Build with AI

How I helped SurveyMonkey use AI to make it easy for anyone to create a survey

Overview

Build with AI is a new way to create surveys, and it's powered by OpenAI. The user types short instructions. Then AI generates a survey accordingly. It's fast, accurate, and results in high-quality surveys.

The challenge

It’s hard to write a good survey. You have to know what questions to ask, how to ask them, and in what order. And even if you can do all those things, writing a survey can take a lot of time. How could AI help?

The audience

Build with AI is for all survey authors, novices and experts alike. Even people on free plans can use it, although they need to upgrade if they want to include premium question types in their surveys.

Business goals

We wanted to see a high number of customers deploying (sending) surveys with this feature. People who deploy tend to stick around. And we hoped to increase conversions from free to paid accounts.

My role

As the sole content designer, I had several key responsibilities:

Identify content needs and opportunities.
Name the feature.
Write guidance copy and microcopy.
Test content for usability.

Process

Identifying content needs

I conducted the following foundational research:

Conversation mining
Competitive analysis
Prompt engineering exploration

Here’s my key takeaway: Nearly all GPT products offered sample prompts to help users get started. The product designer and I discussed these findings. We agreed that prompt writing would be our key challenge.

A screenshot of a prompt engineering tutorial website

A prompt engineering tutorial I completed during my research

A screenshot of a FigJam with screenshots of competitor products

Flows captured during competitive analysis

Naming the feature

I organized a feature naming workshop with cross functional stakeholders. Our activities were as follows:

Align on criteria for the name.
Brainstorm names according to those criteria.
Choose three of our best options.

Then I surveyed 200 people and asked them which of those three names they liked best. Names appeared in random order to each respondent to prevent bias. I announced the winner to stakeholders and started working it into the product.

FigJam voting widgets we used to align on naming criteria

An image of a SurveyMonkey name test survey

A screenshot from the survey

A screenshot of FigJam stickies with ideas for the feature name

Ideas from our naming workshop

Writing the copy

I knew from my research that many users wouldn’t be able to write prompts without guidance. So I built on the idea of sample prompts from other products.

Novice users could use the prompts without making changes.
More articulate users could edit the prompts to suit their needs.
Savvy users could model their own prompts after our samples.

I worked with one of our survey methodology experts to develop and test the right prompt structure.

A text document containing several sample prompts

Sample prompts I developed and tested with a survey expert

Testing the content

I tested a prototype with five real users to answer these questions:

Will people know what a prompt is?
Is the purpose of the sample prompts clear?
Does the term “sample prompt” make sense?

Participants attempted tasks like using one of the sample prompts and defining the word “prompt.” All participants were able to complete all tasks.

A screenshot of one of the recordings from the usability test

Results / impact

Build with AI is now the most popular way new users create surveys! Check out this customer quote:

“SurveyMonkey’s Build with AI feature made creating surveys a breeze, even for someone with zero AI experience like myself. The AI feature exceeded my expectations, allowing me to effortlessly craft a comprehensive and professional survey for our sister non-profit groups. In just three attempts, I had a survey ready for board approval. Thank you, SurveyMonkey, for making survey creation not only simple and intuitive but also enjoyable!”

Metrics

There are five ways to create a survey with SurveyMonkey. Here's where Build with AI ranks among them all:

1st place in activations

Indicates test surveys sent to at least one person

2nd place in deploys

Indicates surveys with several real responses

Artifacts & explorations

A screenshot of a design exploration. There are little chips with sample prompt categories, like "Customers"

A screenshot of an early design with sample prompts. On the left, there's a panel with instructions for writing good prompts

In design reviews, stakeholders thought these options were too busy.

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