So much market research is badly designed, and no one realizes it u...

So much market research is badly designed, and no one realizes it until it’s too late Too many companies trust that their market research is solid because they hired a vendor to run it. But I’ve seen too many surveys that look fine on the surface and are garbage underneath. Poorly framed questions Biased answer options No logic checks No exclusivity No internal consistency It happens at utilities, government agencies, nonprofits, startups. Everywhere. And the worst part is no one realizes it until they’ve already made decisions that affect budgets, operations, or public trust. Here’s a small but personal example. When I lived in Sacramento, I got a survey from the local parks department. They were planning $50,000 in updates to two neighborhood parks I used almost daily. I wanted to give feedback. The survey was a disaster. They used government park names that no one locally used. You could say you didn’t own a dog and then later say you brought your dog to the park every day. They let you select multiple activities and still choose “none of the above.” No one who reviewed that survey thought through what the data would look like. And I knew they’d just roll it up, report the totals, and build a plan around bad inputs. That money was going to be wasted and this kind of thing happens more than people realize. It is not about whether you used Qualtrics or had a pretty dashboard. If the research design is broken, your insights are worthless. Collecting bad data is worse than collecting no data. It leads to confidence in the wrong direction. This is why it matters who designs your research. Good survey design takes experience, curiosity, and the ability to spot problems before they become outcomes. I work with teams to get this part right because everything that follows depends on it. If this resonates with you or your team is navigating a similar challenge, feel free to connect. I am always open to trading stories and helping where I can.