Scope

Objective

The Marketing Team needs data. Without it, we can't do our job properly.

Our priority is to find out:

1. Who our potential customers and users are, what they need and how we can recruit them.
2. Who our current customers and users are, what they need and how we can retain them.
3. Who our previous customers and users are, what they needed that Ubuntu didn't have and how we can get them back.

Once we know the above, we can decide where to focus our efforts (targeting).

Purpose

The data gathered will be directly useful for both us, the Marketing Team and other teams within the greater Ubuntu initiative.

Also the survey itself acts as a promotional tool and represents an opportunity to raise awareness and educate the participants.

Customers versus users

The word "customer" doesn't always sit well in the free software world. It's a useful way to describe the people we deal with, though, and we shouldn't shy away from it.

Example: in medium-sized business, the IT Director might be our customer, whereas the company's staff would be the users.

Tasks

We need to collect both Quantitative and Qualitative data from people, however the emphasis should be on Qualitative. These people fall into three seperate catagories:

• Potential Users
• Current Users
• Previous Users

The above catagories will require questions to be different, and even the method of carrying out the survey will vary in approach. Regardless, neither survey should be forced upon the targeted population.

Potential Users should be asked non-Ubuntu related questions. These people may or may not know what Ubuntu is, and some of them possibly do not even know what Linux is, however they should have some basic idea about computers and their operation. Questions in this section should be along the lines of "What are you looking for in a music playing program",

Current Users are the people who use Ubuntu already, or who have used Ubuntu in the past. Questions aimed at these people should be directly Ubuntu related and should focus on preferences and opinions about the system such as configuration defaults, package choices and so forth. "Do you like the choice of default browser included in Ubuntu" would be an example of a question for this section.

Previous Users are people who have tried to use Ubuntu but churned to something else. This will be a valuable but (hopefully) small and difficult to find group. Understanding why they left is very important to discovering ways to make Ubuntu better.

Process

There are probably countless ways that we could obtain subjective data from people.

The method of data collection to be used for the task must involve direct communication with participants. One of the more convenient methods for doing this is via surveys. Surveys are not the most effective method for obtaining data, however if done correctly can be low-cost and low-effort compared to other techniques.

Results

When the data from the surveys has been collected, it will be analysed and presented in a report to teams that are interested parties and other appropriate teams. The results of the surveys will be purely for suggesting changes and to act as a reference.

Question Ideas

Before this process can continue any further, there needs to be decision on what questions to include in each targetted survey.

As you think of suggestions for questions, please add them to the following tables. Please try to give a reason why each question is relevant. Questions must be things that can be realistically acted upon.

Common Questions

I have added an improved table of questions where we can add suggestions and comments to the questions at: QuestionDiscussion (mindspin)

Questions that are relevant to both Potential and Current user groups.

Potential Users of *Ubuntu

Questions that are relevant to only Potential users

Current Users of *Ubuntu

Questions that are relevant only to Current users.

Previous Users of *Ubuntu

Questions that are relevant only to Previous users.

Construction and Implementation of Surveys

Once enough questions have been gathered, they will be voted upon by the Marketing Team and other interested parties. The most popular/useful questions will then be collated into the two surveys.

Methods for getting the surveys to and from participants is yet to be discussed or decided upon.

The project needs 1,057 surveys from current forum members to get a 95% confidence level with a 3% confidence interval, from current population of members in Ubuntu Forums (110,621). For the Previous Users survey the project needs 1,037 surveys to get the same results, if we supposed that the 36,520 non active forum members have deleted Ubuntu from their HD. For the Potential Users survey the project need 1,070 surveys for a population above 10 million users to get the same results. Which would make a grand total of 3,164 surveys for the project to be statistically The project needs 1,057 surveys from current forum members to get a 95% confidence level with a 3% confidence interval, from current population of members in Ubuntu Forums (110,621). For the Previous Users survey the project needs 1,037 surveys to get the same results, if we supposed that the 36,520 non active forum members have deleted Ubuntu from their HD. For the Potential Users susignificant.

Timeline

• 31st July 2006 -- Initiated Process
• 25th August 2006 -- Deadline for question submission - questions submitted after this time might not make it to the surveys.
• 1st Sept 2006 -- Hope to have survey drafts drawn up
• 8th Sept 2006 -- Hope to have finalised surveys ready for setup/distribution

• 16th Sept 2006 -- Software Freedom Day and central date for the implementation of the Surveys

  • Surveys do not necissarily have to be done on this date, but it is more or less the 'official' date for them to be done
• 16th Oct 2006 -- Deadline for survey returns.
• ? -- Draft Reports
• ? -- Final Reports (hopefully before edgy+1 is out)

Discussion

You can add suggestions and comments to the questions at QuestionDiscussion(mindspin)

I would like to add questions for companies/small business users. I'll add them under QuestionDiscussion (mindspin)

• It's been decided that this will be a seperate project/initiative as it will be alot more time and effort intensive (MelissaDraper)

I wrote a blueprint that is related to this some time ago, it may be a bit difficult to realize tought: "Send Feedback" Feature --RainCT

Added idea (Ubuntu Brainstorm idea #23631) to raise awareness/support for this user research project. (ScottRippon Feb 10, 2010)

Continuance

If the project goes to plan, It would probably be beneficial to repeat it on a regular basis - possibly repeat the process annually.

It is important to consider doing this, as the Open Source world, by nature, moves pretty darn fast. Things change from year-to-year -- Opinions change with exposure and education and the standard that needs to be met by any project, never stops evolving.

Resources

• The Popularity Contest will provide some data for "What is your favourite <application>?" style questions. -- DavidSymons

• The Ubuntu Counter Project will be able to provide data regarding versions and variants. -- MelissaDraper

• The Ubuntu Census Survey may provide a lot basic questions that you can base your surveys on. -- AndreasLloyd