Over the last couple of months, our 360-degree feedback development team has been hard at work creating a questionnaire for a new product we're launching.

Along the way, we made the questionnaire too long, then too short. We added questions, and subtracted many. We requested narrative comments, then re-wrote requests that were redundant or confusing.

It took some time.

But it's been a great process, and reminded me of the 5 key principles of questionnaire development.

1. Don't rush the fermentation

You don't need many hours per day to crush grapes or develop a questionnaire.

But it's important to schedule the process over a longer period of time, so you can get feedback, re-write, re-test, and re-write again, to create the best questionnaire ever.

2. Keep your eye on the core

The best way to develop an effective 360 is to focus on the core competencies of your organization.

Which competencies have built your reputation? To outperform, which do you need to encourage? What capabilities make your organization unique?

Once you've listed half a dozen competencies, make them the headings for the questionnaire, and write 4 or 5 questions about each one.

3. Cheat early, cheat often

There's no reason to start from scratch, when there are lots of good cheat sheets already out there.

For instance, we provide over 1000 well-tested questions to users of our 360 system.

They import, edit, adopt, adapt, mutate, transmogrify, and ignore them, and sometimes simply use them for inspiration. It's all good.

4. Invite a crowd

You need only a couple of people to design a great questionnaire.

But proper testing takes a crowd.

Your engineers read things differently from managers, and line workers differently from professionals.

So clarify those phrases that confuse or bewilder your testers. Your questionnaire will soon make sense to everyone.

5. Bless the challenges

If you chose your testers well, you'll get lots of feedback.

Some replies will surprise, some dismay. ("We tried so hard to make this perfectly clear, and now they say they don't get it!")

It's the challenge every good writer faces.

Grapple with those comments, and gradually you'll become better attuned to how others see your words.

Next time around, you'll write better, and easier.