## Key takeaways - Safe space[^1] is needed to ask "dumb" questions ## Three reasons to ask a question What are you trying to do or what are you stuck with that you need help with from the person[^2] you're asking? - There are three core needs to ask a question: - To make a decision ("Should we...?") - To reduce uncertainty that's based on an assumption ("Does X really Y?") - To clarify if something is working ("Is X doing Y?") ### Workshop exercise: Workshop to get a sense of what questions are valuable and what clusters of questions exist. #### Generate 3 decision, assumption and measurement questions 1. For each core need, come up with one specific, one in the middle and one broad question. #### Generate sub-questions for each type 3. Pick one of each (decision, assumption, performance question) and come up with three sub-questions each - Use "Why, who, what, when, where, which, how many, how, how long, do, are, will, have, should, and is" to help you with formulation - Examples - How many users __ ed in the last 30d? - Where are new users dropping in in the __ funnel ? - Does __ and __ impact long term retention for __ s? - How well do __ s retain compared to __ s? - Are users who __ more likely to go on to __? - What’s the average number of ___ per __? - Where do customers go after __, and do they end up ___ing? - What unique customer behavior predicts ____? - When _ did we adversely ___ ? - Are people actually ____ ing, or are they just ____ ing? - Where/when are customers having trouble when attempting to ___? - Are our efforts to ____ resulting in ___ ? - Is what we released causing ____ , or is that just ____ ? - Is there any low hanging work that would let us ____ ? - Are we on track to ____ ? Once there are a lot of questions out there... #### Continue brainstorm 1. Brainstorm additional decisions (“should we…”), assumptions, and is-it-working type questions. 2. Share and discuss. Tweak. Repeat. #### Find and cluster valuable questions 3. Dot vote or place Monopoly money to “pay” for valuable questions. 4. Brainstorm sub-questions individually. Shoot for high volume. 5. Review sub-questions as a group, and refine in pairs. Prioritize. 6. Rinse and repeat until time runs out. #### Find your most valuable question > "By the end of the workshop, we typically have lots of questions and sub-questions, but we also have some sense of what questions are valuable." #### Use your most valuable question as your guide > "Good questions guide the way. Once you’ve prioritized important questions, the next step is to ask “what can we measure to reduce uncertainty related to this question?" ## References - https://amplitude.com/blog/asking-better-questions [^1]: [[Safe Space]] [^2]: [[In the end it's always about people]]