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The methodology says it had 10,000 respondents, but it doesn't break those down into any sort of groups. What qualifies as an executive and how many of them res

The methodology says it had 10,000 respondents, but it doesn't break those down into any sort of groups. What qualifies as an executive and how many of them responded to the survey? Given this survey is being carried out by Slack in an effort to convince companies to buy their product, I'm really skeptical of their vague methodology

wheelinsupial 5y ago
Also curious is the methodology section: “The survey was administered by Qualtrics and did not target Slack employees or customers.” I think from the introduction section they are targeting employees of Fortune 500 companies, but they are restricting the sample to those that don’t use slack… I think this is going to generate a biased sample. There is also some discussion of “of executives currently working remotely” but they don’t discuss the count of respondents. The methodology section has some definitions: “Respondents were all knowledge workers, defined as employed full-time (30 or more hours per week) and either having one of the roles listed below or saying they “work with data, analyze information or think creatively”: Executive Management (e.g., President/Partner, CEO, CFO, C-suite), Senior Management (e.g., Executive VP, Senior VP), Middle Management (e.g., Department/Group Manager, VP), Junior Management (e.g., Manager, Team Leader), Senior Staff (i.e., Non-Management), Skilled Office Worker (e.g., Analyst, Graphic Designer).” There is some discussion of “executives,” “managers,” and “employees,” it seems a little difficult to tease out from the text which group is being talked about, though.
- boomboomsubban 5y ago
  It defines who was surveyed, you can only guess what they mean by "executive." Their definition could limit it to 10-100 respondents, and how many of them are currently working from home? That 46% may represent like 20 people, making it statistically garbage.

wheelinsupial 5y ago

Also curious is the methodology section: “The survey was administered by Qualtrics and did not target Slack employees or customers.” I think from the introduction section they are targeting employees of Fortune 500 companies, but they are restricting the sample to those that don’t use slack… I think this is going to generate a biased sample. There is also some discussion of “of executives currently working remotely” but they don’t discuss the count of respondents. The methodology section has some definitions: “Respondents were all knowledge workers, defined as employed full-time (30 or more hours per week) and either having one of the roles listed below or saying they “work with data, analyze information or think creatively”: Executive Management (e.g., President/Partner, CEO, CFO, C-suite), Senior Management (e.g., Executive VP, Senior VP), Middle Management (e.g., Department/Group Manager, VP), Junior Management (e.g., Manager, Team Leader), Senior Staff (i.e., Non-Management), Skilled Office Worker (e.g., Analyst, Graphic Designer).” There is some discussion of “executives,” “managers,” and “employees,” it seems a little difficult to tease out from the text which group is being talked about, though.

boomboomsubban 5y ago
It defines who was surveyed, you can only guess what they mean by "executive." Their definition could limit it to 10-100 respondents, and how many of them are currently working from home? That 46% may represent like 20 people, making it statistically garbage.