Best questions for power user survey about documentation quality

Here are some of the best questions for a power user survey about documentation quality, plus smart tips for creating them. With Specific, you can quickly generate and launch a survey like this in seconds—no manual setup, no spreadsheets.

Best open-ended questions for a power user survey about documentation quality

Open-ended questions deliver the richness and context that power users have to offer. They work best when you want uncensored, specific feedback in users’ own words—especially on complex topics like documentation quality. This deeper layer is crucial: about 70% of defects originate from poorly-documented requirements, so power users’ feedback can help you spot these gaps fast. [2]

1. What parts of our documentation do you find most helpful in your daily work?

2. Where have you experienced confusion or difficulty when using our documentation?

3. Can you describe a recent time when documentation either solved your problem or failed to help?

4. What topics or features do you wish were covered in our documentation, but currently aren’t?

5. Are there any sections that are outdated, inconsistent, or misleading?

6. How does the documentation impact your ability to complete your tasks efficiently?

7. What could we do to make our documentation more useful or user-friendly for you?

8. How do you typically search for information in the documentation? What works and what doesn’t?

9. When you can’t find information in our documentation, what do you do next?

10. If you could change one thing about our documentation, what would it be?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for a power user survey about documentation quality

Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want to quantify pain points, benchmark improvement, or simply make it easier for someone to get started. These questions work well at the beginning of a survey to warm up the conversation, or midway if you want to anchor the open-ended feedback with structured data. Sometimes they jumpstart ideas, making follow-up open-ended questions more productive.

Question: How easy is it for you to find what you need in our documentation?

• Very easy

• Somewhat easy

• Challenging

• Very difficult

Question: Which area of documentation do you use most often?

• Getting Started / Setup Guides

• API Reference

• Troubleshooting

• Release Notes

• Other

Question: How would you rate the overall accuracy of our documentation?

• Excellent

• Good

• Average

• Poor

When to follow up with "why?" If you receive a non-specific or critical response (for example, “Challenging” or “Poor”), always prompt with “why?” or “What made it difficult?” This context uncovers root causes—maybe search is weak, or perhaps the language is ambiguous—and lets you address issues with precision.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” as a choice when possible, especially if you’re not 100% sure your list is exhaustive. People are creative; an open “Other” with a follow-up question can reveal recurring themes you’d otherwise miss.

Should you use an NPS-style question for documentation quality?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks, “How likely are you to recommend this to a friend or colleague?” and provides a metric that’s instantly recognizable. For documentation, you might phrase it: “How likely are you to recommend our documentation to another power user?” It’s a simple way to quantify satisfaction or loyalty, especially over time or between product releases. If you want a one-click setup, try our NPS survey generator for power users.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are everything. Specific’s engine intelligently asks clarifying questions in real time—just like a good researcher—so you always get the “why” behind each answer. This means richer context, fewer dead ends, and no more wasted time chasing respondents by email. Suddenly, user interviews happen automatically, at scale.

• Power user: “Some sections are hard to follow.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you tell me which sections felt unclear, and what was confusing about them?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two or three follow-ups is the sweet spot—you get depth without overwhelming anyone. With Specific, you can customize this per survey, or let users skip ahead once you’ve heard enough. This keeps the experience fluid and positive.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a static form, respondents have a conversation—just like with a real teammate. This increases engagement and brings out honest, context-rich answers.

AI survey analysis: With every follow-up, you’ll collect varied, unstructured feedback—no problem. Tools like AI survey response analysis make it effortless to distill key insights and spot repeated patterns, without hours of manual review.

Automated, dynamic follow-up is a new standard—try generating a survey and feel how different the process (and results) are.

How to write prompts for AI to brainstorm survey questions

If you’d like to use ChatGPT (or any modern GPT) to generate your own questions for a power user documentation quality survey, start simple, then add context to guide the AI:

Try this basic prompt first:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Power User survey about Documentation Quality.

The more context you give, the better. Here’s a refined version—explain the situation, goals, and audience:

Our product documentation is vital to experienced users (power users). We want to improve it and reduce wasted time, especially since professionals often spend over four hours a week searching for documents [1]. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover the real pain points, gaps, and ideas that our power users have about our documentation.

Once you have a long list of questions, organize them:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Want more depth? Pick the categories you care most about (say, “Accuracy” or “Usability”) and prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories Accuracy and Usability.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey uses AI to simulate a natural back-and-forth chat with respondents—unlike traditional forms where people click through static questions. Every answer is an opportunity for smart, personalized follow-up. This results in richer, more actionable insight, particularly when you’re targeting advanced users who have context, stories, or technical suggestions to share.

AI survey creation isn’t just a novelty—it’s a breakthrough in speed, quality, and engagement. With an AI survey maker, you tap into pre-built expertise, automatic follow-up, and instant theme analysis. No more blank-page anxiety or missed signals.

Why use AI for power user surveys? Power users are your most vocal, knowledgeable audience. They spot documentation gaps that cost time or create defects—a full 60% of problems can trace back to documentation issues [2]. With AI-run interviews, you never miss an actionable insight, and analysis is built in. This is especially effective for documentation quality, where nuances matter. See our survey creation guide for more practical steps.

Specific’s conversational surveys are built for this—from automatic follow-ups to easy, AI-powered editing (AI survey editor) and streamlined analysis. Both survey creators and respondents will notice how smooth, interactive, and personalized the feedback process becomes.

See this documentation quality survey example now

See how fast you can create better documentation quality surveys—get actionable insights and make power users’ experience even smoother. Start now and unlock depth you can actually use.