Part 7: And the Survey Says…
By Retta Witter, Senior Consultant, J. Geiger Consulting, Inc.
As I have been trying to achieve my goal base weight for my backpack, a friend asked me if it’s reasonable to get the pack weight of twenty pounds. While I have read that it is possible, I do not know anyone who’s actually done that, not even my close friends. In theory, it’s achievable but how many people actually do meet that goal? If not twenty pounds what is a reasonable weight? I asked and learned of what my hiking friends do, but as you know a sample size of three people isn’t valid. Last week I talked about community and how amazing the groups are, I have been using the polls on some of the social media sites to ask some questions. In the BA world this is called surveys there are pros and cons to doing surveys.
Pros:
· Easy, quick and relatively inexpensive.
· Not time consuming from respondents.
· Closed ended captures quantitative data.
· Open ended provides additional insight.
Cons:
· Results may be too low for statistical significance.
· Open ended, may need more analysis.
· May need follow up questions or additional surveys.
“It is proved by surveys that happiness does not come from love, wealth, or power but the pursuit of attainable goals. ”
With my survey I gave specific options to answer and one listed as “other comment below”. This was a combination of open and closed surveys but it allows for me to get an answer I hadn’t considered. This has been very useful information that I have received that I wouldn’t have initially thought of.
The following are the three surveys and the knowledge I have acquired in the process.
My Polls:
Survey 1
I must admit this survey got a lot of chuckles based on the comments but many people have also created some great discussion and I learned a great deal.
How much does your backpack weigh?
· Under 30, 20, 10, 5 lbs
· Other – Comment below
In reading the comments on this survey I realized I forgot to weigh my pack in the 20 lbs goal. My pack weighs 4.5 lbs. UGH! So I really need to get creative on hitting that under 20 lb goal. I have also had people say it depends on the season because that determines what they need to pack, which makes sense.
Survey 2
To understand how I can reduce my weight, I wanted to understand how people kept warm. When I get cold all my muscles tighten up and it takes a bit to get them moving again. When I am cold I am also a bit challenged because I don’t sleep well and then I need more coffee or I am a bit less skilled in my communications skills.
How do you put your sleeping bag gear together?
· Combo – module based (add layers to get the correct temp)
· Multiple pieces of the same gear based on weather (multiple sleeping bags, multiple tents)
· Other – Comment below
I was surprised at how many people had multiple of the same product. All I could think of was how expensive the winter weight sleeping bags are and then having to store multiple sleeping bags or tents. I also learned a lot about sleeping bag liners, the difference between a sleeping bag and an over quilt and sleeping mats are available out there.
Survey 3
In blog one I talked about becoming a 1000 miler which is walking the entire 1200 miles of the Ice Age Trail. As some of you may have seen, Emily Ford became the first woman hiker on the Ice Age Trail to make it through winter. She did the trail in 10 weeks and many days of snow and sub zero temperatures. She said her pack is 65 lbs. Unfortunately, I can’t take 10 weeks off of work to do that hike so it goes back to how can I accomplish my goal.
I asked the group of people who know the trail and had a similar goal, how did they or do they plan to achieve their goal.
How are you getting the Ice Age Trail completed?
· Only day segments
· Mostly day segments with a couple of overnight segments
· Depends on the segment.
· Other – comment below
Results:
I was very surprised that so many people did only day segments. The closest part of the trail is an hour drive from me. What I found interesting was that in the comments we got some discussion on how people hike during the day and will stay with family or friends in the evening, or even have a base camp they drive back to the campsite from the trail at night. One of the pieces of feedback was that people would bring their bike, park their car at one end, then bike to the beginning of the planned hike and then hike to their car and pick up their bike. I think this could be a fun option for my husband and I. We both like to hike and bike. My husband spent over 20 years in the Army/Army National Guard and no longer cares to camp in all kinds of weather and I don’t blame him. Also, for all of you who have served in the military, thank you.
Once you have the survey results it important to analyze the data. There are many ways to analyze the data and then you draw the conclusion and tell story from the survey results.
Do you use surveys? How much statistical analysis do you do?
Come back next week when discuss Financial Analysis – Worth Your Weight in Salt.