By using a completely open ended question in the pilot run, the survey team will be able to assess whether multiple choices are appropriate, and what the choices might be. Subjective questions should remain open ended, but the pilot work can still influence the final version of the question. The questions should not be confining or leading, and they should not make assumptions about the attitudes of the respondents. After the pilot run, if the responses to a question have a narrow range, it is likely that the question needs to be rewritten to be less leading. If the answers to a particular question frequently indicate misunderstanding, chances are good that the writers of the question assumed something incorrect about the types of answers it would get.
Questions can be too narrow or too broad, too formal or too intimate, too vague, or biased.
The answers to the pilot run will help the survey designers to fine tune and rewrite questions. Another valuable result of a pilot run is the ability of the survey team to assess whether the respondents' answers are meeting their needs for data. If a question is consistently producing answers that are not appropriate to the information requirements of the survey team, then it clearly needs to be reworded. This is also a good time to evaluate the method of circulation. Not long ago there were many fewer choices as to how data could be gathered.