Best questions for saas customer survey about product usability

Here are some of the best questions for a SaaS customer survey about product usability, along with tips on creating each one. With Specific, you can build a powerful usability survey for SaaS customers in seconds, using an AI survey generator tailored for product usability.

Best open-ended questions for product usability feedback

Open-ended questions let your SaaS customers share detailed feedback in their own words—vital for discovering issues you didn’t know existed. They’re powerful when you want rich, honest insight over simple yes/no answers, especially during discovery, after product changes, or as part of ongoing customer feedback programs.

Here are our top 10 open-ended survey questions for SaaS product usability:

1. What’s the most helpful feature in our product, and why?

2. Which part of the product do you find confusing or difficult to use?

3. Can you describe a recent challenge you faced while using our product?

4. If you could change one thing to improve your experience, what would it be?

5. How does our product fit into your daily workflow?

6. When was the last time you felt frustrated with our product, and what happened?

7. Are there any features you think are missing or unnecessary?

8. How would you explain our product’s value to a colleague?

9. Have you used any workarounds or hacks to get things done? Tell us about them.

10. Is there anything else you want to share about your experience?

By focusing on open-ended questions, you create space for customers to express thoughts you might not have even considered. And since 81% of SaaS companies use customer feedback to guide product development, collecting detailed answers is a must-have[1].

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for SaaS usability

Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you need quantifiable data or want to spark conversation. They’re especially helpful when respondents might hesitate or struggle to formulate their own answers—offering them a menu of quick options lowers friction and can be a great entry point before an open follow-up.

Question: How easy is it to complete your main task using our product?

• Very easy

• Somewhat easy

• Neutral

• Somewhat difficult

• Very difficult

Question: Which feature do you use most often?

• Dashboard

• Reporting tools

• Integrations

• Notifications

• Other

Question: How would you rate the onboarding experience?

• Excellent

• Good

• Average

• Poor

• Terrible

When to follow up with "why?" If a respondent picks "Somewhat difficult," follow up: “Can you tell us what made it difficult?” This gets past surface data to the story behind the score—essential for deeper usability insight that statistics alone can’t provide. That’s especially important, knowing that 55% of SaaS users say onboarding experience impacts future usage[3].

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include “Other” when your list might not cover all scenarios. Follow-up questions here can uncover unexpected use cases or pain points that your product and research teams haven’t considered—these insights routinely shape roadmap decisions.

NPS: Assessing overall experience with a key metric

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a benchmark question that asks, “How likely are you to recommend our product to others?” on a 0-10 scale. It’s industry-standard for a reason: 90% of SaaS companies track NPS to measure customer experience[5], and 81% use it to track customer satisfaction[6]. NPS not only provides an easy metric but also, paired with a follow-up (“Why this score?”), gives you actionable insights into product strengths and weaknesses.

If you want to instantly build and customize an NPS survey for SaaS product usability, try this automated builder for NPS surveys.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions transform simple answers into stories and actionable insights. With conversational surveys, you never stop at one-word replies—you keep digging until the purpose of each question is met. This is where Specific’s real-time automated follow-ups are a game changer: the AI agent understands context, asks clarifying or probing questions, and does it naturally—no scripts, just smart conversation.

Automated follow-ups mean you don’t have to chase unclear answers via email, and you save time while also capturing deeper, more relevant responses. For instance, if a SaaS customer leaves a vague answer:

• SaaS customer: “It’s okay, but sometimes confusing.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you describe a situation where you felt confused? Which feature were you using at that time?”

This uncovers details that a static form would miss. With 85% of usability problems uncovered by just five users[1], targeted follow-ups quickly pinpoint what to fix and why.

How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2-3 well-chosen follow-ups per initial answer are enough. But you want flexibility—let respondents skip to the next question when they’ve already given the information you need. This is built into Specific’s settings, so feedback doesn’t get repetitive or annoying.

This makes it a conversational survey: By probing for more detail and context, the survey feels more like a chat than a chore—leading to higher engagement and more thoughtful answers.

AI survey analysis: With so much rich, unstructured text, AI-driven tools like Specific’s response analysis suite make it simple to analyze themes, pain points, and suggestions at scale—no spreadsheet chaos, just insights on demand.

AI-powered follow-ups are the new standard. Try generating a usability survey and experience a smarter way to gather customer insight.

How to prompt ChatGPT for SaaS survey questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or another GPT tool to help you brainstorm survey questions, give the AI as much context as possible. Here’s a baseline prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for SaaS customer survey about product usability.

Be more specific for better results. Include your company type, goals, recent changes, or known pain points:

We run a SaaS platform for small businesses. We want input on where users get stuck and how we can make the onboarding better. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover usability problems and opportunities for improvement.

Next, have GPT organize those ideas. Try this prompt:

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

From there, focus on any area you want to explore in more depth with another prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Onboarding” and “Feature discoverability.”

This approach lets you move from general brainstorming to a sharp, actionable SaaS customer survey—especially when combined with an AI-powered survey editor for fine-tuning your questions in natural language.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys flip the traditional user survey on its head. Instead of a list of one-way questions, the experience feels like talking with a smart interviewer. The survey adapts based on previous answers, personalizes follow-ups, and maintains a natural, chat-like flow.

Manual surveys (built with forms or docs) are rigid, impersonal, and often feel like a to-do list. In contrast, AI-generated surveys—like those you create with Specific’s AI survey maker—engage people where they are, keep them interested, and get you more thoughtful replies with less effort.

Why use AI for SaaS customer surveys? AI survey generators let you launch tailored, insight-rich product usability surveys with a fraction of the effort—so you capture richer customer stories and drive ROI faster.

If you want tips on crafting and distributing these conversational surveys, check our full guide on how to create a SaaS customer survey for product usability.

Specific leads the way in conversational survey experiences, offering a smooth process for both survey creators and respondents—and making your usability research as easy as chatting with a colleague.

See this product usability survey example now

Create a survey in seconds—experience rich follow-ups, smart automation, and AI-driven analysis built by usability experts. No more bland forms or missed insights.