Problem discovery
Run it before you have a solution, to learn how often the problem happens and what people do today.
Ask: “Tell us about the last time you chased a late payment.” A real past event, never a hypothetical.
GuideSurvey questions: 120 examples you can copy
Market research surveys for founders and small teams
A market research survey is worth sending when it settles a decision you are about to make. Here is how to screen the right people in, what to ask, and how to read the answers. Then build it free, with no cap on responses.
Unlimited responses on the free plan. You bring the respondents, and we never cap how many answer.
1
Decision each survey should settle
20
Logic operators for screeners and routing
∞
Responses on the free plan
$0
To collect, export and send to Sheets
The basics
What a market research survey is for
A market research survey is a structured set of questions sent to a defined group of people (customers, prospects or a market you want to enter) to settle a business decision: who has the problem, how they solve it today, what would make them switch, and what they would pay.
It lets you hear a large slice of your market in its own words. It cannot predict behavior: people are generous about products that do not exist yet, so confirm demand with an action, like joining a waitlist. Before you write a question, settle four things.
- The decision. One sentence, such as “Do we build the agency plan or the freelancer plan first?”
- The audience. Who qualifies, in terms you can screen for: a role, a recent behavior, a tool they use.
- The sample. How many completed responses you need per segment, and where they will come from.
- The analysis. The table you will show at the end. Every question should feed it.
Pick one
Five market research surveys worth running
Each answers a different question. Run only what your decision needs.
Segmentation
Run it when you have more than one kind of buyer and need to know which group matters most.
Ask: a single choice on role, then the same questions for everyone, so segments compare line by line.
Concept test
Run it when you have two or three directions and cannot build all of them.
Ask: “How well does this solve the problem you described?” on a 1–5 rating, then “What would stop you from trying it?”
Pricing research
Run it once the problem and the concept hold up. Asked too early, price questions measure enthusiasm, not budget.
Ask: one of the five formats compared below.
Competitors and switching
Run it when the market already has tools and you need to know what would make people move.
Ask: “What would a new tool have to do for you to switch?”
Not sure where to start?
Start with problem discovery: it is the cheapest to run and shows what to test next. Already selling a product?
Product research surveysScreeners
Screen out the wrong people first
The quickest way to ruin a market research survey is to fill it with people outside the market. Screeners go first, and logic ends the survey for anyone who does not qualify.
- End form closes the survey the moment an answer rules someone out.
- Jump sends each segment to its own block of questions.
- 20 operators, including “is any of” and “greater than”, combined with AND or OR.
- Hide the qualifying answer among believable decoys, so nobody guesses their way in.
Logic cannot count, though. There is no quota engine, so for a fixed number per segment, give each segment its own form and link, and unpublish each one at its target.
Conditional logicConditional Logic
3 rules configured
End form
Conditions
Your workIs any ofEmployee, Student
or
Work in research?EqualsYes
ActionEnd formRule Summary
When Your work is any of "Employee, Student" OR Work in research? equals "Yes" → End form
Jump to field
Show field
Screener rules for an invoicing study.
Copy these
Market research survey questions you can copy
Twenty questions for a study about invoicing tools. Swap in your topic and cut anything without a decision behind it.
Screeners (always first)
- Which of these best describes your work? (single choice, with decoys)
- Do you work in market research or advertising? (yes/no, ending the form on yes)
- How many clients did you invoice last month? (number, jumping to a block by range)
The problem today
- Tell us about the last time you chased a late payment. What happened? (long text)
- How do you create invoices today? (single choice, with a short text follow-up for “Something else”)
- What is the most frustrating part of that? (long text)
- Have you paid for a tool to fix this in the past year? (yes/no)
Concept test
- How well does this solve the problem you described? (rating, 1–5, after a statement screen describing the concept)
- Which of these versions would you rather use? (picture choice)
- How likely are you to try it in the next three months? (single choice, definitely to definitely not)
- What would stop you from trying it? (long text)
Pricing
- At what monthly price would this feel so cheap you would doubt the quality? (number)
- At what price would it be too expensive to consider? (number)
- Would you pay $15 a month for this? (yes/no, jumping to a higher or lower price)
Competitors and switching
- Which of these tools have you heard of? (multiple choice)
- Which one do you use most today? (dropdown)
- What would a new tool have to do for you to switch? (long text)
About you (always last)
- How many people work in your business, including you? (single choice with bands)
- Anything we did not ask that you want to tell us? (long text, optional)
- Can we follow up about your answers? (yes/no, then an email question on yes)
Two formats Upform does not have There is no matrix grid and no drag-to-rank question. Ask each attribute as its own rating question (see matrix questions), and for priorities use the workarounds in the ranking questions guide. The survey questions guide has 120 more examples, and survey question types explains when to use each format.
4 →
Which invoice would you rather send to a client?
Choose one.
A · One-page summary
B · Itemized hours
C · Your logo, large
Next →press Enter ↵
Picture choice, as respondents see it.
Concept tests
Test concepts before you build them
A concept test measures reactions to an idea before you spend money on it. Keep each concept short enough to explain in one breath.
- Describe the concept on a statement screen, then ask the reaction questions straight after.
- Use picture choice when the difference is visual: layouts, packaging, logo directions.
- Show each person one concept for cleaner reactions: one form per concept, each sent to part of your list.
- Upform does not shuffle options, so duplicate the form, reverse the order and split traffic between the links.
Price
How to ask about price
Price is where surveys mislead most, because saying yes costs nothing. Five formats, and how to build each in Upform.
| Format | How you ask it in Upform | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Open price question | One number question: “What would you expect to pay per month?” | A rough anchor. Useful for spotting a range, weak on its own. |
| Price bands | One single choice with four or five bands that do not overlap | Easy to answer and tally, but the bands you pick shape the answers. |
| Van Westendorp price sensitivity | Four number questions: too cheap, a bargain, getting expensive, too expensive | An acceptable range, once you plot the curves yourself from the CSV. Upform does not draw them. |
| Price ladder (Gabor-Granger style) | A yes/no at one price, with jump logic to a higher price on yes and a lower one on no | A rough demand curve from stated intent. |
| Conjoint and trade-off analysis | Not supported: no conjoint module, no calculation engine | Use a dedicated research tool. |
Stated willingness to pay runs ahead of real buying. Treat every number as a ceiling, and check it with a waitlist that names the price.
Distribution
Finding respondents: what Upform does and does not do
Upform gives you the survey and the link, not the people. There is no respondent panel and no incentive payouts, so plan the audience first.
- Your customer list. The cheapest sample, and the most tilted toward fans.
- Your site. Embed it on a page your market visits; see how to embed a form.
- Recruited strangers. Point panel or ad traffic at your link. The Thank You screen can redirect to one fixed URL; check your panel accepts that.
- Incentives. Run them yourself, collecting an email on the last screen from people who want one.
Invisible reCAPTCHA v3 screens for bots, not for people rushing through for a reward, so add one attention check.
Share your form
Share your form via link, embed it on your website, or add it to emails.
Form link
app.upform.com/preview/invoicing-study
Embed on your website
Copy the code below and paste it into your website's HTML.
<iframe src="https://app.upform.com/preview/invoicing-study" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:8px;"></iframe>CopyEmbed in email
Most email clients don't support iframes, so use this button instead.
Fill out form →
More on share and embed.
After the send
Reading the results
Upform tells you whether the survey worked. Your spreadsheet tells you what it found.
Overview
214 total submissions
All DevicesLast 30 Days
Views
1,120
Starts
486
Completion rate
44%
Avg. time
4m 05s
Question Completion Funnel
QuestionsViewsDrop-off
Which best describes your work?486–
Clients invoiced last month471-15 (3%)
Your last late payment226-245 (52%)
Which invoice would you send?219-7 (3%)
Too expensive to consider214-5 (2%)
Devices
Desktop131 Responses
Tablet13 Responses
Mobile70 Responses
Example figures. Half the sample quit at the open question in third place: move it later.
What Upform shows you
- Completion rate, average time, device and country split, and a per-question drop-off funnel. See form analytics.
- A responses table with filters, full answers per respondent, and CSV export.
- Every response added to Google Sheets as a new row.
What you do in the spreadsheet
- Removing screened-out people. End form still saves their answers as a response.
- Cross-tabs by segment, with a pivot table on the export.
- Significance tests and weighting. Upform has no statistics engine.
- Price curves, plotted from the raw numbers.
Read the open answers first and tag them by theme: the numbers say how many, the words say what to build.
This week
From question to decision in a week
One decision, one screener, a dozen questions.
Write the decision
One sentence, plus the result that would change your mind.
Build the screener
Two to four questions with decoys, and an End form rule.
Write the questions
Closed first, open ones next, questions about the respondent last.
Pilot with five people
Watch them on a call; every pause is a rewrite. Check the drop-off after 30 responses.
Send, stop, decide
Stop at your target sample, export, and answer the decision in one page.
Templates
Start from a survey template
Preview any template live, then clone it and rewrite it for your market.
How do you handle this today?
AA spreadsheet
BA paid tool
Next →Survey templates
Ready-made surveys to preview and clone.
Research · FreePreviewUse Template
Which best describes your work?
AFreelancer
BAgency owner
Next →Questionnaire template
Room for a screener, closed questions and an open follow-up.
Research · FreePreviewUse Template
What almost made you choose something else?
APrice
BA missing feature
Next →Product feedback form
For research with people who already use your product.
Feedback · FreePreviewUse Template
What's your email?
Next →Waitlist form
Test real demand with a sign-up that names the price.
Lead generation · FreePreviewUse Template
Frequently asked questions
How many questions should a market research survey have?
As few as the decision needs: for most small teams, 10 to 15 questions and under ten minutes. Screeners come first and take seconds to answer, and anyone who does not fit leaves after two or three screens. Cut every question you cannot pair with a decision.
How many responses do I need for a market research survey?
About 100 completed responses gives a simple percentage a margin of error near 10 points either way, and 400 brings it down to about 5. Count per segment: comparing freelancers with agency owners needs roughly 100 of each, not 100 in total. Open discovery questions often repeat their themes after 20 to 30 answers.
Where do I find people to take a market research survey?
Upform has no respondent panel, so you bring the audience: your customer list, your newsletter, an embed on your site, or communities where your market already talks. For strangers who match a profile, recruit through a panel provider or paid ads and send them to your Upform link. Screener logic then ends the survey early for anyone who does not fit.
Can Upform calculate Van Westendorp or conjoint results?
No. Upform has no scoring or calculation engine and no conjoint module. You can ask the four Van Westendorp price questions as Number questions and plot the curves yourself from the CSV export or a connected Google Sheet. For conjoint or other trade-off analysis, use a dedicated research tool.
Is Upform really free for market research surveys?
Yes. The free plan is free forever, not a trial, and it includes unlimited forms, unlimited responses, all 21 question types, conditional logic and every integration. Typeform's free plan is widely reported to cap you at 10 responses a month; pricing checked September 2026, so verify before you decide. Pro is 12 dollars a month and only adds unlimited file storage, branding removal and up to five team members.
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Write the screener, add a dozen questions, share one link. No response cap between you and a readable sample.
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