Here are some of the best questions for a Free Trial Users survey about feature discovery, plus practical tips on crafting them for richer feedback. With Specific, you can build your survey in seconds and start learning from your users right away.
The best open-ended questions for free trial users about feature discovery
Open-ended questions invite genuine insights, letting users describe their experience in their own words. They're ideal when you want context, nuance, or unexpected feedback—not just yes/no answers.
Here are 10 of our favorite open-ended questions for free trial users exploring new features:
What features did you discover during your trial that surprised or delighted you?
How did you first learn about a particular feature in our product?
Were there features you expected to find but couldn’t? Which ones?
Describe your process for exploring new features during your trial.
What made you decide to try a specific feature for the first time?
Were there any features you wanted to use but didn’t know how to access?
Tell us about a moment when a feature solved a real problem for you.
Which features felt confusing or difficult to understand? What would make them simpler?
If you could improve any part of the feature discovery process, what would you change?
Are there features you learned about late in the trial that you wish you’d found sooner?
Open-ended questions like these tend to capture valuable stories and themes, especially when combined with in-product surveys—which, by the way, reach 30–50% of users (compared to the lower 15–25% for email surveys)[1].
Single-select multiple choice questions: when and how to use them
Single-select multiple choice questions are perfect when you need to quickly quantify feedback or help users articulate their experience with minimal effort. They’re especially useful for kickstarting a conversation—users can choose a starting point, and you can probe further with tailored follow-up questions.
Question: How easy was it for you to find the features you needed during your trial?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
Question: Which of the following best describes how you discovered new features?
Guided tutorials
Tooltips or in-app messages
Documentation or help center
I explored on my own
Other
Question: Did you find all the features relevant to your needs during the free trial?
Yes, easily
Yes, but with effort
No, missed some
No, couldn’t find any
When to followup with "why?" Whenever a user chooses an option that signals struggle, surprise, or high satisfaction, that’s a great moment to follow up. For example, if someone says “Somewhat difficult” to a question about finding features, ask: "Can you tell us which features were hardest to discover and why?" This is how you tap into the specifics that drive actionable change.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add "Other" when your list of options may not fit every respondent’s experience. If they choose "Other", a follow-up question opens the door to unexpected discoveries—sometimes the biggest insights come from the reasons you hadn’t considered.
Should you include an NPS question?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a proven way to measure user satisfaction and loyalty, even during a free trial. For feature discovery, it helps identify those most likely to recommend your product—and why. Pairing the 0–10 NPS question with a specific “why did you give that score?” follow-up can reveal whether your features deliver real value to new users, or if there’s friction in the discovery process.
Want to give it a try? Here’s a ready-made NPS survey for free trial users: create an NPS survey tailored to your needs.
The power of follow-up questions
The magic of a great survey is often in the follow-ups. Instead of stopping at a surface-level reply, automated follow-ups gently dig deeper, clarifying intent or context just like a skilled interviewer would. This is where Specific’s AI shines: it listens, then generates the perfect probing question in real time—no scripts needed.
Why does this matter? Follow-up questions turn a vague response into a concrete, nuanced insight. Imagine this:
Free Trial User: "I didn’t find the analytics dashboard useful."
AI follow-up: "Can you share what was missing or what you hoped to see in the analytics dashboard?"
Straight away, the reply becomes actionable!
How many followups to ask? In most surveys, 2–3 follow-ups per question are optimal. This gets you depth while respecting the user’s time. Specific even allows you to set a cap or auto-progress to the next question once you have the context you need.
This makes it a conversational survey, not just a form to be filled out. Every answer leads to a natural next question, making the experience feel more like a chat with a product expert than a survey at all.
AI survey response analysis is easy, too. Even with all the unstructured text, you can analyze responses in seconds using AI. See how it works in this guide.
Automated, intelligent follow-ups are a game changer—try generating a survey and experience the difference yourself.
How to compose prompts for GPTs: get the best questions for your survey
GPTs can brainstorm high-quality survey questions—if you prompt them right. Start simple:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for free trial users survey about feature discovery.
For deeper, more relevant output, add context about your product, your goals, and what you hope to learn:
I'm a product manager at a SaaS startup. Our product targets small businesses, and we've just released a set of advanced analytics features. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a free trial users survey about how they discover and use these features, including any confusion or delight moments.
Next, organize and refine:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Finally, drill down into categories that matter most to you:
Generate 10 questions for categories "Feature Awareness" and "Barriers to Discovery".
This approach makes your surveys focused, relevant, and easy to iterate—much like how we edit surveys with AI guidance at Specific.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys are more than just a series of static questions. They're interactive, adapting each question and follow-up in real time based on user replies. This is a massive shift away from traditional/manual survey creation, where you’d have to anticipate every answer—and laboriously build all the logic yourself.
With an AI survey generator, you get fresh questions, natural language, dynamic follow-ups, and an experience that feels human. The difference is clear:
Manual | AI-generated |
---|---|
Hand-pick, type, and repeat for each question | Instantly generate expert questions with context |
Static forms, zero adaptivity | Real-time, adaptive follow-ups |
Manual analysis, cumbersome review | AI summarizes responses, finds patterns fast |
Why use AI for free trial users surveys? You can get better response rates, richer open-ended feedback, and real clarity on how users discover features. In SaaS, in-app conversational surveys deliver 30–50% response rates—well above the email average[1]. That’s more data and better insights to steer your product decisions.
Want to give it a try? Here’s a guide on how to create a survey for feature discovery step by step, or see an AI survey example for inspiration.
Specific’s approach to conversational surveys delivers best-in-class user experience, making it easy for both survey creators and respondents to collect and share insights efficiently and enjoyably.
See this feature discovery survey example now
Start collecting actionable insights from your free trial users in minutes—enjoy conversational surveys that adapt on the fly, uncover hidden needs, and make feedback a breeze for everyone involved.