Ensure your next survey is accurate and insightful, with one email a week
Marketers at brands and agencies: Every Tuesday get an email (2-3 mins) featuring:
➜ 1 mini story on survey design.
➜ 1 “steal-this” question for polls and customer surveys.
Plus, periodic data goodies: curated datasets, vendor tips, downloadable visualizations for decks, and other consumer insight resources.
👇
Join readers and loyal supporters
Including world-class marketers, researchers, and founders
Nir Eyal
WSJ Bestselling author "Hooked” "Indistractable.”
Matt Bahr
Founder
Charlotte Blank
Chief Marketing Officer
Previous content & resources
Struggling with DIY surveys? Wasting hours on 'metric-hunting' during desktop research? Overpaying for database subscriptions? Spending too much time fixing a vendor’s slides?
Dive into past newsletters to get tips for integrating efficient, cost-effective quants solutions.
•How to ask shoppers why they choose one brand over another.
•A good survey question is a flashlight, not a floodlight.
•Remove ‘metadiscourse’ from your surveys.
•The question that made Bill Belichick say ‘Can I be vulnerable for a second?‘
See all previous content here.
Or, keep scrolling for to explore newsletters featuring original research with data visualizations you can download and edit.
Using zip codes, polling, and the US Census to find untapped markets for ecommerce brands
Using two year’s worth of customer zip code data to segment shoppers and anticipate an OOH campaign.
Proof that people prefer “Masturbating” over “Meetings that could’ve been an email”
I asked 300 shoppers to plot 22 behaviors on a graph, then created a template for building stories around behaviors.
Visualizing one year of taking every survey I encountered
From March 2023 to 2024, I completed 199 surveys, averaging 0.35 per day. I visualized the results and outlined what I learned.
Steals. Splurges. Rip-Offs. Bargains. A framework for measuring value.
Measuring a product’s “value over time” and integrating it into Richard Thaler’s “acquisition value” and “transaction value” framework.
The Annoying Index: Gym Selfies. Empty Ice Trays. Daylight Savings. The Dallas Cowboys.
A methodology for finding market-worthy annoyances based on 150 shoppers ranking 17 ‘annoying’ items.
Want to add some quant rigor to your qual-heavy segmentation
How to “naturally reveal” existing segments by visualizing data from two survey questions.
“This is fantastic. I just forwarded this to the whole agency.”
Dave Burg
Co-Founder, Shepherd
When you subscribe, you’ll enjoy:
✅ New Content: You’ll be the first to get a survey design insight (including examples you can steal) every Tuesday morning.
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✅ Steep Discounts: Subscriber-only discount codes for my Roasts.
Plus, when you subscribe you'll instantly receive 3 guides about survey design — free↓
Hello, I’m Sam McNerney
I’m a research consultant and the publisher of this newsletter, which I created to share insights from my experience designing surveys for brands, agencies, and Fortune 500s, including:
After you subscribe…
Please check your inbox for a “Welcome” email from me. You’ll find a link to the 3 guides about survey design.
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Thanks and enjoy!
Sam McNerney
Founder, McNerney Insights & Marketing
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