This article will guide you step-by-step on how to create a user survey about documentation quality. With Specific, you can build AI-powered conversational surveys in seconds, making it easier than ever to collect meaningful user feedback.
Steps to create a survey for users about documentation quality
If you want to save time, just click this link to generate a survey with Specific. Here’s exactly how simple it is to create a user survey about documentation using AI:
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
That’s honestly it—you don’t even need to read further. The AI will instantly build your survey around best practices, adding expert-level questions and intelligent flows. Plus, with AI-generated follow-up questions, you’ll automatically capture deeper insights without any extra effort. If you want to explore creating your own, you can always start from scratch with the AI survey generator—just type out your survey idea, and let the AI do the heavy lifting.
Why running user surveys on documentation quality matters
Building strong feedback loops with your users is a key pillar in creating great documentation. If you’re not running these surveys, you’re missing out on:
Spotting pain points—users will quickly flag what’s confusing, missing, or outdated.
Finding opportunities—honest responses can surface new ideas you may never have considered.
Preventing churn—clear documentation directly reduces customer frustration, boosting satisfaction and retention.
It’s not just a gut feeling—research supports this. According to industry best practices, surveys exceeding 15 questions or taking more than 10 minutes to complete often result in high abandonment rates, so being concise and focused is critical for engaging users and actually getting useful data. [1]
Bottom line: If you aren’t collecting direct user feedback about your docs, you’re leaving lots of useful insights—and future improvements—on the table. Prioritizing documentation feedback reduces friction and increases trust, which pays off across all your product metrics.
What makes a good survey on documentation quality
The best user surveys about documentation quality are sharp, bias-free, and cut straight to what you want to learn. Here’s what matters most:
Clear, unbiased questions: Avoid jargon or leading language. Aim for straightforwardness to ensure users understand what you’re asking.
Conversational tone: Write as if you’re talking to a friend. This welcomes honest responses and makes the experience less “test-like.”
Mix of question types: Use a blend of open-ended and quantitative questions to get both numbers and stories.
Often, the real acid test for a documentation quality survey is the quantity and quality of responses you get. You want high participation (so keep it short and clear) and meaty, actionable answers (so structure it conversationally and ask for “why”).
Bad Practices | Good Practices |
|---|---|
Vague, multi-part questions | One clear idea per question |
Overly formal tone | Conversational, relatable phrasing |
No follow-up questions | Dynamic AI-driven clarifying questions |
Remember: a good survey doesn’t just collect data—it helps you understand your users so you can make documentation genuinely useful and frustration-free.
Types of questions for a user survey on documentation quality (with examples)
You’ll want a healthy mix of question types in a user survey about documentation quality. Open-ended, multiple-choice, and NPS-style questions all have their place.
Open-ended questions shine for capturing personal stories, specifics, and nuanced pain points. Use them when you want to discover what users really feel (or when numbers alone aren’t enough). Two sample questions:
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced when using our documentation?
Is there a topic or feature you wish our docs explained more clearly?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect for benchmarking and trend-spotting. Use them when you want structured feedback or to compare experiences between users. Consider:
How easy is it to find information in our documentation?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is a proven way to gauge overall satisfaction and loyalty. Use it to measure if users would actually recommend your documentation—then follow up with “why?” for depth. If you want to make one instantly, generate a tailored NPS survey here.
On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend our documentation to a colleague or friend?
Followup questions to uncover "the why": Powerful surveys don’t stop at the first answer. Use targeted follow-ups to clarify or dig deeper. This helps you avoid one-word, ambiguous feedback and get to real user motivations. For example:
Why did you rate our documentation as “somewhat difficult” to use?
Can you give a recent example of where you got stuck?
If you want to explore even more question ideas and see practical tips for crafting effective user survey questions on documentation quality, check out our guide to the best questions here.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is different from your standard web form—it feels like a real chat, not a quiz. Each question is delivered in a natural, back-and-forth flow, and the survey “listens” and adapts based on the respondent’s answers. That’s why so many teams now prefer conversational AI survey examples when collecting feedback on documentation quality. It’s a friendlier, more approachable way to get honest, detailed replies—especially from users who’d normally skip lengthy surveys or give up halfway.
Using an AI survey generator versus building surveys manually is a true game-changer for anyone short on time or without in-house research expertise. Here’s a side-by-side:
Manual Survey | AI-generated Survey |
|---|---|
Slow, repetitive setup | Ready in seconds via plain English command |
Requires deep survey know-how | Expert-designed, no special skill needed |
Rigid, lacks follow-up logic | Dynamically adapts and probes for deeper insight |
Often boring, transactional | Conversational, feels human |
Why use AI for user surveys? It frees you from the grind of survey building. AI, especially with tools like Specific, composes smart, context-aware surveys automatically—complete with the right question types, skip logic, and conversational nudges built in. If you’re curious about the full survey creation process, see this article on how to create a survey for users about documentation quality.
Specific stands out for offering best-in-class conversational surveys: they’re engaging for respondents, easy for creators, and optimized for high response rates—whether you want a landing page survey or one embedded in your product.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions are essential for making surveys feel truly conversational and unlocking those “aha!” moments you’d otherwise miss. Instead of stopping at surface-level answers, Specific’s AI listens to each user response and instantly asks probing questions—just like an attentive interviewer would. This automatic approach not only gives you richer feedback, but also saves hours you’d burn sending clarifying emails back and forth or parsing cryptic answers. For an inside look, check out our article about automated AI follow-up questions.
Here’s what an exchange might look like if you skip follow-ups versus when you let AI do its thing:
User: I had some issues with the API guide.
AI follow-up: Could you share exactly what parts of the API guide were unclear or confusing?
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 smart follow-ups will get you the depth you need, while still respecting your user’s time. Specific lets you cap this or skip ahead automatically once you’ve gathered enough detail.
This makes it a conversational survey: every answer is explored in context, mimicking a thoughtful dialog rather than a static form.
AI-powered analysis, fast: Even if you get pages of open-ended feedback, analyzing it isn’t a headache—tools like Specific’s AI survey response analysis platform let you instantly summarize, extract key insights, or interact with all feedback as if you had a virtual analyst on your side.
Follow-up questions are a new standard—give it a try by generating a survey and experience how fast rich insights come back.
See this documentation quality survey example now
Create your own survey today and see how conversational AI transforms the way you collect and analyze user feedback—fast, thorough, and truly insightful.