This article will guide you step-by-step on how to create an API developers survey about developer onboarding experience. With Specific, you can build one in seconds—just generate it instantly and focus on what matters: getting real insights.
Steps to create a survey for API developers about developer onboarding experience
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific. Here’s literally how simple it is:
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You don’t even need to read further—our AI crafts your survey with expert-level logic, using best practices in survey design. It asks smart, contextual follow-up questions to capture deeper insights, so you’re always a step ahead.
Why this survey matters for API developers and teams
An API developers survey about onboarding experience isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s the difference between average and outstanding outcomes for both new hires and product teams. Let’s put this into perspective:
Companies with structured onboarding programs see a 50% increase in new hire productivity—that’s not marginal, that’s transformational. [1]
Retention rates jump by 82% and productivity grows by 70% when onboarding is strong. [2]
For developers specifically, 92% say onboarding shapes their commitment to stay with a company long-term. [1]
If you’re not running these surveys—and acting on the answers—you’re leaving huge gaps in your onboarding process. You’ll miss out on:
Early warnings when onboarding falls short for API developers (before it hurts retention).
Opportunities to clarify confusing documentation or clunky environments right as new devs experience them.
Feedback that helps you compete for talent—every month you delay, you risk losing your best hires to smoother processes elsewhere.
This is the importance of API developers insights: every onboarding experience is a chance to strengthen your team, upgrade your product, and win developer loyalty for the long haul.
What makes a good survey on developer onboarding experience?
Not all surveys are created equal. The best surveys for API developers focus on:
Clear, unbiased questions—no jargon or leading language.
Conversational tone—so people feel comfortable being candid and honest.
Relevance and flow—making it easy for respondents to share real experiences without backtracking or confusion.
Quantity matters (the more developers who answer, the better). But quality is just as important—the best insights come from honest, in-depth answers. The table below sums up some key practices:
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Long, complex questions | Clear, focused questions |
One-size-fits-all for all roles | Contextual follow-ups for API devs |
No chance for open feedback | Conversational, encourages real stories |
Bottom line: You want a survey where both response rate and quality are high—Specific’s approach helps you nail both.
Survey question types with examples for API developers about developer onboarding experience
Let’s break down the best types of questions you can use—the best questions for API developers onboarding surveys balance structure and flexibility for true insights.
Open-ended questions make it easy to collect real, nuanced feedback. They're best when you want developers to speak freely, and perfect for understanding pain points, unexpected blockers, or hidden gems. Try these:
What part of the onboarding process did you find most confusing or frustrating?
Can you share a moment during onboarding when you felt ‘stuck’ or lost?
Single-select multiple-choice questions help structure responses when you need clear, actionable data for trends or benchmarking. Use them when you want to get a pulse on key metrics. For example:
How long did it take you to feel comfortable using our API after onboarding?
Less than a week
1-2 weeks
2-4 weeks
More than a month
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question lets you quickly benchmark the overall onboarding experience and segment responses for deeper follow-up. To create an NPS survey tailored for this, head over to generate a custom NPS survey. Example:
On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our developer onboarding process to a fellow API developer?
Followup questions to uncover "the why": Open, conversational follow-ups are a goldmine. Use them when answers aren’t detailed or when you want context beyond yes/no. For example, if someone rates your docs poorly, ask:
What made the documentation difficult to use?
Was there a specific step or section that you’d improve?
If you want to brainstorm more or see live examples, check out our guide on AI-generated developer onboarding survey questions.
What is a conversational survey (and why use AI for API developers)?
Traditional surveys feel like forms. A conversational survey feels like a conversation—respondents engage in a natural chat interface, receiving questions (and follow-ups) in real-time, so feedback is relevant, honest, and deep.
Manual survey creation | AI-generated (with Specific) |
|---|---|
Hours planning and writing questions | Survey ready in seconds, guided by AI |
Static, one-size-fits-all logic | Dynamic follow-ups adapt to each answer |
Requires manual analysis | Instant AI-powered insights and summaries |
Why use AI for API developers surveys? We do it because AI creates tailored, expert-quality questions instantly, adapts to respondents in real time, and handles the follow-up work human researchers find tedious. It’s perfect for busy teams that want to unlock actionable insights quickly—just look at this AI survey example generator to see how easy it is.
Specific delivers a best-in-class conversational survey experience—chat-based, engaging, and optimized for high response rates. If you want to dive deeper, our how-to guide for analyzing API developer survey responses with AI breaks down end-to-end insights.
The power of follow-up questions
Nothing beats dynamic, automated follow-up questions for unlocking depth in survey responses. With Specific, our AI asks precise, context-aware follow-ups—so you extract real insights, not just surface-level stats. Learn more about our automatic AI follow-up questions feature.
API developer: "The onboarding docs weren't very helpful."
AI follow-up: "Can you share which part of the documentation made things unclear for you?"
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-ups per respondent are plenty. This gives you a layer or two of context, without overwhelming your audience. We also let you adjust the “maximum follow-up” setting (so if the respondent’s answer is clear, the AI skips to the next question). You control the depth.
This makes it a conversational survey—not just a list of questions, but a true dialogue that’s proven to increase response quality and depth.
AI-powered survey response analysis is a game changer. Even if you have lots of unstructured text data, AI survey analysis tools help you summarize, chat about trends, and present insights fast—no need to sift through every answer by hand.
These automated followups are a new way forward. Try creating an AI survey and see how the conversation feels natural and smooth for your audience.
See this developer onboarding experience survey example now
Create your own conversational onboarding survey for API developers, experience AI-powered follow-ups, and transform your team’s feedback loop.