A critical aspect of research/survey design is to ask questions that the respondent can/will answer. A big part of getting this right is talking to the people with the answers to your questions. This goes a long way to improving data quality and engagement – after all, who is going to want to spend much time answering questions that aren’t really relevant to them?

From the way you described the example, it sounds like a big part of the problem was asking questions of senior execs instead of the mid-level, technical people who could better provide the answers.

In many years of conducting B2B research, I’ve noticed a tendency among marketers to think that decisions about their product or service are made at the highest levels, when most of the time this just isn’t the case. To be sure, the C-suite is the decision-maker in some cases, but for the large majority of products and services sold to businesses, the real purchase decisions are made much lower on the ladder. It’s up to the research consultant to address issues like this upfront, while the research is being designed, to avoid an outcome as you described.