Simple survey

Last weekend, I was at a farmer’s market near my cottage. They have a good selection of produce, baked goods and other products such as honey, jams and coffee. It is quite popular and you need to be there early if you want to get your hands on some of the more coveted items – one bakery makes the most amazing sticky buns, which are usually sold out in the first hour.

On a previous visit, I was chatting with the bread baker. He mentioned that he had been coming to this market for more than 20 years. I was shocked to know that it had existed for that long. I guess they must be doing something right to have been successful for that long.

On this visit, they were doing a survey to see how they could improve things. Smart idea. It was their approach that I thought was quite unique, and so simple. They had a couple of poster boards up on easels. The sheets were divided into a couple of sections, each with its own question. Each section was then divided into quarters, each with an answer to the question. To respond to the survey, you were given a strip of stickers that you could use to indicate your answer.

The visual effect was great because it was so easy to see which answers were most common. No more counting ballots or using technology, you could simply see to results — immediately.