Situation
We needed primary research for business planning on a small household appliance used by American consumers. The questions were about bathing at home and how people control bath temperature. The hypothesis: people who enjoy baths often drain cooling water and add hot water to stay in longer.
Constraint
No incentive. Distribution was social (Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, Nextdoor). The instrument had to be short enough to finish and open enough to catch “other” behavior.
Decision
Seventeen questions, mostly single- or multiple-choice, plus one optional free response. Most items allowed “other.” A test survey ran first to find problems before the full field. Target: U.S. adults 18+.
Outcome
Respondents were 61% female, 29.5% male, and 9.5% other, from 28 U.S. states (California, Indiana, and Illinois over-indexed), ages 18–90, with 30–39 the largest group at 34.4%.
The most common response when bath water cooled was draining some water and adding hot water (59%), followed by ending the bath (46.7%). The drain-and-refill behavior is a real job to be done: keep the water warm longer.
What I would do again
Run a test survey. The cheap mistakes show up before you spend the fielding window.
What I would change
I would have published the instrument and anonymized tables with the case so a hiring manager can judge the research, not only the write-up. The original extra-results page lived on WordPress and does not travel with this site.