantified and help categorize respondents further down the road.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions, on the other hand, let respondents answer in their own words, and require respondents to pause, think, and reflect. This gives some flexibility to respondents and allows them to produce more detailed and nuanced responses. 

Open-ended questions are valuable because they allow you to explore topics in greater depth and detail than closed-ended questions can on their own.

They’re also a great way to gather unbiased insights. For example, in brand tracking research you might ask an open-ended question first—a question like ‘Thinking about [category], what brands, if any, are you aware of? Please type in all the brands that you can think of’—to understand which brands people can think about without being prompted. 

And open-ended questions can give you some direction for your upcoming research projects, when you might not necessarily know which areas to explore in the future. Answers to these questions can give you ideas and raise themes you might not have considered otherwise. 

It can sometimes make sense to follow up your closed-ended question with an open-ended question. When you do this, you’re able to give some extra flavor and context to your initial closed question.

Another way to combine open-ended and closed-ended questions is to ask a series of closed-ended questions first in order to filter respondents who do not meet the criteria for the open-ended question. This will allow you to ask the open-ended question only to those who meet the criteria, which will help reduce response bias.

Open-ended questions also give you the chance to present your insights in ways that other questions don’t. For example, you can create a word cloud that highlights the most common words and phrases your respondents use. And who doesn’t love a word cloud?! As it happens, you can generate beautiful word clouds from your open-text insights on the Attest platform.

Here are some key examples of when you can use open-ended questions. 

• When you want to learn about consumers’ unprompted awareness of your brand. This will tell you how well known your brand is without being reminded that it exists.
• You can use them when you want to learn more about someone’s thoughts or feelings on a topic, when you are creating a buyer persona, customer journey or gathering customer satisfaction feedback. You’ll get an enhanced flavor of answers when people can express their feelings in words rather than just by selecting from a predefined list.
• When you want to gather ideas for a new product or service, or for a new campaign, open-ended questions can give you valuable information that could spark some creative ideas. 
• When you want to get feedback on a product or service. Make sure to ask specific questions though, not just: what do you think? More on this when we get into example questions.
• When you need to know about a ‘why’. For instance: you let someone rate holiday destinations from best to worst. That only tells you half the story: following up with open-ended questions, you can find out why they prefer San Francisco to Paris.
• When you want more information on a ‘how’: for instance, a close-ended question could indicate that someone shops for garden tools online. Following up with an open-ended question, you can find out how they approach the search—ultimately not pushing them in one direction with close-ended questions.
• When you want to find out whether the meaning and message of your ads or creative assets comes across to your target audience. 

What type of open-ended questions you’ll be asking will highly depend on the type of market research you’re running. From brand perception to concept testing , campaign planning and everything in between, it’s important to tailor your questions to suit your particular type of research.

Use our list below as an inspiration for open-ended survey questions you could use, not something to copy-paste. Switch up some words to make them your own, and combine them in a way that makes sense. And remember that these questions should absolutely be combined with other types of questions to make sure your research gets you the insights you’re looking for.

Branding survey questions

• Thinking about [category], what brands, if any, are you aware of? Please type in all the brands that you can think of.’
• How would you describe [brand] to a friend?
• When you think of [brand], what words or phrases come to mind?
• If you had to describe [brand] in three words, what would they be?
• What initially attracted you to [brand]?
• Which of the following brands do you connect [brand] to? 
• What was your initial reaction to [brand]?
• How have your feelings towards [brand] changed over time?
• How did you become aware of [brand] and the products/services they offer?
• Who do you think [brand] is made for?
• Complete the following sentence: I think [brand] is….
• In the past year, what have you heard about [brand]?

Find out how your brand-building work is going

Learn what consumers think about your brand and how opinions change over time with brand tracking through Attest.

Customer feedback survey questions

• Please describe your last encounter with [brand]’s customer service department.
• How can [brand] provide a better service to you?
• Why do you buy from [brand]?
• How does buying/using [brand] make you feel?
• What elements do you consider when shopping for [product category]?
• What did you like best about your experience with [brand]?
• What did you like least about your experience with [brand]?
• What is your favorite feature of [product]?
• What do you like about that particular feature?
• What surprised you about using [product]?
• What annoys you about [product]?
• What problem does [product] solve for you?
• How well does [brand] product solve your problem?
• What were the main struggles you had when using [product]?
• If you could change one thing about [product], what would it be?
• What additional features would you like to see on [product]?
• In which situations do you commonly use [brand] products?
• Describe your purchasing process for [product].

Pricing survey questions

• How much would you expect [product] to cost? (Provide a text box for respondents to fill in their own answer, instead of staggered price brackets)
• What factors do you keep in mind when deciding how much you’d pay for [product]?

Market analysis survey questions

• What brands, if any, are you aware of in this product category? Please type in all the brands you can think of.
• What other brands have you considered?
• What would you say is the most significant difference between [brand] and [competitor brand]?
• Where did you look before coming to [brand]?
• Why did you choose [brand] products rather than a competitor’s?
• What does [brand] do better than other companies in this field?
• What product would you use as an alternative if [brand] was no longer available?
• What’s your overall opinion of [brand]?
• Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about [brand]?

Customer profiling survey questions

• What other products did you try before using our product?
• What makes you feel valued as a customer?
• What websites and sources do you use to find new [category] products?
• What do you find the most difficult when shopping for this type of product?
• Where exactly did you first hear about [brand]?
• What type of content do you like to consume revolving [product]?
• What types of channels do you use when shopping for products?

Build a true picture of your ideal customers

Find out what your ideal customer profile (ICP) wants from brands like yours with customer profiling research.

New product development and concept testing survey questions

• Please describe your ideal product for this category
• If you could change just one thing about [specific product], what would it be? 
• What is your least favorite aspect of [product feature]?
• Why don’t you like that [product feature]?
• If you could add anything you wanted to this product, what would it be?
• Why would you add this?
• If you could get rid of anything in this product, what would it be?
• Why would you get rid of that?

Asking open-ended questions sounds easy: just let the survey respondents do the talking, right?

Wrong. Asking open-ended questions is more complicated than it sounds, because you’re relying on your respondents to give you meaningful open-text answers. It’s therefore SUPER IMPORTANT that you structure your market research well so that you give respondents the best chance of understanding what you’re asking and that you carry out genuinely useful qualitative research.

Here’s how you can make sure your survey remains of high quality and you gather valuable answers.

Keep the structure of your survey in mind

We recommend not kicking your survey off with an open-ended question. Normally it helps to start with some closed ended questions to qualify your survey respondents and as a way to ease your respondents into the context of your survey, before you ask those open-ended questions.

Ask only for information that you can and will use

When you are designing a survey, it is important to only ask for information that you will actually use. Open-ended questions can be helpful for getting detailed feedback, but they can also be more difficult to analyze because you don’t end up with the more typical quantitative data you can more easily gather through close-ended questions.

Also keep in mind that for respondents, answering open-ended questions takes a lot more time and effort than selecting from predefined lists. Make sure you are not exploiting their willingness to answer your survey, and keep answers of high quality by limiting the amount of open-ended questions you are asking. Nobody started your survey because they wanted to write an essay!

Allow for respondents to use their own words

This has to do with the way you design your survey.

Make sure you don’t put words into their mouths—keep the language in your questions and overall survey copy neutral. You want to encourage respondents to really use their own words. If you use certain words or phrases in your open-ended questions, people might be influenced in their answers by those descriptions.

If a question really does need so much clarification that you are inclined to give examples, consider if the question is suitable as an open-ended question at all. Remember, open-ended questions are super valuable for online surveys, but use them sparingly

Ask one question at a time

We’re often inclined to cover multiple subjects in one sentence, but this can blur your answers and confuse respondents. Don’t ask who their favorite actor is and why in one question, but split questions up as much as you can. This will make it a lot easier to analyze the results in the end, and you will make sure every single question gets fully answered.

Be specific

When asking an open-ended question you’ll want to be super-specific.

Asking someone what they like about your product can give you a full range of answers that might be hard to categorize and analyze. Instead, split it up in smaller pieces. So instead of

What do you like about our product?

Ask questions such as:

• What do you think about the design of our product?
• What do you think about the usability of our product?
• What do you think about the durability of our product?

If you need these questions answered with detail and therefore choose open-ended questions, you will at least be able to categorize the answers.

Avoid leading questions

Leading, your honor!

Leading questions push respondents in a certain direction. They already contain information that you are either trying to confirm or deny. This means you won’t get a true unbiased answer from most respondents.

Here are some examples of open-ended questions that are leading, so don’t use these!

• How much did you enjoy our last event?
• Most people hate having to drive to the cinema for more than half an hour. What about you?
• What did you find most user-friendly in our new app?

Avoid closed-ended questions in disguise

Closed-ended questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and do not provide respondents with an opportunity to speak up. But sometimes we ask closed ended questions, thinking they’re open-ended. But unfortunately, having a text field ready for respondents, doesn’t necessarily mean your question is open-ended. For instance:

• Were you happy with our latest product update?

Sure, a respondent might be able to say no and expand on that, but it would be better to ask a closed-ended question using the Likert scale and follow it up with an open-ended question for added context:

• I quite liked it
• I neither liked or disliked it
• I didn’t like it
• [open-text response]

Start gathering your insights

Learn about how to gather quality consumer insights with Attest. You can reach 125 million people in 59 countries, and get on-demand research expertise from our in-house team of experts.

Elliot Barnard

Customer Research Lead 

Elliot joined Attest in 2019 and has dedicated his career to working with brands carrying out market research. At Attest Elliot takes a leading role in the Customer Research Team, to support customers as they uncover insights and new areas for growth.

Related articles

Is ‘newness’ important to gen z in food and drink products, food & beverage, how iterative creative testing can maximise marketing effectiveness, creative testing, 15 brand image tracking companies that track consumer perception, brand tracking, subscribe to our newsletter.

Fill in your email and we’ll drop fresh insights and events info into your inbox each week.

* I agree to receive communications from Attest. Privacy Policy .

You're now subscribed to our mailing list to receive exciting news, reports, and other updates!

Open-Ended Questions Guide with Examples

Open-ended questions do not have a predetermined answer or set of responses. They encourage people to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences in their own words, and allow for more in-depth exploration of a topic.

Table of contents

What is an Open-Ended Question?

Key features of open-ended questions, benefits of open-ended questions, drawbacks of open-ended questions, types of open-ended questions, when to use open-ended questions, quick tips for writing good open-ended questions, strategies for analyzing and interpreting open-ended responses.

The first thing you need to decide when conducting a survey is the type of data you need. Some might want the data to be quantifiable, while others want to collect more in-depth data. Nevertheless, open-ended questions are optimal for collecting relevant data for various purposes.

Open-ended questions help you get interesting answers from your target audience. If you use a simple closed-ended question, it will only give you a limited answer. For instance, you might ask a close-ended question, “How would you rate your experience with the product on a scale of 1 to 5.”

But you can convert it into an open-ended question such as “Can you tell me more about your experience with the product?” As a result, you can better understand the customers’ experience with the product. This article will cover in-depth what open-ended questions are and how to use them to make the most out of them.

Open-ended questions play a critical role in market research for a particular topic. It will include various open and subjective questions that respondents can freely answer. They can express their opinions or leave a review without any limitations.

The best thing about the open-ended question is that it allows the respondents to answer it according to their understanding and experience. They neither have to choose from a list of options nor do they have to pick an answer from yes/no.

The comprehensive information that you get from the audience opens room for discussion. An open ended-questions opens up new horizons for the researchers and respondents to explore. It is a type of question where you can ask “why” and “how” to your respondents.

The answers that you receive vary from individual to individual. Thus, it allows you to get a wide range of perspectives, allowing the researcher to further study.

There are some elements and features that you need to include in your open-ended questions. Doing will help allow you to create a better structure for the questionnaire. Furthermore, it will help you decide whether or not such questions should be a part of the survey

• Element of Surprise Open-ended questions help you find surprising things customers have to say about your brand. You might come across unexpected answers regarding the topic. Also, respondents have the luxury to provide their opinions or share some ideas. You might come across a novel idea that could come as a surprise. It can also help you get an outsider’s point of view that your team didn’t think about.
• Genuine Customer Input Open-ended questions make the respondents feel empowered to express their feelings with full honesty. They’ll share their honest opinions and genuine perceptions when answering the questions. They can openly share what they like about your products or services. Moreover, it allows them to point out things that they didn’t like about the product or service. Either way, respondents can share what they have on their minds.
• Free Answer Another key characteristic of open-ended questions is that it doesn’t provide limited answers. The audience has room to express their opinion about the service or product. They also have the liberty to provide more in-depth answers. For instance, customers can tell what they didn’t like about the product and suggest improvements. You won’t find this in close-ended questions since they don’t allow you to express the complete feelings and views of the audience.
• In-Depth Opinion The customers put in a lot of thought processes before answering an open-ended question. Since they have the liberty to express their feelings, they’ll give an in-depth opinion about it. These types of questions aren’t restricted to a simple yes or no. Therefore, you can get valuable customer feedback to help your business in the long run.

Open-ended questions allow you to gather a wide range of opinions and thoughts from respondents. As a result, you have more subjective information available that offers a deeper understanding of your customer’s mindset. Let’s learn some benefits that you can get from using open-ended questions:

• Helps You Get More Details Open-ended questions allow the respondents to open up and express their opinions in much more detail. The responses have more clarity since users can write clearly what they have in their minds. Also, you’ll get less ambiguous answers from open-ended questions. The primary reason for that is because is that their responses don’t get tied to a rating scale or various choices.
• Allows for Unlimited Responses There are endless possibilities regarding the answers you’ll get for a particular question. Therefore, it removes any limit when it comes to your data collection opportunities. Each respondent will have a different approach when answering the questions. They’ll look at all the aspects and angles before coming up with a response.
• Offers Comprehensive and Qualitative Data Close-ended questions help you get quantitative data only. It is because the data is in percentages or numbers. While this type of data might be easy to calculate, it doesn’t allow you to understand it more deeply. So, if you want to get qualitative customer data, the best way is by asking open-ended questions. It helps you determine the reason behind a particular incident, allowing you to make informed decisions.
• Gives You an Idea of the Complete Customer Journey Some customers would tell how they found out about your brand/product/service. They’ll also share their complete customer journey from the start to the end. Therefore, you can better understand the sales funnel and the areas where the customers face issues. You can take relevant steps to ensure that customers have a streamlined process.
• Allows You to Understand Sentiments and Opinions Customer presents their POVs (Point-of-views) through their answers. So it gives you a better idea of their feelings, perspectives, and opinions. You can also use tools to analyze the sentiments behind the customers’ answers. You can use different tools to analyze huge amounts of responses from open-ended questions. It can help you determine which business aspects are performing well and where you need improvement.

Before you use open-ended questions, you need to know about their drawbacks. That way, you can decide whether or not there is the right type of questions for your surveys.

• A Lot of Irrelevant Information There is a possibility that your survey would contain a lot of irrelevant information. Moreover, people might also make spelling mistakes or misuse any words. There is also a chance that people might not write with perfect grammar. So, it might be difficult for you to comprehend what the customer is saying. Some respondents might also provide you with irrelevant information that makes no sense.
• Difficult to Analyze Another thing is that open-ended questions are harder to analyze. The responses contain unstructured data, making them difficult to understand. Since there aren’t any numbers you can compute, it is difficult to figure out the quantitative data. So, the interpretation of the data may vary from individual to individual.
• Time-consuming The biggest drawback of open-ended questions is that they can be time-consuming. Respondents don’t have multiple choices that they can choose from and then move on to the next question. They would have to give it a thought and then write their answers. Sometimes the answers might require a lot of explanation. Therefore, it can be a long and time-consuming process for the respondents. But remember that the data is valuable if you encourage the respondents to answer.

The primary goal of the open-ended question is to get a more comprehensive answer than a single-liner. They want the respondents to fully tell their opinions and experience on the particular topic. That is why the surveyors will either one of the following when phrasing an open-ended question:

These types of questions help the respondents understand the context. It will tell them to respond more thoughtfully instead of just answering in a single word or line.

The open-ended question works best if you want to find qualitative data for research purposes. Open-ended questions are more suitable in situations where you create a platform for deeper understanding.

They allow the target audience to share their feelings, opinions, and perspectives more clearly. Thus, you can get a better insight and context about their point of view. The researcher can use the data from the open-ended question surveys and the use it to improve their efficiency.

They can use it to enhance their organizational process, products, services, or anything else. The audience also has the opportunity to freely express their happiness or dissatisfaction about the topic. For instance, you can ask them the following open-ended questions to know their opinions:

• What is the thing that you enjoyed most about our products?
• What are the areas which you think need improvements?

And not just for products or services, you can also carry out open-ended question surveys in the office. It’ll give you a better idea of what your employees think about the organizational environment.

Creating high-quality survey questions that generate valuable data can be challenging. Nevertheless, here are some tips to help you out with it.

There is no point in such questions since they don’t provide insight into the customers’ perspectives. In fact, it may prompt the respondent to write “nothing” as their answer. For instance, you might ask: “ What things do you think can be made better? “. There is a possibility that users might leave “nothing” as an answer. It is best to test your questions before you send them out to avoid getting such answers.

Getting into specifics and technicalities might confuse the customer. They would give completely different answers since they won’t understand the context of the question. Asking about a specific touch-point from your target audience is vital. And the best way to do this is by keeping your questions simple. Keeping your questions simple and focused will help you receive valuable information. Moreover, you should avoid technical jargon or slang, as customers might understand the question.

Asking questions that are too much broad can give you a vague answer. For instance, if you ask questions with examples, then it might lead to vacuous answers. It might also discourage the respondents from answering since it would feel like a hassle to them. Furthermore, such questions might also lack focus, resulting in futile information and data. So, it is best to ask open-ended questions that give you to-the-point answers.

Once you have collected open-ended responses from your online survey, it is essential to analyze and interpret the data in a meaningful way. Here are some strategies for analyzing and interpreting open-ended responses:

Identifying themes and patterns in the data: Look for recurring ideas, concepts, or words that emerge from the responses. Organizing these themes can provide insights into the attitudes, behaviors, and opinions of your participants.

Using coding and categorization techniques: Assign codes or labels to each response based on the themes identified. These codes can be used to group similar responses together and make sense of large volumes of data.

Prioritizing and summarizing key findings: Identify the most important and relevant responses and summarize them in a concise and meaningful way. This can help to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.

Comparing open-ended responses with quantitative data: Compare the open-ended responses with the quantitative data collected in the survey to gain a deeper understanding of the results. This can help to identify trends and patterns that might not be apparent from the numerical data alone.

Using visualization tools to present results: Use visualization tools such as graphs, charts, or word clouds to present the results in a clear and engaging way. This can help to communicate the key findings to stakeholders and make them more accessible and understandable.

In conclusion, incorporating open-ended questions into online surveys offers numerous advantages and benefits. By allowing participants to share their opinions and experiences in their own words, open-ended questions can provide more detailed and insightful responses, complement quantitative data, and enhance the accuracy and validity of survey results.

To design effective open-ended questions, it is important to consider the type, format, and wording of the question, as well as strategies for analyzing and interpreting the responses. Additionally, best practices such as balancing open-ended and closed-ended questions, limiting the number of open-ended questions, and ensuring anonymity and confidentiality can improve the quality and validity of survey results.

Incorporating open-ended questions into your next online survey can enhance the quality and usefulness of the data collected. So, we encourage you to take advantage of the benefits of open-ended questions by including them in your next survey design. With a well-designed and thoughtfully executed survey, you can obtain valuable insights and make informed decisions that will benefit your organization or research.

FAQ on Open-Ended Questions

How using open-ended questions in an interview can be beneficial.

Interviewees like open-ended questions since they can express their opinions in more detail. They aren’t restricted by any options, allowing them to express their opinions in more detail.

What is an example of an open-ended question?

The open-ended questions encourage the other person to express their opinions in detail since they can’t be answered in one word or line. An example is “where do you see yourself in five years?

What is the best way to start an open-ended question?

The best way to begin your question is by using why, how, what, and where. These encourage the respondent to give a detailed answer instead of a simple “yes” or “no” response.

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies
• Additional Cookies

This website uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookies are small text files that are cached when you visit a website to make the user experience more efficient. We are allowed to store cookies on your device if they are absolutely necessary for the operation of the site. For all other cookies we need your consent.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website. Find the link to your settings in our footer.

Find out more in our privacy policy about our use of cookies and how we process personal data.

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot properly without these cookies.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as additional cookies.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Home • Knowledge hub • Your Guide to Using Open-Ended Questions in Market Research.

Your Guide to Using Open-Ended Questions in Market Research.

When conducting market research, asking the right questions is crucial. The magic happens when you dig deeper than the traditional ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses. This is where open-ended questions come in. These questions allow respondents to express their thoughts in their own words, providing richer, more meaningful insights. 

This blog will guide you on effectively using open-ended survey questions in your market research, analyzing the responses, and highlighting some best practices. We’ll also share some examples of effective open-ended questions.

The Power of Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They allow respondents to express their opinions, thoughts, and feelings in a more detailed and nuanced manner.

For instance, instead of asking, “Do you like our product?” (a close-ended question), you could ask, “What do you like most about our product?” The latter question provides more room for detailed responses, giving you deeper insights into what your customers value about your product.

Also, read “ Bad Survey Questions and How to Avoid Them. “

How to Use Open-Ended Questions in Your Survey

Strategically placing open-ended questions in your survey is key. Too many open-ended questions can make the survey long and tedious, leading to lower response rates. Consider mixing both close-ended and open-ended questions to maintain balance.

Open-ended questions should be clear and straightforward. Avoid using industry jargon or complex language that might confuse the respondent. 

Here are a few examples of effective open-ended questions:

• “What features would you like to see added to our product in the future?”
• “Can you describe a situation where our service helped solve your problem?”
• “What made you choose our product over others available in the market?”

Here are some examples of less-effective questions, why they’re problematic, and how they could be improved for better insights

Example 1: “Are there any comments you’d like to share?”

Problem: This question is too vague. Respondents may need to learn precisely what you’re asking for, which could lead to irrelevant responses or discourage respondents from answering.

Solution: Instead, ask, “Can you share your thoughts on how we could improve our product?” This question is more specific and invites respondents to provide actionable feedback.

Example 2: “Do you like our new website?”

Problem: While seemingly open-ended, this question can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It doesn’t encourage respondents to provide details or reasons behind their answers.

Solution: A better way to phrase this could be, “What do you like most about our new website, and what could be improved?” This invites respondents to share specific positive feedback and offer constructive criticism.

Example 3: “What features do you want in our product?”

Problem: While this question seeks valuable feedback, it might be too open-ended. Respondents might suggest features beyond your product’s scope, making the feedback less actionable.

Solution: Instead, consider asking, “Which existing feature would you like us to enhance in our product, and why?” This question still captures the desire for improvement but focuses on the product’s current capabilities.

Example 4: “Tell us about our customer service.”

Problem: This question is broad and might lead to unfocused answers. It doesn’t guide respondents on which aspects of customer service they’re interested in.

Solution: An improved version of this question could be, “Could you describe a recent experience you had with our customer service team and how it could have been better?” This question prompts respondents to share specific experiences and provide targeted feedback.

Crafting effective open-ended questions is about clarity and relevance. Strive for questions that encourage detailed, focused responses while ensuring the question is directly relevant to the respondent and the purpose of your research.

Analyzing Responses to Open-Ended Questions

Analyzing open-ended responses can be more complex than analyzing close-ended ones due to the qualitative nature of the responses. 

Here are some strategies to help:

• Thematic Analysis: This involves identifying recurring themes or patterns in the responses. For example, if many respondents mention that they love your product’s ‘ease of use’, it’s a recurring theme worth noting.
• Sentiment Analysis: This is used to gauge the overall sentiment of the responses, i.e., whether they are positive, negative, or neutral. This can give you a quick understanding of the overall perception of your product or service.
• Coding: This involves categorizing responses into predefined categories. For example, responses to the question “What do you like most about our product?” could be coded into categories such as ‘price’, ‘quality’, ‘customer service’, and so on. 

Best Practices for Using Open-Ended Questions

• Use sparingly: Avoid overwhelming respondents with too many open-ended questions. They should be used sparingly and strategically.
• Ensure clarity: The question should be easy to understand. Avoid ambiguity that may confuse respondents.
• Invite elaboration: Encourage respondents to provide as much detail as possible. You can do this using phrases like, “Please explain…” or “Could you elaborate on…”
• Keep it relevant: Ensure that your open-ended questions are relevant to the respondent and the purpose of your survey. Irrelevant questions may lead to incomplete responses or drop-outs.

When and Why Should You Use an Open-Ended Question?

Open-ended questions can be incredibly useful, but knowing when to deploy them is vital for their effectiveness. 

Here are a few scenarios where open-ended questions are particularly beneficial:

• Gathering In-Depth Insights: Open-ended questions are perfect when seeking detailed and nuanced insights from your respondents. They encourage respondents to share their experiences, perspectives, and opinions in their own words, providing richer and more complex data than close-ended questions.
• Exploring New Ideas: Open-ended questions can be a valuable tool if you’re looking for fresh ideas or creative input. They give respondents the freedom to think outside the box and offer suggestions they might not have considered.
• Understanding Customer Sentiment: When you want to gauge how customers feel about your brand, product, or service, open-ended questions can reveal more about their emotions and attitudes. Sentiments are often complex and can’t be captured fully by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
• Problem Diagnosis: If customers face issues with your product or service, open-ended questions can help diagnose the problem more effectively. By allowing customers to describe the issue in their own words, you’re more likely to understand the root of the problem.

Why should you use open-ended questions? Open-ended questions are essential when you want to:

• Understand the ‘Why’: Open-ended questions help you understand why respondents feel a certain way, providing context that can help inform your decision-making.
• Identify Trends and Patterns: By identifying common themes or trends in the responses to open-ended questions, you can gain valuable insights into broad customer attitudes and behaviors.
• Empower Respondents: Open-ended questions give your respondents a voice, making them feel valued and engaged. This can help build stronger relationships with your customers.

The ultimate goal of using open-ended questions is to collect meaningful and actionable insights to help you make informed decisions, enhance your product or service, and ultimately better serve your customers.

Analyzing results from open-ended questions can be challenging due to the qualitative nature of the data. 

However, the following steps can guide you through the process and help you extract meaningful insights:

• Organize Your Responses: Start by collecting and organizing all the responses you’ve received. You might transcribe them if they were collected verbally, or if they’re written, gather them into a single document or spreadsheet for analysis.
• Read and Familiarize Yourself with the Responses: Read through all the responses carefully to get a sense of what your respondents are saying. This will give you an initial understanding of the general sentiments and main ideas.
• Code Your Responses: Coding is the process of categorizing responses based on shared themes or concepts. You could categorize responses to product improvement questions into themes like ‘product features’, ‘pricing’, and ‘customer service.’
• Identify Themes or Patterns: After coding, analyze the categories to identify common themes or patterns. These recurring themes can reveal significant insights about your respondents’ opinions or experiences.
• Quantify Your Data: You should quantify your data depending on the number of responses. For instance, you can calculate the percentage of responses that mention a particular theme. This can help when comparing the prominence of different themes.
• Perform Sentiment Analysis: This involves assessing the emotional tone of the responses. Software tools can assist with this, especially for larger datasets. You can classify responses as positive, negative, or neutral.
• Review and Interpret Your Findings: Review your coded data, theme patterns, and sentiment analysis results. What do they suggest about your respondents’ perspectives? What actionable insights can you extract?
• Present Your Findings: Summarize your findings clearly and concisely, suitable for presentation. Visual aids such as charts, graphs, or word clouds can help communicate your results effectively.

Analyzing open-ended responses can be time-consuming, but the depth and richness of the insights you’ll gain make it a worthwhile endeavor.

Open-ended questions can provide rich, in-depth insights into your customers’ thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Remember, it’s not about the quantity of data you collect but the quality of the insights you glean that truly matter in market research.

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

• First Name *
• Last Name *
• Business Email *

Helping brands uncover valuable insights

We’ve been working with Kadence on a couple of strategic projects, which influenced our product roadmap roll-out within the region. Their work has been exceptional in providing me the insights that I need. Senior Marketing Executive Arla Foods

Kadence’s reports give us the insight, conclusion and recommended execution needed to give us a different perspective, which provided us with an opportunity to relook at our go to market strategy in a different direction which we are now reaping the benefits from. Sales & Marketing Bridgestone

Kadence helped us not only conduct a thorough and insightful piece of research, its interpretation of the data provided many useful and unexpected good-news stories that we were able to use in our communications and interactions with government bodies. General Manager PR -Internal Communications & Government Affairs Mitsubishi

Kadence team is more like a partner to us. We have run a number of projects together and … the pro-activeness, out of the box thinking and delivering in spite of tight deadlines are some of the key reasons we always reach out to them. Vital Strategies

Kadence were an excellent partner on this project; they took time to really understand our business challenges, and developed a research approach that would tackle the exam question from all directions.  The impact of the work is still being felt now, several years later. Customer Intelligence Director Wall Street Journal

Get In Touch

" (Required) " indicates required fields

Privacy Overview

• Open Ended Questions: Definition + [30 Questionnaire Examples]

Open-ended questions are the questions asked that do not give the option of a yes/no answer, instead, they require full sentences. They usually signify the beginning of a dialogue.

If you sincerely want to connect on deeper levels and encourage other people to talk about themselves, you should ideally use open-ended questions to stimulate your conversation and get the ball rolling.

What is Open Ended Question

Open-ended questions are those which require more thought and more than a simple one-word answer. An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful, and deliberate answer using the subject’s own knowledge and/or feelings.

It is the opposite of a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or single-word answer.

Read More: Close Ended Questions:Definition + [Questionnaire Examples]

Uses of Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are used for interviews, with the caveat that there are those with no right or wrong answers. An interview question, for example, could be along the lines of a person asking an interviewee about their past work experience. As a requirement, Open-ended questions demand that the applicant offer more detail and demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively.

Open-ended questions can be used in examinations such that the student is required to provide a response. Unlike multiple-choice(close-ended) tests that do not allow much, if any, room for error, open-ended questions give the students room to convince the examiner. Usually, a test is composed of a few open-ended questions compared to the 50 to 100-question multiple-choice(close-ended) assessment.

For a Survey, open-ended questions are ideal for a number of reasons. First, they allow an infinite number of possible answers. They also collect more detail and the person administering the questions might even learn something they didn’t expect. For complex issues, open-ended questions ensure you get adequate answers. Lastly, open-ended questions for a survey encourage creative answers and self-expression and help you understand how your respondents think.

In transacting business, open-ended questions are essential for sales success. They allow reps to get inside the head of prospects and better understand their pain points. The right open-ended questions help ensure that reps are building rapport, uncovering pain points, establishing needs, and clearly articulating the value of their offering.

How to Ask or Craft Open-Ended Questions

Since open-ended questions are designed to prompt long, detailed answers, here are a few tips that can help you ask open-ended questions better.

• Start your questions with How, Why, What, etc
• Ensure you as questions that ask for the reasons behind events, try to clarify or investigate issues
• Avoid asking questions that can be answered with a Yes/No. Instead, use leading questions . For example, ‘Do you think you can lift 50kg in one go?’ Will not prompt the respondent to offer more information. Instead, ask ‘Why do you think you can/cannot lift 50kg in one go?’
• Follow up close-ended questions with open-ended ones. 

Examples of Open-Ended Questions

• When do you need to get this issue resolved?
• What do you see as the next action steps for the firm?
• What is your timeline for purchasing this product?
• What other data points should we know before moving forward?
• How did you get involved in the business?
• What kind of challenges are you facing?
• What’s the most important priority to you with this? Why?
• What other issues are important to you?
• What would you like to see improved?
• How do you measure their weight?
• What budget has been established for this product?
• What are your thoughts?
• Who else is involved in this decision?
• What could make this no longer a priority?
• What’s changed since we last talked?
• What concerns do you have?
• What time did that happen?
• When do these issues arise?
• What is this problem costing you?
• What would you change about your current solution?
• Have you given up trying to fix the problem?
• Who else needs to be involved in this purchase decision?
• What’s your budget?
• How do you think changing this area could improve your day-to-day work?
• What would you want to achieve in the next year by making this change?
• If time and money were no object and you had full authority to do whatever you want, what would you change about your current system?
• What has your past purchase experience been with Apple watches?
• When was the last time you evaluated something like this?
• Why or why not would you say you were satisfied with your past experiences with this vendor?
• How would you describe the level of service with your current provider?

Advantages of Open-Ended Questions over Close-Ended Questions  

• Freedom of expression

Open-ended questions allow you to better understand the respondent’s true feelings and attitudes about the survey subject. Close-ended questions, due to their limitations, do not give respondents the choice to truly give their opinions.

• Qualitative information

Open-ended questions allow respondents taking your survey to include more information, giving you, the researcher, more useful, contextual feedback. Close-ended questions provide none of those. The answers are short, concise, and very direct.

• Additional Information

Open-ended questions in surveys solicit additional information to be contributed by respondents. They are sometimes also called infinite-response questions or unsaturated-type questions. Generally, close-ended questions require respondents to answer in just one or two words.

• Reduce Errors

Open-ended questions cut down on two types of response error; respondents are not likely to forget the answers they have to choose from if they are given the chance to respond freely, and open-ended questions simply do not allow respondents to disregard reading the questions and just “fill in” the survey with all the same answers.

• Demographic Information

Since open-ended questions allow for obtaining extra information from the respondent, such as demographic information, surveys that use open-ended questions can be used more readily for secondary analysis by other researchers than can surveys that do not provide contextual information about the survey population.

When to Choose Open-Ended Questions Over Close-Ended Questions

If you’re looking for questions that allow someone to give a free-form answer, the open-ended questions are the choice. Even though close-ended questions are often good for surveys, because you get higher response rates because users don’t have to type so much, they don’t accomplish this.

A key benefit of open-ended questions is that they allow you to find more than you anticipate. People are more likely to share motivations that you didn’t expect and mention behaviors and concerns that you knew nothing about. When you ask people to explain things to you, they often reveal surprising mental models, problem-solving strategies, hopes, fears, and much more. Closed-ended questions stop the conversation and eliminate any surprises.

Guide To Interpreting Open-Ended Questionnaire Data

As much as Open-ended questions provide the most feedback, it is important to note that they are a lot harder to analyze. This is because, unlike close-ended questions that provide quantitative data, open-ended questions provide qualitative data.

There are a number of things you should note when interpreting Open-Ended Questionnaire Data, here are a few guides to help you on your way.

• Spend time perusing through your responses – As you get to understand your data, make a mental note to highlight all interesting answers you think will be relevant.
• Categorize your answers – Ensure you have at least one category assigned to each answer. It is possible that one answer fits into more than one category.
• Sort the categories – In the existing categories, strip them down to sub-categories, this is so that you maintain an understanding of the answers. For example, a category like Service can be subdivided into customer satisfaction and referrals.
• Review your responses – In the different categories and sub-categories, review the response that had the most responses and decipher the recurring theme.
• Prepare your conclusions – At this point, you’re beginning to see a pattern. You can now make comparisons with those open-ended questions that have similarities with the quantitative answers from closed-ended questions.

Why Formplus is the Best Data Collection Tool for Open-Ended Survey

• Short & Long Text Field

With the Short text field, best used for receiving short/single-line text-based answers such as names, location, and statements, you can set a minimum and maximum length of characters your users can input. 

The Long text field, as provided by Formplus, is ideal for long answers such as addresses, comments, additional ideas, suggestions, messages, and short essay answers. 

• File Management

You can use Formplus to send form responses to Google Sheets instantly. The Google Sheets integration makes it easy to collaborate on documents and keep your team members up-to-date.

• Export Data in PDF/CSV

Formplus lets you store tabular data, such as a spreadsheet or database. Also in the Formplus Responses setting you can customize the email notification message, including the user’s response in the notification email sent. You can also receive submissions as a PDF/Doc attachment in your emails as well as enable the option to display images on your attachments.

• Data Storage

Formplus has an unlimited file upload storage, you can submit files, photos, or videos via your online forms without any restriction to the size or number of files that can be uploaded.  You can choose to store your received data in your cloud storage of choice. There is also a native Google Sheets integration, which lets you get survey responses updated into spreadsheets automatically created for each form.

• Customization

Formplus’ easy-to-use form builder allows you to create powerful forms within minutes. Simply click or drag and drop your desired form fields into the builder. You can build any type of online form ranging from Contact Forms to Inventory Forms, Formplus has the tools to help you collect data seamlessly.

• Visual Analytics

You can also monitor your survey performance and identify your traffic source and location with Formplus Analytics. With online form builder analytics, you can determine the number of times the open-ended survey was filled and the number of respondents who reached the abandonment rate. You can also find out the location of respondents as well as the type of device used by the respondent to complete the survey.

How to Conduct an Open-Ended Survey with Formplus Data Collection Tool 

• Register or sign up on the Formplus builder

Start creating your Open-Ended Survey by signing up with either your Google, Facebook, or Email account. There’s a free plan with limited features you can use to get started.

Sign up to design your Open-Ended Survey with Formplus.

Input your Open-Ended Survey title and use the form builder choice options to start creating your Survey.

Beautify your Open-Ended Survey with Formplus Customisation features.

• Set the form width and layout
• Change the form background type and color to suit your brand
• Add your brand’s logo and image to the forms
• Change font color and sizes
• Edit submission button to match form color
• Do you have already made custom CSS to beautify your open-ended? If yes, just copy and paste it to the CSS option.

Edit your Open-ended survey settings for your specific needs

• Formplus builder gives you the liberty to choose your storage options (Formplus Storage, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive).
• You can also limit the number of responses, enable Captcha to prevent spamming, and collect information about your respondent’s location.

Set an introductory message to respondents before they begin the survey

• Toggle the “start button” to post the final submission message or redirect respondents to another page when they submit their survey responses. 
•  Initiate an autoresponder message for all your survey respondents. 

Share links to your Open-ended survey page with respondents

View Responses to the Open-ended Survey

Toggle with the presentation of your summary from the options. Whether as a single, table or cards. In addition, you can make graphs from received responses, and translate these into charts and key metrics. 

Let Formplus Analytics interpret your data from your Open-ended survey

You can also monitor your form performance and identify your traffic source and location with Formplus Analytics.

With online form builder analytics, you can determine:

• The number of times the open-ended survey was filled
• The number of respondents reached
• Abandonment Rate: The rate at which respondents exit the open-ended survey without submitting it.
• The percentage of respondents who completed the online form
• Average time spent per visit
• Location of respondents.
• The type of device used by the respondents to complete the open-ended survey

In any circumstance, open-ended questions guarantee a much more effective result in communication. In the search for a complete and meaningful answer, you need to employ open-ended questions. The best part of Open-ended questions is that they prompt respondents to provide answers using their own words.

For a survey, open-ended questions provide a researcher with qualitative data that they can draw inferences from. On the whole, Open-ended questions make respondents include more information, including feelings, attitudes, and understanding of the subject matter.

Connect to Formplus, Get Started Now - It's Free!

• close ended
• close open ended questions
• epen question
• open close ended questions
• open ended question examples
• busayo.longe

You may also like:

Matrix Question Surveys: Types, Examples, Pros & Cons

Introduction Matrix questions are a type of survey question that allows respondents to answer multiple statements using rates in rows...

Close Ended Questions: Definition, Types + Examples

Ultimate guide to understanding close ended questions, examples, advantages and questionnaire examples in surveys

Open vs Close-Ended Question: 13 Key Differences

Simple guide on the difference between close and open ended questions. Where and how to use them.

25 Great NPS Survey Question Examples

This article outlines 25 great NPS survey questions to help you gather feedback from your customers

Formplus - For Seamless Data Collection

Collect data the right way with a versatile data collection tool. try formplus and transform your work productivity today..

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List

Open-ended interview questions and saturation

Susan c. weller.

1 Department of Preventive Medicine & Community Health, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Ben Vickers

H. russell bernard.

2 Institute for Social Research, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona/University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Alyssa M. Blackburn

3 Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Stephen Borgatti

4 Department of Management, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Clarence C. Gravlee

5 Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Jeffrey C. Johnson

Associated data.

All relevant data are available as an Excel file in the Supporting Information files.

Sample size determination for open-ended questions or qualitative interviews relies primarily on custom and finding the point where little new information is obtained (thematic saturation). Here, we propose and test a refined definition of saturation as obtaining the most salient items in a set of qualitative interviews (where items can be material things or concepts, depending on the topic of study) rather than attempting to obtain all the items . Salient items have higher prevalence and are more culturally important. To do this, we explore saturation, salience, sample size, and domain size in 28 sets of interviews in which respondents were asked to list all the things they could think of in one of 18 topical domains. The domains—like kinds of fruits (highly bounded) and things that mothers do (unbounded)—varied greatly in size. The datasets comprise 20–99 interviews each (1,147 total interviews). When saturation was defined as the point where less than one new item per person would be expected, the median sample size for reaching saturation was 75 (range = 15–194). Thematic saturation was, as expected, related to domain size. It was also related to the amount of information contributed by each respondent but, unexpectedly, was reached more quickly when respondents contributed less information. In contrast, a greater amount of information per person increased the retrieval of salient items. Even small samples ( n = 10) produced 95% of the most salient ideas with exhaustive listing, but only 53% of those items were captured with limited responses per person (three). For most domains, item salience appeared to be a more useful concept for thinking about sample size adequacy than finding the point of thematic saturation. Thus, we advance the concept of saturation in salience and emphasize probing to increase the amount of information collected per respondent to increase sample efficiency.

Introduction

Open-ended questions are used alone or in combination with other interviewing techniques to explore topics in depth, to understand processes, and to identify potential causes of observed correlations. Open-ended questions may produce lists, short answers, or lengthy narratives, but in all cases, an enduring question is: How many interviews are needed to be sure that the range of salient items (in the case of lists) and themes (in the case of narratives) are covered. Guidelines for collecting lists, short answers, and narratives often recommend continuing interviews until saturation is reached. The concept of theoretical saturation —the point where the main ideas and variations relevant to the formulation of a theory have been identified—was first articulated by Glaser and Strauss [ 1 , 2 ] in the context of how to develop grounded theory. Most of the literature on analyzing qualitative data, however, deals with observable thematic saturation —the point during a series of interviews where few or no new ideas, themes, or codes appear [ 3 – 6 ].

Since the goal of research based on qualitative data is not necessarily to collect all or most ideas and themes but to collect the most important ideas and themes, salience may provide a better guide to sample size adequacy than saturation. Salience (often called cultural or cognitive salience) can be measured by the frequency of item occurrence (prevalence) or the order of mention [ 7 , 8 ]. These two indicators tend to be correlated [ 9 ]. In a set of lists of birds, for example, robins are reported more frequently and appear earlier in responses than are penguins. Salient terms are also more prevalent in everyday language [ 10 – 12 ]. Item salience also may be estimated by combining an item’s frequency across lists with its rank/position on individual lists [ 13 – 16 ].

In this article, we estimate the point of complete thematic saturation and the associated sample size and domain size for 28 sets of interviews in which respondents were asked to list all the things they could think of in one of 18 topical domains. The domains—like kinds of fruits (highly bounded) and things that mothers do (unbounded)—varied greatly in size. We also examine the impact of the amount of information produced per respondent on saturation and on the number of unique items obtained by comparing results generated by asking respondents to name all the relevant things they can with results obtained from a limited number of responses per question, as with standard open-ended questioning. Finally, we introduce an additional type of saturation based on the relative salience of items and themes— saturation in salience —and we explore whether the most salient items are captured at minimal sample sizes. A key conclusion is that saturation may be more meaningfully and more productively conceived of as the point where the most salient ideas have been obtained .

Recent research on saturation

Increasingly, researchers are applying systematic analysis and sampling theory to untangle the problems of saturation and sample size in the enormous variety of studies that rely on qualitative data—including life-histories, discourse analysis, ethnographic decision modeling, focus groups, grounded theory, and more. For example, Guest et al.[ 17 ] and others[ 18 – 19 ] found that about 12–16 interviews were adequate to achieve thematic saturation. Similarly, Hagaman and Wutich [ 20 ] found that they could reliably retrieve the three most salient themes from each of the four sites in the first 16 interviews.

Galvin[ 21 ] and Fugard and Potts[ 22 ] framed the sample size problem for qualitative data in terms of the likelihood that a specific idea or theme will or will not appear in a set of interviews, given the prevalence of those ideas in the population. They used traditional statistical theory to show that small samples retrieve only the most prevalent themes and that larger samples are more sensitive and can retrieve less prevalent themes as well. This framework can be applied to the expectation of observing or not observing almost anything. Here it would apply to the likelihood of observing a theme in a set of narrative responses, but it applies equally well for situations such as behavioral observations, where specific behaviors are being observed and sampled[ 23 ]. For example, to obtain ideas or themes that would be reported by about one out of five people (0.20 prevalence) or a behavior with the same prevalence, there is a 95% likelihood of seeing those themes or behaviors at least once in 14 interviews—if those themes or behaviors are independent.

Saturation and sample size have also begun to be examined with multivariate models and simulations. Tran et al. [ 24 ] estimated thematic saturation and the total number of themes from open-ended questions in a large survey and then simulated data to test predictions about sample size and saturation. They assumed that items were independent and found that sample sizes greater than 50 would add less than one new theme per additional person interviewed.

Similarly, Lowe et al. [ 25 ] estimated saturation and domain size in two examples and in simulated datasets, testing the effect of various parameters. Lowe et al. found that responses were not independent across respondents and that saturation may never be reached. In this context, non-independence refers to the fact that some responses are much more likely than others to be repeated across people. Instead of complete saturation, they suggested using a goal such as obtaining a percentage of the total domain that one would like to capture (e.g., 90%) and the average prevalence of items one would like to observe to estimate the appropriate sample size. For example, to obtain 90% of items with an average prevalence of 0.20, a sample size of 36 would be required. Van Rijnsoever [ 26 ] used simulated datasets to study the accumulation of themes across sample size increments and assessed the effect of different sampling strategies, item prevalence, and domain size on saturation. Van Rijnsoever’s results indicated that the point of saturation was dependent on the prevalence of the items.

As modeling estimates to date have been based on only one or two real-world examples, it is clear that more empirical examples are needed. Here, we use 28 real-world examples to estimate the impact of sample size, domain size, and amount of information per respondent on saturation and on the total number of items obtained. Using the proportion of people in a sample that mentioned an item as a measure of salience, we find that even small samples may adequately capture the most salient items.

Materials and methods

The datasets comprise 20–99 interviews each (1,147 total interviews). Each example elicits multiple responses from each individual in response to an open-ended question (“Name all the … you can think of”) or a question with probes (“What other … are there?”).

Data were obtained by contacting researchers who published analyses of free lists. Examples with 20 or more interviews were selected so that saturation could be examined incrementally through a range of sample sizes. Thirteen published examples were obtained on: illness terms [ 27 ] (in English and in Spanish); birds, flowers, and fabrics [ 28 ]; recreational/street drugs and fruits [ 29 ]; things mothers do (online, face-to-face, and written administration) and racial and ethnic groups [ 30 ] (online, face-to-face, and written administration). Fifteen unpublished classroom educational examples were obtained on: soda pops (Weller, n.d.); holidays (two replications), things that might appear in a living room, characteristics of a good leader (two replications), a good team (two replications), and a good team player (Johnson, n.d.); and bad words, industries (two replications), cultural industries (two replications), and scary things (Borgatti, n.d.). (Original data appear online in S1 Appendix The Original Data for the 28 Examples.)

Some interviews were face to face, some were written responses, and some were administered on-line. Investigators varied in their use of prompts, using nonspecific (What other … are there?), semantic (repeating prior responses and then asking for others), and/or alphabetic prompts (going through the alphabet and asking for others). Brewer [ 29 ] and Gravlee et al. [ 30 ] specifically examined the effect of prompting on response productivity, although the Brewer et al. examples in these analyses contain results before extensive prompting and the Gravlee et al. examples contain results after prompting. The 28 examples, their topic, source, sample size, the question used in the original data collection, and the three most frequently mentioned items appear in Table 1 . All data were collected and analyzed without personal identifying information.

For each example, statistical models describe the pattern of obtaining new or unique items with incremental increases in sample size. Individual lists were first analyzed with Flame [ 31 , 32 ] to provide the list of unique items for each example and the Smith [ 14 ] and Sutrop [ 15 ] item salience scores. Duplicate items due to spelling, case errors, spacing, or variations were combined.

To help develop an interviewing stopping rule, a simple model was used to predict the unique number of items contributed by each additional respondent. Generalized linear models (GLM, log-linear models for count data) were used to predict the unique number of items added by each respondent (incrementing sample size), because number of unique items added by each respondent (count data) is approximately Poisson distributed. For each example, models were fit with ordinary least squares linear regression, Poisson, and negative binomial probability distributions. Respondents were assumed to be in random order, in the order in which they occurred in each dataset, although in some cases they were in the order they were interviewed. Goodness-of-fit was compared across the three models with minimized deviants (the Akaike Information Criterion, AIC) to find the best-fitting model [ 33 ]. Using the best-fitting model for each example, the point of saturation was estimated as the point where the expected number of new items was one or less. Sample size and domain size were estimated at the point of saturation, and total domain size was estimated for an infinite sample size from the model for each example as the limit of a geometric series (assuming a negative slope).

Because the GLM models above used only incremental sample size to predict the total number of unique items (domain size) and ignored variation in the number of items provided by each person and variation in item salience, an additional analysis was used to estimate domain size while accounting for subject and item heterogeneity. For that analysis, domain size was estimated with a capture-recapture estimation technique used for estimating the size of hidden populations. Domain size was estimated from the total number of items on individual lists and the number of matching items between pairs of lists with a log-linear analysis. For example, population size can be estimated from the responses of two people as the product of their number of responses divided by the number of matching items (assumed to be due to chance). If Person#1 named 15 illness terms and Person#2 named 31 terms and they matched on five illnesses, there would be 41 unique illness terms and the estimated total number of illness terms based on these two people would be (15 x 31) /5 = 93.

A log-linear solution generalizes this logic from a 2 x 2 table to a 2 K table [ 34 ]. the capture–recapture solution estimates total population size for hidden populations using the pattern of recapture (matching) between pairs of samples (respondents) to estimate the population size. An implementation in R with GLM uses a log-linear form to estimate population size based on recapture rates (Rcapture [ 35 , 36 ]). In this application, it is assumed that the population does not change between interviews (closed population) and models are fit with: (1) no variation across people or items (M 0 ); (2) variation only across respondents (M t ); (3) variation only across items (M h ); and (4) variation due to an interaction between people and items (M ht ). For each model, estimates were fit with binomial, Chao’s lower bound estimate, Poisson, Darroch log normal, and gamma distributions [ 35 ]. Variation among items (heterogeneity) is a test for a difference in the probabilities of item occurrence and, in this case, is equivalent to a test for a difference in item salience among the items. Due to the large number of combinations needed to estimate these models, Rcapture software estimates are provided for all four models only up to a sample of size 10. For larger sample sizes (all examples in this study had sample sizes of 20 or larger), only model 1 with no effects for people or items (the binomial model) and model 3 with item effects (item salience differences) were tested. Therefore, models were fit at size 10, to test all four models and then at the total available sample size.

Descriptive information for the examples appears in Table 2 . The first four columns list the name of the example, the sample size in the original study, the mean list length (with the range of the list length across respondents), and the total number of unique items obtained. For the Holiday1 example, interviews requested names of holidays (“Write down all the holidays you can think of”), there were 24 respondents, the average number of holidays listed per person (list length) was 13 (ranging from five to 29), and 62 unique holidays were obtained.

nbi = Negative binomial-identity, p = Poisson-log ; c = Chao’s Lower bound; g = gamma

Predicting thematic saturation from sample size

The free-list counts showed a characteristic descending curve where an initial person listed new themes and each additional person repeated some themes already reported and added new items, but fewer and fewer new items were added with incremental increases in sample size. All examples were fit using the GLM log-link and identity-link with normal, Poisson, and negative binomial distributions. The negative binomial model resulted in a better fit than the Poisson (or identity-link models) for most full-listing examples, providing the best fit to the downward sloping curve with a long tail. Of the 28 examples, only three were not best fit by negative binomial log-link models: the best-fitting model for two examples was the Poisson log-link model (GoodTeam1 and GoodTeam2Player) and one was best fit by the negative binomial identity-link model (CultInd1).

Sample size was a significant predictor of the number of new items for 21 of the 28 examples. Seven examples did not result in a statistically significant fit (Illnesses-US, Holiday2, Industries1, Industries2, GoodTLeader, GoodTeam2Player, and GoodTeam3). The best-fitting model was used to predict the point of saturation and domain size for all 28 examples ( S2 Appendix GLM Statistical Model Results for the 28 Examples).

Using the best-fitting GLM models we estimated the predicted sample size for reaching saturation. Saturation was defined as the point where less than one new item would be expected for each additional person interviewed. Using the models to solve for the sample size (X) when only one item was obtained per person (Y = 1) and rounding up to the nearest integer, provided the point of saturation (Y≤1.0). Table 2 , column five, reports the sample size where saturation was reached (N SAT ). For Holiday1, one or fewer new items were obtained per person when X = 16.98. Rounding up to the next integer provides the saturation point (N SAT = 17). For the Fruit domain, saturation occurred at a sample size of 15.

Saturation was reached at sample sizes of 15–194, with a median sample size of 75. Only five examples (Holiday1, Fruits, Birds, Flowers, and Drugs) reached saturation within the original study sample size and most examples did not reach saturation even after four or five dozen interviews. A more liberal definition of saturation, defined as the point where less than two new items would be expected for each additional person (solving for Y≤2), resulted in a median sample size for reaching saturation of 50 (range 10–146).

Some domains were well bounded and were elicited with small sample sizes. Some were not. In fact, most of the distributions exhibited a very long tail—where many items were mentioned by only one or two people. Fig 1 shows the predicted curves for all examples for sample sizes of 1 to 50. Saturation is the point where the descending curve crosses Y = 1 (or Y = 2). Although the expected number of unique ideas or themes obtained for successive respondents tends to decrease as the sample size increases, this occurs rapidly in some domains and slowly or not at all in other domains. Fruits, Holiday1, and Illness-G are domains with the three bottom-most curves and the steepest descent, indicating that saturation was reached rapidly and with small sample sizes. The three top-most curves are the Moms-F2F, Industries1, and Industries2 domains, which reached saturation at very large sample sizes or essentially did not reach saturation.

Estimating domain size

Because saturation appeared to be related to domain size and some investigators state that a percentage of the domain might be a better standard [ 25 ], domain size was also estimated. First, total domain size was estimated with the GLM models obtained above. Domain size was estimated at the point of saturation by cumulatively summing the number of items obtained for sample sizes n = 1, n = 2, n = 3, … to N SAT . For the Holiday1 sample, summing the number of predicted unique items for sample sizes n = 1 to n = 17 should yield 51 items ( Table 2 , Domain Size at Saturation, D SAT ). Thus, the model predicted that approximately 51 holidays would be obtained by the time saturation was reached.

The total domain size was estimated using a geometric series, summing the estimated number of unique items obtained cumulatively across people in an infinitely large sample. For the Holiday1 domain, the total domain size was estimated as 56 (see Table 2 , Total Domain Size D TOT ). So for the Holiday1 domain, although the total domain size was estimated to be 57, the model predicted that saturation occurred when the sample size reached 17, and at that point 51 holidays should be retrieved. Model predictions were close to the empirical data, as 62 holidays were obtained with a sample of 24.

Larger sample sizes were needed to reach saturation in larger domains; the largest domains were MomsF2F, Industries1, and Industries2 each estimated to have about 1,000 items and more than 100 interviews needed to approach saturation. Saturation (Y≤1) tended to occur at about 90% of the total domain size. For Fruits, the domain size at saturation was 51 and the total domain size was estimated at 53 (51/53 = 96%) and for MomsF2F, domain size at saturation was 904 and total domain size was 951 (95%).

Second, total domain size was estimated using a capture-recapture log-linear model with a parameter for item heterogeneity [ 35 , 36 ]. A descending, concave curve is diagnostic of item heterogeneity and was present in almost all of the examples. The estimated population sizes using R-Capture appear in the last column of Table 2 . When the gamma distribution provided the best fit to the response data, the domain size increased by an order of magnitude as did the standard error on that estimate. When responses fit a gamma distribution, the domain may be extremely large and may not readily reach saturation.

Inclusion of the pattern of matching items across people with a parameter for item heterogeneity (overlap in items between people due to salience) resulted in larger population size estimates than those above without heterogeneity. Estimation from the first two respondents was not helpful and provided estimates much lower than those from any of the other methods. The simple model without subject or item effects (the binomial model) did not fit any of the examples. Estimation from the first 10 respondents in each example suggested that more variation was due to item heterogeneity than to item and subject heterogeneity, so we report only the estimated domain size with the complete samples accounting for item heterogeneity in salience.

Overall, the capture–recapture estimates incorporating the effect of salience were larger than the GLM results above without a parameter for salience. For Fruits, the total domain size was estimated as 45 from the first two people; as 88 (gamma distribution estimate) from the first 10 people with item heterogeneity and as 67 (Chao lower bound estimate) with item and subject heterogeneity; and using the total sample ( n = 33) the binomial model (without any heterogeneity parameters) estimated the domain size as 62 (but did not fit the data) and with item heterogeneity the domain size was estimated as 73 (the best-fitting model used the Chao lower bound estimate). Thus, the total domain size for Fruits estimated with a simple GLM model was 53 and with a capture–recapture model (including item heterogeneity) was 73 ( Table 2 , last column). Similarly, the domain size for Holiday1 was estimated at 57 with the simple GLM model and 100 with capture-recapture model. Domain size estimates suggest that even the simplest domains can be large and that inclusion of item heterogeneity increases domain size estimates.

Saturation and the number of responses per person

The original examples used an exhaustive listing of responses to obtain about a half dozen (GoodLeader and GoodTeam2Player) to almost three dozen responses per person (Industries1 and Industries2). A question is whether saturation and the number of unique ideas obtained might be affected by the number of responses per person. Since open-ended questions may obtain only a few responses, we limited the responses to a maximum of three per person, truncating lists to see the effect on the number of items obtained at different sample sizes and the point of saturation.

When more information (a greater number of responses) was collected per person, more unique items were obtained even at smaller sample sizes ( Table 3 ). The amount of information retrieved per sample can be conceived of in terms of bits of information per sample and is roughly the average number of responses per person times the sample size so that, with all other things being equal, larger sample sizes with less probing should approach the same amount of information obtained with smaller samples and more probing. So, for a given sample size, a study with six responses per person should obtain twice as much information as a study with three responses per person. In the GoodLeader, GoodTeam1, and GoodTeam2Player examples, the average list length was approximately six and when the sample size was 10 (6 x 10 = 60 bits of information), approximately twice as many items were obtained as when lists were truncated to three responses (3 x 10 = 30 bits of information).

Increasing the sample size proportionately increases the amount of information, but not always. For Scary Things, 5.6 bits more information were collected per person with full listing (16.9 average list length) than with three or fewer responses per person (3.0 list length); and the number of items obtained in a sample size of 10 with full listing (102) was roughly 5.6 times greater than that obtained with three responses per person (18 items). However, at a sample size of 20 the number of unique items with free lists was only 4.5 times larger (153) than the number obtained with three responses per person (34). Across examples , interviews that obtained more information per person were more productive and obtained more unique items overall even with smaller sample sizes than did interviews with only three responses per person .

Using the same definition of saturation (the point where less than one new item would be expected for each additional person interviewed), less information per person resulted in reaching saturation at much smaller sample sizes. Fig 2 shows the predicted curves for all examples when the number of responses per person is three (or fewer). The Holiday examples reached saturation (fewer than one new item per person) with a sample size of 17 (Holiday1) with 13.0 average responses per person and 87 (Holiday2) with 17.8 average responses ( Table 2 ), but reached saturation with a sample size of only 9 (Holiday 1 and Holiday2) when there were a maximum of three responses per person ( Table 3 , last column). With three or fewer responses per person, the median sample size for reaching saturation was 16 (range: 4–134). Thus, fewer responses per person resulted in reaching saturation at smaller sample sizes and resulted in fewer domain items.

Salience and sample size

Saturation did not seem to be a useful guide for determining a sample size stopping point, because it was sensitive both to domain size and the number of responses per person. Since a main goal of open-ended interviews is to obtain the most important ideas and themes, it seemed reasonable to consider item salience as an alternative guide to assist with determining sample size adequacy. Here, the question would be: Whether or not complete saturation is achieved, are the most salient ideas and themes captured in small samples?

A simple and direct measure of item salience is the proportion of people in a sample that mentioned an item [ 37 ]. However, we examined the correlation between the sample proportions and two salience indices that combine the proportion of people mentioning an item with the item’s list position [ 13 – 15 ]. Because the item frequency distributions have long tails—there are many items mentioned by only one or two people—we focused on only those items mentioned by two or more people (24–204 items) and used the full lists provided by each respondent. The average Spearman correlation between the Smith and Sutrop indices in the 28 examples was 0.95 (average Pearson correlation 0.96, 95%CI: 0.92, 0.98), between the Smith index and the sample proportions was 0.89 (average Pearson 0.96, 95%CI: 0.915, 0.982), and between the Sutrop index and the sample proportions was 0.86 (average Pearson 0.88 95%CI: 0.753, 0.943). Thus, the three measures were highly correlated in 28 examples that varied in content, number of items, and sample size—validating the measurement of a single construct.

To test whether the most salient ideas and themes were captured in smaller samples or with limited probing, we used the sample proportions to estimate item salience and compared the set of most salient items across sample sizes and across more and less probing. Specifically, we defined a set of salient items for each example as those mentioned by 20% or more in the sample of size 20 (because all examples had at least 20) with full-listing (because domains were more detailed). We compared the set of salient items with the set of items obtained at smaller sample sizes and with fewer responses per person.

The set size for salient items (prevalence ≥ 20%) was not related to overall domain size, but was an independent characteristic of each domain and whether there were core or prototypical items with higher salience. Most domains had about two dozen items mentioned by 20% or more of the original listing sample ( n = 20), but some domains had only a half dozen or fewer items (GoodLeader, GoodTeam2Player, GoodTeam3). With full listing, 26 of 28 examples captured more than 95% of the salient ideas in the first 10 interviews: 18 examples captured 100%, eight examples captured 95–99%, one example captured 91%, and one captured 80% ( Table 4 ). With a maximum of three responses per person, about two-thirds of the salient items (68%) were captured with 20 interviews and about half of the items (53%) were captured in the first 10 interviews. With a sample size of 20, a greater number of responses per person resulted in approximately 50% more items than with three responses per person. Extensive probing resulted in a greater capture of salient items even with smaller sample sizes.

Summary and discussion

The strict notion of complete saturation as the point where few or no new ideas are observed is not a useful concept to guide sample size decisions, because it is sensitive to domain size and the amount of information contributed by each respondent. Larger sample sizes are necessary to reach saturation for large domains and it is difficult to know, when starting a study, just how large the domain or set of ideas will be. Also, when respondents only provide a few responses or codes per person, saturation may be reached quickly. So, if complete thematic saturation is observed, it is difficult to know whether the domain is small or whether the interviewer did only minimal probing.

Rather than attempting to reach complete saturation with an incremental sampling plan, a more productive focus might be on gaining more depth with probing and seeking the most salient ideas. Rarely do we need all the ideas and themes, rather we tend to be looking for important or salient ideas. A greater number of responses per person resulted in the capture of a greater number of salient items. With exhaustive listing, the first 10 interviews obtained 95% of the salient ideas (defined here as item prevalence of 0.20 or more), while only 53% of those ideas were obtained in 10 interviews with three or fewer responses per person.

We used a simple statistical model to predict the number of new items added by each additional person and found that complete saturation was not a helpful concept for free-lists, as the median sample size was 75 to get fewer than one new idea per person. It is important to note that we assumed that interviews were in a random order or were in the order that the interviews were conducted and were not reordered to any kind of optimum. The reordering of respondents to maximally fit a saturation curve may make it appear that saturation has been reached at a smaller sample size [ 31 ].

Most of the examples examined in this study needed sample sizes larger than most qualitative researchers use to reach saturation. Mason’s [ 6 ] review of 298 PhD dissertations in the United Kingdom, all based on qualitative data, found a mean sample size of 27 (range 1–95). Here, few of the examples reached saturation with less than four dozen interviews. Even with large sample sizes, some domains may continue to add new items. For very large domains, an incremental sampling strategy may lead to dozens and dozens of interviews and still not reach complete saturation. The problem is that most domains have very long tails in the distribution of observed items, with many items mentioned by only one or two people. A more liberal definition of complete saturation (allowing up to two new items per person) allowed for saturation to occur at smaller sample sizes, but saturation still did not occur until a median sample size of 50.

In the examples we studied, most domains were large and domain size affected when saturation occurred. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be a good or simple way at the outset to tell if a domain would be large or small. Most domains were much larger than expected, even on simple topics. Domain size varied by substantive content, sample, and degree of heterogeneity in salience. Domain size and saturation were sample dependent, as the holiday examples showed. Also, domain size estimates did not mean that there are only 73 fruits, rather the pattern of naming fruits—for this particular sample—indicated a set size of 73.

It was impossible to know, when starting, if a topic or domain was small and would require 15 interviews to reach saturation or if the domain was large and would require more than 100 interviews to reach saturation. Although eight of the examples had sample sizes of 50–99, sample sizes in qualitative studies are rarely that large. Estimates of domain size were even larger when models incorporated item heterogeneity (salience). The Fruit example had an estimated domain size of 53 without item heterogeneity, but 73 with item heterogeneity. The estimated size of the Fabric domain increased from 210 to 753 when item heterogeneity was included.

The number of responses per person affected both saturation and the number of obtained items. A greater number of responses per person resulted in a greater yield of domain items. The bits of information obtained in a sample can be approximated by the product of the average number of responses per person (list length) and the number of people in a sample. However, doubling the sample size did not necessarily double the unique items obtained because of item salience and sampling variability. When only a few items are obtained from each person, only the most salient items tend to be provided by each person and fewer items are obtained overall.

Brewer [ 29 ] explored the effect of probing or prompting on interview yield. Brewer examined the use of a few simple prompts: simply asking for more responses, providing alphabetical cues, or repeating the last response(s) and asking again for more information. Semantic cueing, repeating prior responses and asking for more information, increased the yield by approximately 50%. The results here indicated a similar pattern. When more information was elicited per person , about 50% more domain items were retrieved than when people provided a maximum of three responses.

Interviewing to obtain multiple responses also affects saturation. With few responses per person, complete saturation was reached rapidly. Without extensive interview probing, investigators may reach saturation quickly and assume they have a sample sufficient to retrieve most of the domain items. Unfortunately, different degrees of salience among items may cause strong effects for respondents to repeat similar ideas—the most salient ideas—without elaborating on less salient or less prevalent ideas, resulting in a set of only the ideas with the very highest salience. If an investigator wishes to obtain most of the ideas that are relevant in a domain , a small sample with extensive probing (listing) will prove much more productive than a large sample with casual or no probing .

Recently, Galvin [ 21 ] and Fugard and Potts [ 22 ] framed sample size estimation for qualitative interviewing in terms of binomial probabilities. However, results for the 28 examples with multiple responses per person suggest that this may not be appropriate because of the interdependencies among items due to salience. The capture–recapture analysis indicated that none of the 28 examples fit the binomial distribution. Framing the sample size problem in terms that a specific idea or theme will or will not appear in a set of interviews may facilitate thinking about sample size, but such estimates may be misleading.

If a binomial distribution is assumed, sample size can be estimated from the prevalence of an idea in the population, from how confident you want to be in obtaining these ideas, and from how many times you would like these ideas to minimally appear across participants in your interviews. A binomial estimate assumes independence (no difference in salience across items) and predicts that if an idea or theme actually occurs in 20% of the population, there is a 90% or higher likelihood of obtaining those themes at least once in 11 interviews and a 95% likelihood in 14 interviews. In contrast, our results indicated that the heterogeneity in salience across items causes these estimates to underestimate the necessary sample size as items with ≥20% prevalence were captured in 10 interviews in only 64% of the samples with full listing and in only 4% (one) of samples with three or fewer responses.

Lowe et al. [ 25 ] also found that items were not independent and that binomial estimates significantly underestimated sample size. They proposed sample size estimation from the desired proportion of items at a given average prevalence. Their formula predicts that 36 interviews would be necessary to capture 90% of items with an average prevalence of 0.20, regardless of degree of heterogeneity in salience, domain size, or amount of information provided per respondent. Although they included a parameter for non-independence, their model does not seem to be accurate for cases with limited responses or for large domains.

Conclusions

In general , probing and prompting during an interview seems to matter more than the number of interviews . Thematic saturation may be an illusion and may result from a failure to use in-depth probing during the interview. A small sample ( n = 10) can collect some of the most salient ideas, but a small sample with extensive probing can collect most of the salient ideas. A larger sample ( n = 20) is more sensitive and can collect more prevalent and more salient ideas, as well as less prevalent ideas, especially with probing. Some domains, however, may not have items with high prevalence. Several of the domains examined had only a half dozen or fewer items with prevalence of 20% or more. The direct link between salience and population prevalence offers a rationale for sample size and facilitates study planning. If the goal is to get a few widely held ideas, a small sample size will suffice. If the goal is to explore a larger range of ideas, a larger sample size or extensive probing is needed. Sample sizes of one to two dozen interviews should be sufficient with exhaustive probing (listing interviews), especially in a coherent domain. Empirically observed stabilization of item salience may indicate an adequate sample size.

A next step would be to test whether these conclusions and recommendations hold for other types of open-ended questions, such as narratives, life histories, and open-ended questions in large surveys. Open-ended survey questions are inefficient and result in thin or sparse data with few responses per person because of a lack of prompting. Tran et al. [ 24 ] reported item prevalence of 0.025 in answers in a large Internet survey suggesting few responses per person. In contrast, we used an item prevalence of 0.20 and higher to identify the most salient items in each domain and the highest prevalence in each domain ranged from 0.30 to 0.80 ( Table 1 ). Inefficiency in open-ended survey questions is likely due to the dual purpose of the questions: They try to define the range of possible answers and get the respondent’s answer. A better approach might be to precede survey development with a dozen free-listing interviews to get the range of possible responses and then use that content to design structured survey questions.

Another avenue for investigation is how our findings on thematic saturation compare to theoretical saturation in grounded theory studies [ 2 , 38 , 39 ]. Grounded theory studies rely on theoretical sampling–-an iterative procedure in which a single interview is coded for themes; the next respondent is selected to discover new themes and relationships between themes; and so on, until no more relevant themes or inter-relationships are discovered and a theory is built to explain the facts/themes of the case under study. In contrast this study examined thematic saturation, the simple accumulation of ideas and themes, and found that saturation in salience was more attainable–-perhaps more important—than thematic saturation.

Supporting information

S1 appendix, s2 appendix, acknowledgments.

We would like to thank Devon Brewer and Kristofer Jennings for providing feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Devon Brewer for providing data from his studies on free-lists.

Funding Statement

This project was partially supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R24HS022134). Funding for the original data sets was from the National Science Foundation (#BCS-0244104) for Gravlee et al. (2013), from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R29DA10640) for Brewer et al. (2002), and from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for Brewer (1995). Content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

Data Availability

The Ultimate Guide to Open-Ended Questions vs. Closed-Ended Questions

• Written By Lena Katz
• Updated: November 15, 2023

What is an open-ended question? An open-ended question is one that can only be answered by a unique thought or statement in someone’s own words. Unlike a closed-ended question, it cannot be answered in one word, or by yes/no, or by multiple choice. Open-ended questions encourage people to incorporate more of their own information and point of view.

For stronger connections,  better insights , and more business, experts recommend one conversational tool above all in the demo or discovery phase: open-ended questions. Profile writers use them all the time to elicit thoughts and anecdotes from their subjects.

Smart marketers also use them to maximize authentic engagement with new business leads and current clients. However, there’s a method and skill required to ask open-ended questions… and part of it is realizing and leveraging the other, equally important benefits of asking closed-ended questions.

In this article, we’ll go over the best habits to get into for asking open-ended questions, when to use closed-ended questions instead, scenarios when you might need to use both, the different ways they impact data collection , and some examples of open versus closed questions as used in marketing, sales, and content interviews.

But first, a little teaser of examples for each approach…

Examples of open-ended questions:

• Where would you like your business to grow from here?
• What would success look like to you?
• What campaigns are out there right now that caught your eye, and for what reasons?
• What are a couple of day-to-day practices of yours that people can implement for greater success/fulfillment in their own lives?
• Can you give me a few dates for a follow-up call?

Examples of closed-ended questions

• Are you satisfied with your current sales numbers?
• What is your #1 goal?
• Did you like your competitor’s latest campaign/commercial?
• Where can someone go to learn more about what you do?
• When would you like to set a follow-up?

What is an open-ended question?

An open-ended question is one that can only be answered by a unique thought or statement in someone’s own words — it cannot be answered in one word, or by yes/no, or by multiple choice. Open-ended questions encourage people to come up with a more thoughtful and filled-out answer incorporating more of their own information and point of view.

People who want to keep an exchange of information and flow of thoughts going with whomever they’re interviewing will generally stick with open-ended questions. These questions encourage interviewees to explore their “why” and to give context to their decisions.

They illuminate the reasoning behind decisions and opinions. In interviews, they help the writer/producer get to know and understand a subject… and then pass that insight along to readers.

Why/when are open-ended questions recommended/important?

They can be used at any time when it’s more important to the interviewer to elicit thoughts and opinions and insights than to get definitive answers.

Situations may include:

• Informational interviews with business prospects
• Discovery sessions with potential or new clients
• Feedback sessions with existing clients
• Testimonial interviews
• Interviews for profiles
• Market research — when you’re trying to gauge people’s perception of a brand
• Market research — customer insight interviews
• Customer satisfaction surveys —  solicit people’s opinions

Do’s for crafting open-ended questions:

• Do start off with “Why…” or “What…” But if you fear that even with that opening, your question will lead to a succinct answer, build in a request for the interviewee to share their thoughts, not get straight to the point.
• Do ask people to explain something.
• Do ask people for their thoughts on something.
• Do ask for an example.
• Do remember, an open-ended question can also be phrased as a statement: “Tell me about a moment when…”
• Do follow a closed-ended question with an open-ended question — to get exact data, and then an explanation of the data provided.

Don’ts for crafting open-ended questions:

• Don’t make them so broad that people get confused.
• Don’t encourage lengthy answers to every question (especially if this is a survey situation).
• Don’t overuse them and forget to get quantitative data.
• Don’t make them two-part questions where each part requires its own separate train of thought.
• Don’t prompt an answer or make any suggestions that could push an answer in a certain direction.

What is a closed-ended question?

We’ve briefly touched upon closed-ended questions just to compare with open-ended ones. Now, let’s define exactly what they are and in what scenarios it’s better to use them.

Closed-ended questions require one specific answer — either a yes/no or a choice between a few options. Sometimes they’re in pursuit of a fact, and sometimes a decision. These types of questions are used to collect quantitative data , which can be mapped out on charts or graphs.

The answers are also used to come up with numerical ratings of how a company is performing or meeting customer expectations. When used by salespeople, closed-ended questions can also be a tactic to assess how cold or warm a lead is, and to move the sales process along.

For interviewers such as writers, closed-ended questions are often used to establish background facts about a topic or person. They can also be used for winding up an exploratory Q+A session with some definitive conclusions.

You see this on reality TV interviews often. One person shares her drama with another cast member, explores the person’s possible motivations, speculates on her intentions, and then the interviewer asks:  Do you trust that person?   No.   Do you still think of her as a friend?   No.

It puts a bow on the conversation and lets viewers know where the storyline is headed.

Why/when are closed-ended questions important to use?

• When you want to get fast facts or basic biographical details
• When you need answers to be exact
• When you are collecting quantitative data
• When the answer is provided, it will determine whether or not it makes sense to continue pursuing a lead (especially related to budget and timeline)
• When you are setting goals and KPIs that you’ll be expected to deliver against
• When you’re fact-checking
• When your legal department is going to want to put information into a contract

Do’s for crafting closed-ended questions:

• Do begin the question with Have , Will or Do/Did .
• Do switch up the question structure between yes/no, multiple-choice, rating scale multiple-choice, and fact-based answers.
• Do create the questions according to what data you need to get from a study, survey, or questionnaire.
• Do follow (or lead) a closed-ended question with an open-ended question to get both quantitative and qualitative information.

Don’ts for crafting closed-ended questions:

• Don’t provide a selection of multiple choice answers that’s too limited to cover the full range of possibilities.
• Don’t assume that everyone will be able to make a yes/no answer based on their experience of something.
• Don’t attempt to craft complex or two-part questions as you might with an open-ended question.
• Don’t use this format to explore emotions or feelings.
• Don’t create a survey or study that is only closed-ended questions; at minimum have an open-ended question at the end of each section that allows people to explain their answers or give context to them.

Open-ended vs. closed-ended questions

Let’s have a look at the different purposes they serve, how they complement each other, what kind of data they garner, and how each can be used in our three scenarios (a sales call, a marketing exercise, a writers’ interview).

• An open-ended question opens up a topic for exploration and discussion while a closed-ended question leads to a closed-off conversational path. After “Yes” or “No” or the specific one-word answer to the question, the thread is done.
• Open-ended questions lead to qualitative answers while closed-ended questions lead to quantitative answers.
• Open-ended questions ask people for their why while closed-ended questions ask people for their decision .

In shopper behavior analysis:

• Open-ended questions spend time peeling back the layers of why someone feels some way about a product.
• Closed-ended questions take a person through their buying habits: how often do they buy a product, which brand do they typically buy, have they heard of your brand, do they buy it.

In sales meetings:

• Open-ended questions help you understand your potential customer better.
• Closed-ended questions help you realistically decide whether there’s business to close.

In marketing research:

• Open-ended questions are good for getting customer insights.
• Closed-ended questions are good for establishing who is a loyal customer and who has little brand awareness or loyalty.

In writing profiles or bios:

•  Open-ended questions are good for establishing a connection, getting lots of nuanced details, and pulling back the curtain on a person’s life.
• Closed-ended questions are good for establishing their credentials , hitting biographical details, and fact-checking anecdotes you discovered during preliminary research.

Sample open-ended questions vs. closed-ended questions

10 open-ended vs. closed question set examples

For sales professionals.

When you’re in sales, open-ended questions are good for understanding more about your customer and opening up a real dialogue. Closed-ended questions are good for getting prospects to let you know whether they have any intentions of signing a contract any time soon.

Sales example 1:

CLOSED : Were you happy with your former [agency/SaaS provider/other competing product or vendor]? OPEN : What was it about your former [competing product/vendor] that has you looking for a new vendor?

Sales example 2:

CLOSED:  Are you satisfied with your current sales numbers? OPEN : Where would you like your business to grow from here?

Sales example 3:

CLOSED : Have you ever executed the kind of project/campaign we specialize in before, either on your own or with a different partner? OPEN : Tell me about a case study or existing campaign/project in the market that is in this category that you really like. It can be one of your own, or another company.

Sales example 4:

CLOSED : (after a product demo) Do you have any questions? OPEN :  We went through a lot of information just now. What part stood out to you the most, either because you loved it or because you’d like a little more time to understand?

Sales example 5:

CLOSED : (after going through prices) Does this fall more-or-less into the budget range you have in mind? OPEN:  Could you tell me how you’d want to customize a scope-of-work or what services would be important to you? That way I can come up with a price quote.

Sales example 6:

CLOSED : What’s your main goal that you’re hoping I can help with? OPEN :  What are your immediate and also your big-picture goals?

Sales example 7:

CLOSED : Are you interested in buying/subscribing to/getting a membership to the product I’ve shown you today? OPEN : Now that we’ve previewed our product/service together, what are you thinking your next step will be?

Sales example 8:

CLOSED : When would you like to set a follow-up? OPEN : Can you give me a few dates for a follow-up call?

Sales example 9:

CLOSED : Do you feel like you got all the information you needed? OPEN : Before we wrap, can you tell me what you’d like to look over again — either here or as an email follow-up?

Sales example 10:

CLOSED : On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate our team’s service up to this point? OPEN : Please share anything specific that stood out to you about the service you’ve received from our team so far.

10 open-ended vs. closed question set examples for marketers

Marketers are constantly interacting with customers, stakeholders, current clients and leads — their lives are an interesting mix of collecting data and fostering connection.

Just look at a social media manager’s day-to-day: Half may be spent analyzing paid campaign results and crunching numbers. The other half may be spent following up on an angry customer’s Facebook tirade or getting people’s permission to use content for UGC.

Today’s marketer needs to be able to flip from analyzing facts to feelings, balance trends with tried-and-true, ask closed-ended to open-ended questions instantaneously, and then explain their findings to the non-marketers that they work with or are hoping to work with soon.

Marketing example 1:

CLOSED : Are you satisfied with the quantity and quality of new business leads you’re currently getting? OPEN : What are your thoughts on the new business/lead-gen process at your company as it is now?

Marketing example 2:

CLOSED : What is your #1 goal? OPEN : What would success look like to you?

Marketing example 3:

CLOSED : Have you considered putting your budget toward X channel or tactic? OPEN : What channels and tactics do you feel are important to include in your next marketing plan?

Marketing example 4:

CLOSED : Did you like your competitor’s latest campaign/commercial? OPEN : What campaigns are out there right now that caught your eye, and for what reason?

Marketing example 5:

CLOSED : Which of the four logos shown here is best in your opinion? OPEN : Why did that one stand out to you?

Marketing example 6:

CLOSED : On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied were you with the information provided on our website? OPEN : What areas/sections do you think we can improve and how?

Marketing example 7:

CLOSED : Did you like the first version of the video I just sent over? OPEN : If you had a chance to watch the video I sent, what’s your feedback?

Marketing example 8:

CLOSED : What’s your budget for this activation/campaign/partnership? OPEN : There are a few ways we’ve discussed that a partnership could play out. How flexible is your budget if I were to send three different options?

Marketing example 9:

CLOSED : Are you mainly looking at reach, engagement or conversion as the key metric to gauge success in this campaign? OPEN : Let’s discuss what KPIs will be used to determine success in this campaign.

Marketing example 10:

CLOSED : Can we move forward with X project at $X budget for the dates presented? OPEN : We are ready to answer any final questions you might have before moving forward with this project.

10 open-ended vs. closed question set examples for interviewers:

One pitfall that’s common and you really need to be cautious of with experts and executives is the false open-ended question. This is a question phrased so it could lead to a personal anecdote or insight, but could also be answered with a “No.”

While experts and execs usually like to talk about their work , they will sometimes answer something with a simple “No” because they haven’t thought about it before, and they don’t really have an opinion.

All the open-ended sample questions here are crafted to avoid the possibility of a “No.”

Interview example 1:

CLOSED : What’s your job title? OPEN : How would you describe your professional specialty/expertise /niche?

Interview example 2:

CLOSED : What’s your focus right now? OPEN : Tell me one of your key focuses right now and why you’re interested in it.

Interview example 3:

CLOSED : Do you like X trend? OPEN : Name three of your favorite trends in our industry right now and why you like them.

Interview example 4:

CLOSED : What would you consider your key accomplishment in your field to be? OPEN : Please walk us through the accomplishment that gave you the most satisfaction in your career.

Interview example 5:

CLOSED : What degrees, awards or certifications do you have? OPEN : Of the degrees and awards you’ve received, which would you say are the most meaningful, and why?

Interview example 6:

CLOSED : Was it difficult to transition from [#1 well-documented career] to [#2]? OPEN : You successfully transitioned from [#1 well-documented career] to [#2]. Explain to us how that happened.

Interview example 7:

CLOSED : Can you tell us who will be in your next project/speaking at your next event? OPEN : How do you choose collaborators or speakers for your projects/events?

Interview example 8:

CLOSED : Where can someone go to learn more about what you do? OPEN : What are a couple day-to-day practices of yours that people can implement for greater success/fulfillment in their own lives?

Interview example 9:

CLOSED : What’s new/next for you? OPEN : What upcoming project or venture are you most excited about and why?

Interview example 10:

CLOSED : What social channels can we find you at? OPEN : If we all go follow you on Instagram or Twitter, what kind of content are we going to see?

Open- and closed-ended questions are equally valuable.

While open-ended questions are a buzzword among salespeople and business coaches right now, we think the proper mix of open- and closed-ended is essential to any discovery process.

If you understand the difference between them, know how and for what purpose to use each, and can rework a closed-ended question into an open-ended question on the fly when needed, then you’re halfway to being a great interviewer .

Whether in sales or medical research or journalism, questions are a means to create connections and explore stories. They’re also a way to get useful data. One leads to the “why,” and the other leads to the “yes.”

The real question is: What’s next?

Now that you’re an expert on open and closed-ended questions, you’ll be a master at creating authentic engagement with your brand. But if you need some help, ClearVoice has got you covered. Our managed content creation and expert teams can help you produce content that can maximize your brand’s growth and impact. Connect with us here to see how.

Stay in the know.

We will keep you up-to-date with all the content marketing news and resources. You will be a content expert in no time. Sign up for our free newsletter.

Elevate Your Content Game

Transform your marketing with a consistent stream of high-quality content for your brand.

You May Also Like...

Mastering the Content Audit: ClearVoice Marketing’s Comprehensive Process Revealed

Measuring What Matters in Your Collaborative Content Approach

Amplifying Your Content Strategy: Harnessing User Feedback for Effective Content Audits

• Content Production
• Build Your SEO
• Amplify Your Content
• For Agencies

Why ClearVoice

• Talent Network
• How It Works
• Freelance For Us
• Statement on AI
• Talk to a Specialist

Get Insights In Your Inbox

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Intellectual Property Claims
• Data Collection Preferences

Qualitative Study

Affiliations.

• 1 University of Nebraska Medical Center
• 2 GDB Research and Statistical Consulting
• 3 GDB Research and Statistical Consulting/McLaren Macomb Hospital
• PMID: 29262162
• Bookshelf ID: NBK470395

Qualitative research is a type of research that explores and provides deeper insights into real-world problems. Instead of collecting numerical data points or intervene or introduce treatments just like in quantitative research, qualitative research helps generate hypotheses as well as further investigate and understand quantitative data. Qualitative research gathers participants' experiences, perceptions, and behavior. It answers the hows and whys instead of how many or how much. It could be structured as a stand-alone study, purely relying on qualitative data or it could be part of mixed-methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative data. This review introduces the readers to some basic concepts, definitions, terminology, and application of qualitative research.

Qualitative research at its core, ask open-ended questions whose answers are not easily put into numbers such as ‘how’ and ‘why’. Due to the open-ended nature of the research questions at hand, qualitative research design is often not linear in the same way quantitative design is. One of the strengths of qualitative research is its ability to explain processes and patterns of human behavior that can be difficult to quantify. Phenomena such as experiences, attitudes, and behaviors can be difficult to accurately capture quantitatively, whereas a qualitative approach allows participants themselves to explain how, why, or what they were thinking, feeling, and experiencing at a certain time or during an event of interest. Quantifying qualitative data certainly is possible, but at its core, qualitative data is looking for themes and patterns that can be difficult to quantify and it is important to ensure that the context and narrative of qualitative work are not lost by trying to quantify something that is not meant to be quantified.

However, while qualitative research is sometimes placed in opposition to quantitative research, where they are necessarily opposites and therefore ‘compete’ against each other and the philosophical paradigms associated with each, qualitative and quantitative work are not necessarily opposites nor are they incompatible. While qualitative and quantitative approaches are different, they are not necessarily opposites, and they are certainly not mutually exclusive. For instance, qualitative research can help expand and deepen understanding of data or results obtained from quantitative analysis. For example, say a quantitative analysis has determined that there is a correlation between length of stay and level of patient satisfaction, but why does this correlation exist? This dual-focus scenario shows one way in which qualitative and quantitative research could be integrated together.

Examples of Qualitative Research Approaches

Ethnography

Ethnography as a research design has its origins in social and cultural anthropology, and involves the researcher being directly immersed in the participant’s environment. Through this immersion, the ethnographer can use a variety of data collection techniques with the aim of being able to produce a comprehensive account of the social phenomena that occurred during the research period. That is to say, the researcher’s aim with ethnography is to immerse themselves into the research population and come out of it with accounts of actions, behaviors, events, etc. through the eyes of someone involved in the population. Direct involvement of the researcher with the target population is one benefit of ethnographic research because it can then be possible to find data that is otherwise very difficult to extract and record.

Grounded Theory

Grounded Theory is the “generation of a theoretical model through the experience of observing a study population and developing a comparative analysis of their speech and behavior.” As opposed to quantitative research which is deductive and tests or verifies an existing theory, grounded theory research is inductive and therefore lends itself to research that is aiming to study social interactions or experiences. In essence, Grounded Theory’s goal is to explain for example how and why an event occurs or how and why people might behave a certain way. Through observing the population, a researcher using the Grounded Theory approach can then develop a theory to explain the phenomena of interest.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is defined as the “study of the meaning of phenomena or the study of the particular”. At first glance, it might seem that Grounded Theory and Phenomenology are quite similar, but upon careful examination, the differences can be seen. At its core, phenomenology looks to investigate experiences from the perspective of the individual. Phenomenology is essentially looking into the ‘lived experiences’ of the participants and aims to examine how and why participants behaved a certain way, from their perspective . Herein lies one of the main differences between Grounded Theory and Phenomenology. Grounded Theory aims to develop a theory for social phenomena through an examination of various data sources whereas Phenomenology focuses on describing and explaining an event or phenomena from the perspective of those who have experienced it.

Narrative Research

One of qualitative research’s strengths lies in its ability to tell a story, often from the perspective of those directly involved in it. Reporting on qualitative research involves including details and descriptions of the setting involved and quotes from participants. This detail is called ‘thick’ or ‘rich’ description and is a strength of qualitative research. Narrative research is rife with the possibilities of ‘thick’ description as this approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or two individuals, in the hopes of creating a cohesive story, or narrative. While it might seem like a waste of time to focus on such a specific, individual level, understanding one or two people’s narratives for an event or phenomenon can help to inform researchers about the influences that helped shape that narrative. The tension or conflict of differing narratives can be “opportunities for innovation”.

Research Paradigm

Research paradigms are the assumptions, norms, and standards that underpin different approaches to research. Essentially, research paradigms are the ‘worldview’ that inform research. It is valuable for researchers, both qualitative and quantitative, to understand what paradigm they are working within because understanding the theoretical basis of research paradigms allows researchers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the approach being used and adjust accordingly. Different paradigms have different ontology and epistemologies . Ontology is defined as the "assumptions about the nature of reality” whereas epistemology is defined as the “assumptions about the nature of knowledge” that inform the work researchers do. It is important to understand the ontological and epistemological foundations of the research paradigm researchers are working within to allow for a full understanding of the approach being used and the assumptions that underpin the approach as a whole. Further, it is crucial that researchers understand their own ontological and epistemological assumptions about the world in general because their assumptions about the world will necessarily impact how they interact with research. A discussion of the research paradigm is not complete without describing positivist, postpositivist, and constructivist philosophies.

Positivist vs Postpositivist

To further understand qualitative research, we need to discuss positivist and postpositivist frameworks. Positivism is a philosophy that the scientific method can and should be applied to social as well as natural sciences. Essentially, positivist thinking insists that the social sciences should use natural science methods in its research which stems from positivist ontology that there is an objective reality that exists that is fully independent of our perception of the world as individuals. Quantitative research is rooted in positivist philosophy, which can be seen in the value it places on concepts such as causality, generalizability, and replicability.

Conversely, postpositivists argue that social reality can never be one hundred percent explained but it could be approximated. Indeed, qualitative researchers have been insisting that there are “fundamental limits to the extent to which the methods and procedures of the natural sciences could be applied to the social world” and therefore postpositivist philosophy is often associated with qualitative research. An example of positivist versus postpositivist values in research might be that positivist philosophies value hypothesis-testing, whereas postpositivist philosophies value the ability to formulate a substantive theory.

Constructivist

Constructivism is a subcategory of postpositivism. Most researchers invested in postpositivist research are constructivist as well, meaning they think there is no objective external reality that exists but rather that reality is constructed. Constructivism is a theoretical lens that emphasizes the dynamic nature of our world. “Constructivism contends that individuals’ views are directly influenced by their experiences, and it is these individual experiences and views that shape their perspective of reality”. Essentially, Constructivist thought focuses on how ‘reality’ is not a fixed certainty and experiences, interactions, and backgrounds give people a unique view of the world. Constructivism contends, unlike in positivist views, that there is not necessarily an ‘objective’ reality we all experience. This is the ‘relativist’ ontological view that reality and the world we live in are dynamic and socially constructed. Therefore, qualitative scientific knowledge can be inductive as well as deductive.”

So why is it important to understand the differences in assumptions that different philosophies and approaches to research have? Fundamentally, the assumptions underpinning the research tools a researcher selects provide an overall base for the assumptions the rest of the research will have and can even change the role of the researcher themselves. For example, is the researcher an ‘objective’ observer such as in positivist quantitative work? Or is the researcher an active participant in the research itself, as in postpositivist qualitative work? Understanding the philosophical base of the research undertaken allows researchers to fully understand the implications of their work and their role within the research, as well as reflect on their own positionality and bias as it pertains to the research they are conducting.

Data Sampling

The better the sample represents the intended study population, the more likely the researcher is to encompass the varying factors at play. The following are examples of participant sampling and selection:

Purposive sampling- selection based on the researcher’s rationale in terms of being the most informative.

Criterion sampling-selection based on pre-identified factors.

Convenience sampling- selection based on availability.

Snowball sampling- the selection is by referral from other participants or people who know potential participants.

Extreme case sampling- targeted selection of rare cases.

Typical case sampling-selection based on regular or average participants.

Data Collection and Analysis

Qualitative research uses several techniques including interviews, focus groups, and observation. [1] [2] [3] Interviews may be unstructured, with open-ended questions on a topic and the interviewer adapts to the responses. Structured interviews have a predetermined number of questions that every participant is asked. It is usually one on one and is appropriate for sensitive topics or topics needing an in-depth exploration. Focus groups are often held with 8-12 target participants and are used when group dynamics and collective views on a topic are desired. Researchers can be a participant-observer to share the experiences of the subject or a non-participant or detached observer.

While quantitative research design prescribes a controlled environment for data collection, qualitative data collection may be in a central location or in the environment of the participants, depending on the study goals and design. Qualitative research could amount to a large amount of data. Data is transcribed which may then be coded manually or with the use of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software or CAQDAS such as ATLAS.ti or NVivo.

After the coding process, qualitative research results could be in various formats. It could be a synthesis and interpretation presented with excerpts from the data. Results also could be in the form of themes and theory or model development.

Dissemination

To standardize and facilitate the dissemination of qualitative research outcomes, the healthcare team can use two reporting standards. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research or COREQ is a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. The Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) is a checklist covering a wider range of qualitative research.

Examples of Application

Many times a research question will start with qualitative research. The qualitative research will help generate the research hypothesis which can be tested with quantitative methods. After the data is collected and analyzed with quantitative methods, a set of qualitative methods can be used to dive deeper into the data for a better understanding of what the numbers truly mean and their implications. The qualitative methods can then help clarify the quantitative data and also help refine the hypothesis for future research. Furthermore, with qualitative research researchers can explore subjects that are poorly studied with quantitative methods. These include opinions, individual's actions, and social science research.

A good qualitative study design starts with a goal or objective. This should be clearly defined or stated. The target population needs to be specified. A method for obtaining information from the study population must be carefully detailed to ensure there are no omissions of part of the target population. A proper collection method should be selected which will help obtain the desired information without overly limiting the collected data because many times, the information sought is not well compartmentalized or obtained. Finally, the design should ensure adequate methods for analyzing the data. An example may help better clarify some of the various aspects of qualitative research.

A researcher wants to decrease the number of teenagers who smoke in their community. The researcher could begin by asking current teen smokers why they started smoking through structured or unstructured interviews (qualitative research). The researcher can also get together a group of current teenage smokers and conduct a focus group to help brainstorm factors that may have prevented them from starting to smoke (qualitative research).

In this example, the researcher has used qualitative research methods (interviews and focus groups) to generate a list of ideas of both why teens start to smoke as well as factors that may have prevented them from starting to smoke. Next, the researcher compiles this data. The research found that, hypothetically, peer pressure, health issues, cost, being considered “cool,” and rebellious behavior all might increase or decrease the likelihood of teens starting to smoke.

The researcher creates a survey asking teen participants to rank how important each of the above factors is in either starting smoking (for current smokers) or not smoking (for current non-smokers). This survey provides specific numbers (ranked importance of each factor) and is thus a quantitative research tool.

The researcher can use the results of the survey to focus efforts on the one or two highest-ranked factors. Let us say the researcher found that health was the major factor that keeps teens from starting to smoke, and peer pressure was the major factor that contributed to teens to start smoking. The researcher can go back to qualitative research methods to dive deeper into each of these for more information. The researcher wants to focus on how to keep teens from starting to smoke, so they focus on the peer pressure aspect.

The researcher can conduct interviews and/or focus groups (qualitative research) about what types and forms of peer pressure are commonly encountered, where the peer pressure comes from, and where smoking first starts. The researcher hypothetically finds that peer pressure often occurs after school at the local teen hangouts, mostly the local park. The researcher also hypothetically finds that peer pressure comes from older, current smokers who provide the cigarettes.

The researcher could further explore this observation made at the local teen hangouts (qualitative research) and take notes regarding who is smoking, who is not, and what observable factors are at play for peer pressure of smoking. The researcher finds a local park where many local teenagers hang out and see that a shady, overgrown area of the park is where the smokers tend to hang out. The researcher notes the smoking teenagers buy their cigarettes from a local convenience store adjacent to the park where the clerk does not check identification before selling cigarettes. These observations fall under qualitative research.

If the researcher returns to the park and counts how many individuals smoke in each region of the park, this numerical data would be quantitative research. Based on the researcher's efforts thus far, they conclude that local teen smoking and teenagers who start to smoke may decrease if there are fewer overgrown areas of the park and the local convenience store does not sell cigarettes to underage individuals.

The researcher could try to have the parks department reassess the shady areas to make them less conducive to the smokers or identify how to limit the sales of cigarettes to underage individuals by the convenience store. The researcher would then cycle back to qualitative methods of asking at-risk population their perceptions of the changes, what factors are still at play, as well as quantitative research that includes teen smoking rates in the community, the incidence of new teen smokers, among others.

Copyright © 2024, StatPearls Publishing LLC.

• Introduction
• Issues of Concern
• Clinical Significance
• Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes
• Review Questions

Publication types

• Study Guide

What Are Open-Ended, Close-Ended Questions? Definition, Examples

Home » The Writer’s Dictionary » What Are Open-Ended, Close-Ended Questions? Definition, Examples

Open-ended question definition: Open-ended questions are questions that have unlimited response options.

Close-ended question definition: Close-ended questions are questions that have limited response options.

What is an Open-ended Question?

Open-ended questions are questions that allow for various response options. Open-ended questions do not expect a particular answer. Rather, they allow the individual providing the response to answer however he chooses.

Examples of Open-ended Questions

• What was your childhood like?
• How did you decide to enter this profession?
• When would you like to visit the museum?

Open-ended questions are common in job interviews.

What is a Close-ended Question?

The answers to close-ended questions are limited and require certain answers.

Typically, close-ended questions lend themselves to “yes” or “no” responses. Furthermore, close-ended questions are usually specific in nature.

Examples of Close-ended Questions

• Did you attend the conference?
• Will you eat dinner with us?
• Do you like vanilla ice cream?
• When were you born?

As you can see, the answers to these questions will be much less involved than those of the open question.

Open-End Questions vs. Close-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions and close-ended questions are different in that they elicit very different responses.

The following questions illustrate close- and open-ended questions side-by-side. The questions are similar in subject matter, but the responses will vary depending on the question style.

Open-ended vs. Close-ended Questions:

• What is your favorite ice cream flavor? / Do you like chocolate ice cream?
• How are you feeling? / Are you feeling well?
• What are you plans this evening? / Do you have dinner plans?
• What homework do you have to complete? / Do you have math homework?
• Where is your shirt? / Is your shirt in the closet?
• Where should I buy a new blouse? / Should I buy a blouse at the mall?
• When is your birthday? / Is your birthday in May?
• What books did you read this summer? / Did you read a book from the suggested list?
• Where is your next vacation? / Do you think you will go to Europe soon?
• How did you meet your husband? / Are you married?

As you can see from these examples, each question type brings out a different kind of response. Close-ended questions are more specific, while open-ended ones are much more “open.”

How Is Each Question Used?

Close-ended questions are best used when you want a short, direct answer to a very specific question. They are less personal in nature and are best used when the person asking wants a quick answer.

Are the following questions open- or close-ended questions?

• Will you attend the dance tonight?
• How will you evade the storm?
• Did you bring the camera?
• Why can’t I join you?
• Would you like a new dress?

See answers below.

Summary: What Are Open-Ended, Close-Ended Questions?

Define open-ended question: an open-ended question is a question that does not expect a specific, narrow answer.

Define closed-ended question: a close-ended question is a question that expects a specific answer and does not give leeway outside of that answer.

In summary,

• Open-ended questions are broad and do not expect a specific answer.
• Close-ended questions are limiting and expect a specific answer.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Many Americans find value in getting news on social media, but concerns about inaccuracy have risen

Social media plays a crucial role in Americans’ news consumption . Half of all U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news there, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey .

Those who get news on social media name a variety of things that they like about it, including convenience, speed and the element of social interaction. But some social media news consumers also express concerns about news there being inaccurate, low quality and politically biased. The share who say inaccuracy is the aspect they dislike most has increased from 31% to 40% in the past five years.

These findings come from a broader Center survey of U.S. adults’ news habits . The survey asked Americans who get news on social media to describe – in their own words – the things they like and dislike most about getting news there. Their responses were then sorted into categories.

Pew Research Center asked two open-ended questions about what people like and dislike most about getting news on social media as part of a survey on U.S. adults’ news habits. The survey of 8,842 U.S. adults was conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, 2023.

Everyone who completed the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the  ATP’s methodology .

We asked all respondents who say they get news on social media to answer the open-ended questions. Responses were manually coded into categories. In total, we coded 4,507 open-end responses on what respondents like the most and 4,453 responses on what respondents dislike the most.

Here are the  questions used for the fall 2023 survey , along with responses, and its  methodology .

We asked whether Americans prefer social media or news outlets for various types of information on a separate ATP survey conducted March 20-26, 2023, among 3,576 U.S. adults. Here are the questions used for the spring 2023 survey , along with responses, and its  methodology .

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

What Americans like about getting news on social media

The aspects of getting news on social media that Americans value have not changed much since 2018 , the last time we asked these questions. Convenience remains the top thing people like most about getting news on social media. One-in-five social media news consumers say this, with responses such as “It’s at my fingertips,” “I can easily get it” and “It’s available all the time and anywhere.”

Another 9% say they like the speed with which they can get news there, describing news on social media as “fast and to the point” and “quick and easy to digest.”

Smaller shares say they like interaction with others , the up-to-date nature of the news, the content or format , and the variety of sources and stories .

Meanwhile, 7% of Americans who get news on social media say they don’t like anything about the experience, and an additional 32% did not offer a response.

What Americans dislike about getting news on social media

Many social media news consumers also see downsides to getting news this way. Four-in-ten Americans who get news from social media say inaccuracy is the thing they dislike most about it – an increase of 9 percentage points since 2018. This category of responses includes concerns about unverified facts, misinformation, “fake news” and unreliable sources.

A much smaller share of social media news consumers (8%) say they dislike the low quality of news there, with some giving clickbait or a lack of in-depth coverage as examples. Others say the news on social media is too biased or political (6%) or they don’t like the way people behave there (5%).

Another 1% of social media news consumers say censorship is what they dislike most. This category – which we used for the first time in the 2023 survey – includes responses such as “Too much censorship by the sites” and “I really dislike when some of my view points are removed.” There are no significant differences in the shares of Democratic and Republican social media news consumers who say they’re concerned about news censorship on social media. In fact, there are no partisan differences within any of these complaint categories.

Just 4% of respondents say they don’t dislike anything about getting news on social media. Another 31% did not answer the question.

Social media posts versus news outlets: Which do Americans prefer for certain types of information?

The perceived downsides of getting news on social media may help explain why many Americans prefer to go directly to news outlets instead. In a separate Center survey, U.S. adults who say they at least sometimes get news on social media were asked whether they prefer reading social media posts or going directly to news outlets for five different types of information. Those types of information include the basic facts about an issue or event as well as in-depth information and opinions on it.

Americans prefer to get four of the five types of information from news outlets over social media. However, a substantial share say they like getting each type of information from news outlets and social media about the same.

For example, 45% of respondents say they prefer news outlets for getting the most in-depth information about an issue or event, while only 11% prefer social media posts for this. An additional 34% say they value both sources equally, while 8% say they prefer neither option.

Social media news consumers also tend to prefer news outlets over social media to get:

• The basic facts about an issue or event (39% vs. 14%)
• Up-to-date information about an event as it is happening (34% vs. 21%)
• Information about how an issue or event impacts them (31% vs. 15%)

In each of these cases, roughly four-in-ten or more say they like social media and news outlets about the same.

In contrast, equal shares of Americans prefer news outlets and social media when it comes to opinions on an issue (22% each).

Previous Center research has shown that younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to prefer getting news from social media , and that pattern also appears in the findings of this survey. Adults under 30 express a clear preference for using social media over news outlets to get opinions on an issue (36% vs. 13%) and up-to-date information as an event is happening (35% vs. 21%). Americans ages 65 and older are much more likely to prefer news outlets over social media for every type of information we asked about. 

• Digital News Landscape
• Media Industry
• News Habits & Media
• Social Media & the News

Luxuan Wang is a research associate at Pew Research Center

Naomi Forman-Katz is a research analyst focusing on news and information research at Pew Research Center

Introducing the Pew-Knight Initiative

News platform fact sheet, a profile of the top-ranked podcasts in the u.s., most u.s. journalists are concerned about press freedoms, nearly a quarter of americans get news from podcasts, most popular.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Age & Generations
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Economy & Work
• Family & Relationships
• Gender & LGBTQ
• Immigration & Migration
• International Affairs
• Internet & Technology
• Methodological Research
• Non-U.S. Governments
• Other Topics
• Politics & Policy
• Race & Ethnicity
• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Copyright 2024 Pew Research Center

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

Reprints, Permissions & Use Policy