The art of questioning
By: Jake Wang
Tags: Product Design, Design Thinking, Tips, Design Process, User Interviews

The art of questioning

Alternatively, design thinking bootcamp and why asking the right questions leads to better ideas.

A prototype of the “Minimalist Phone”

You know what the word bootcamp brings to mind? Aside from shudders, that is. (Although to be fair, in recent times, there is a 49% chance that “bootcamp” also has all the techies in the room perking up as they think about upskilling with a crash course in Javascript or Python.)

But I’m old school. And not very athletic. So, say bootcamp to me and I will immediately regard you suspiciously while pulling my stash of snacks closer.

The good news is this isn’t that, which is to say physically strenuous. But design thinking bootcamp is certainly mentally strenuous. Just like in an obstacle course, people are running as fast they can, and suddenly they’ve come up to a huge wall that they have somehow have to scale. People are falling off trying to get over. It’s a mess.

Well, pretty quickly, I found my wall.

I was interviewing my partner and I just couldn’t find the right words.

It was frustrating. Like relying on blind luck — that maybe, just maybe, I’d stumbled upon a story, or a hint at a problem to be solved. Which of course is even harder to do under a time constraint.

So, here’s the problem with questioning as a beginner:

How do you find the right words?

When do you push? When do you move on?

What tells you something is resonating and will potentially lead to a story?

Something tells me those are the wrong questions too — or at least not the best questions to ask here.

In hindsight, I realize that we generally underestimate the question as a tool for information. Or we misuse it.

Worse, we don’t really listen to the answers. It’s like as people speak, our brain wants to mentally supply assumptions based on our experiences — which could be wrong.

There is good news though.

The design thinking process can withstand bad questions. Because the framework is not only forgiving, but also flexible in how you iterate.

the design thinking framework — credits: http://www.wmidstudio.com/approach

always ask, but why?

If you ask someone why they feel the way they do about something, they’ll tell you.

But in normal conversation (as opposed to an interview), it’s common to accept the first response you get. The norm isn’t to push.

This conversation would usually never happen in real life. Especially if we live in the same area.

If you tell me you don’t like driving to the grocery store because you hate parking, I implicitly understand and relate to you. I’m not going to ask you why you hate parking. But if I were trying to improve parking or the grocery store experience, I should.

Hate’s a pretty strong feeling. That’s something to be unpacked.

the role of questions in design thinking

As an interviewer practicing design thinking, you will go deeper, and in doing so, mine out new and surprising insights.

For example, I learned from my partner that she wanted to incorporate more minimalism in her life, but she still wanted to feel connected to her friends and family. It wasn’t something I would have thought of addressing without interviewing her (and it definitely wasn’t one of the solutions I sketched up during the ‘false start’ phase of the bootcamp).

A minimalist phone is not a particularly new or innovative concept, but I do think that it’s something to explore. If I had more time to work with my partner through the design thinking process, the next iteration may be totally different but solve her problem better. And I really enjoyed using a low-res prototype to start a conversation for further understanding.

I’d also never have come up with my partner’s solution to my problem:

a phone ‘bed’ that automatically cleans and charges your phone

We later learned something like this exists, but it’s 1) expensive and 2) not that good. So maybe the tech isn’t there yet. But the solution my partner described to me? I’d pay for it. It might not just be about fingerprints and phone sanitation. Maybe it’s about personal health. Maybe it’s about a digital hub by your bed. The thing is I can see the potential, and that excites me.

Neither of us would have come up with the ideas we did if we just accepted the first answer we heard. With the design thinking approach to questions, we get interesting insights — stories speaking to deeper attitudes, beliefs, and motivations — that in the end, lead to better ideas.