Sunday, February 8, 2009

A GeneTree.com survey

I received an email asking me to take a customer survey to determine how www.GeneTree.com can best serve my needs. The questions are interesting - makes me wonder what they're thinking about! Here are the questions and the potential responses (with my responses in (parentheses):

1. Have you purchased a DNA kit to analyze your ancestral past?

* Yes, from GeneTree (my response)
* Yes, from another company
* No


2. Ancestral DNA tests typically provide both test results and DNA haplogroup prediction. With a deeper DNA test, we can make a definitive determination of your haplogroup rather than just a prediction, resulting in a more careful refinement of your deep ancestral past. We would be able to use this information to, for example, tell you specific areas of Europe your ancestors migrated to rather than just Europe in general. In addition, you’d be directed to individuals within this finer group that share a similar ancestral past. How much would you pay for this service?

* Nothing, I'm not interested
* $49 (my response, why would I want to pay any more?)
* $79
* $99
* $149


3. Would you be interested in DNA "lattice testing", where you test the Y DNA and/or mtDNA of various relatives? Lattice testing both preserves the DNA heritage of your ancestors but also helps you discover connections on more lines than just your direct maternal and paternal lines. Group discounts would apply. Example: In addition to mapping my own paternal and maternal lines with Y and mt, I can also map my mom's paternal line by testing her father or bothers, and my dad's mother’s paternal line by testing my dad's uncle. Now I have 4 lines mapped. The service identifies relatives for testing to fill in your whole ancestral lattice and a nice way to display results.

* Yes (my response)
* No


4. GeneTree is considering enhancing our DNA matching services, creating an “advanced matching service,” whereby you’d be able to combine your pedigree and DNA results to better find matches within the network. This would be an ongoing service that would notify you of new pedigree matches and multi-level DNA matches on a regular basis as new members join. Please rate how important you feel each of the following components of this new service would be (1 is not interested, 5 is very interested)

* Automatic notification when new pedigree or DNA matches show up in the system (my response = 5)
* Ability to search for others using birth/marriage/death location, date, name, DNA haplogroup, DNA haplotype (my response = 5)
* Use of a “Explore Our Link Tool” that allows you to enter any two people in our network/database and determine through DNA and genealogy how they are linked (my response = 5)
* Ability to visually map locations of matches on a map at any given time in the past (my response = 5)
* Ability to share pedigrees between two people that are matched
(my response = 5)

5. How much would you pay for this advanced matching service if it had the features you need most?

* Nothing, I'm not interested
* $5/month (my response - why would I want to pay any more?)
* $15/month
* $25/month


6. How interested would you be in paying for a Professional DNA Genealogist to take you and another individual through the process of analyzing your DNA and genealogies to determine whether you are related? (1 is not interested, 5 is very interested) (my response = 2)

7. How interested would you be in paying for a Professional Genealogist to extend your pedigree or verify your research?(1 is not interested, 5 is very interested) (my response = 2)

8. Are you more likely to purchase a DNA test if you knew that a portion of the proceeds went directly to funding university research in genetic genealogy that enhances global understanding of ancestral DNA?

* Yes (my response, sure why not!)
* No


9. What features you add to GeneTree to make your DNA a more useful tool for you?

My response = "I don't understand the question. It is not worded to be understandable. Please revise and ask again! Do you mean (added words in [brackets]: What features [would] you add to GeneTree [in order] to make your DNA [test results] a more useful test for you?

"If that's the right question, then my answer is:
* links to surname projects or haplogroup projects that have similar DNA results.
* Email links to other people with similar Y-DNA or mtDNA results.
* More educational information about each haplogroup and how to expand the DNA lattice to other family members."


That survey had some interesting questions, didn't it? From the questions, it appears that GeneTree might be moving in the direction of:

* Ancestral DNA tests for a fee
* DNA lattice testing of other relatives for a fee
* DNA matching services (they already offer one) for a fee
* professional services to help researchers

1 comment:

Zoomerang Blog said...

Thanks for sharing the survey. Question 9) reveals two possibilities: either they forgot a main survey tenet - always send a few test surveys to catch errors, confusing questions, etc... - or you were a 'test' participant.