Say you asked questions. And say you were smart enough to actually get some answers back. Perfect, right?

Not necessarily. Especially when you realize there are answers, sure, but not quite to what you thought you asked. Well, seams you didn't ask what you thought.

Remember the saying that there are no stupid questions? Got a bad news — there are. At least inappropriately asked if not stupid per se. Provided your respondent gets you wrong or has to ponder a lot to figure out what you actually meant (and face it, he won't spend a minute to solve your riddles), it means the question is not a very good one. In fact it fails to fulfill its very purpose — get you an answer.

What to do? Try to beta test your questions with your peers. Try to pick on some trickier details yourself. Try to think like your respondent. And finally, whenever it turns out something wasn't as clear as you thought — fix it.

And believe me, you would be really surprised how people can misunderstand the simplest and straightforward question.