How to Ask Good Questions

Sidenote: this was written yesterday, I just didn't get around to posting it in my blog!

How to ask good questions

The only way to get good answers is to ask good questions. Asking good questions is a skill, and can be improved upon with thought and process.

1)      Understand the purpose of your question

This may seem obvious, but it’s surprisingly common! To get a good answer to your question, you first must understand why you are asking it. When you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, it’s easy to lose focus on what you actually need help with. Imagine this scenario:

You’ve been given a task at work with a tight deadline, and you’re confused. You’ve attempted it, but you can’t seem to make any progress. The more you look at it, the more overwhelmed you feel. You go to your boss and tell her you’re having difficulty. When she asks what the problem is, you say “I don’t know! I just don’t understand it? Can you help me?”

This is a prime example of a bad question. It gives no context to your scenario. It’s important to break it down, so the person you are asking can understand it. A better way to phrase this would be:

“I am struggling with the task and I have been feeling overwhelmed. There are two main areas I am having trouble with: the technical content, and my relationship with my colleague. I don’t have prior experience with this IT system, so I am having difficulty understanding how to use it. My colleague has also not been answering her emails or phone calls, and I need information from her. Can you please advise on this?”

If you are struggling to understand what you need help with, you need to take a deep breath and take a break. Think about all the things that are involved in the issue- the content of your work, the timings in which you need to do it, the team, your client, etc- and then judge whether you are happy or unhappy with the way each is going.  

2)      Cut out the niceties- be efficient

People at work are busy. When you ask questions, they should understand immediately what your problem is.  It is a waste of time to add meaningless, flowery language when your ultimate goal is to ask a question. 

You are busy at work and have a deadline to meet. You get a message on Lync from someone in another department:

“Hi Tina, how’s it going?”

Reluctantly, you reply.

“Hi, I’m ok. Pretty busy.”

“Oh OK, I don’t want to take up much of your time! I have a question for you.”

“What’s up?”

“Do you have experience with Excel?”

“Yeah I have some…what do you need?”

“Are you sure you don’t mind helping me? I won’t take up much of your time but I heard you’re good at Excel from Sarah.”

“It’s OK, just let me know what you need help with.”

“Well I’m doing this data analysis project for our department. Anyway, I was looking on Google but I am really bad at Excel so I couldn’t figure it out. It seems really silly, but we’re trying to analyse the average age per group. I have no idea why! Do you know how to do it?”

“Write =AVG in the cell, and then highlight the column of ages you want to be included.”

“Thanks so much!! That’s so simple haha, I couldn’t figure it out. Really appreciate it!! J”

Did you get annoyed reading this? Now, how about you were asked this question instead:

“Hi Tina, do you know how to figure out the average of a set of numbers in Excel?”

“Write =AVG in the cell, and then highlight the column of ages you want to be included.”

“Thanks, appreciate it!”

How much better was the second option than the first? The first option broke all the rules of asking a question:

1)      There were too many niceties and unnecessary questions. People are often nervous about asking questions, and try to be polite by making small talk. STOP THIS. You can be efficient and pleasant. If you have a question, ask the question straight away. There is no need to make small talk or, if you are writing an email, add flowery language like ‘hope you are well and had a really good vacation! You must be really busy so I won’t take up too much of your time. I had a question about…’

2)      Unnecessary apologies. There is no need to apologise for asking a question. I admit I am guilty of this, but no one should apologise for asking a question. Ultimately, everyone is in a work scenario. The purpose of this is to do our work. If we can’t do our work, we need to find some way to figure out how to do it, and this means asking GOOD questions. If your questions are succinct and understandable, then there is no reason why you shouldn’t ask. 

3)      The question was hidden in unnecessary information. Only provide context that is essential to understanding the question. The person you are speaking to you doesn’t need to understand why you are using the data, whether or not you are good at Excel or not, etc. The aim of the question is to understand how to use a function in Excel, so this is the only information that needs to be provided. If they need more information to figure out how to answer your question, they will ask it!

3)      Follow the emotion -> identify -> explanation format

Questions should be succinct and easy to understand. Each step provides essential information to the person you are asking the question to. Using the example above:

Emotion

“I am struggling with the task and I have been feeling overwhelmed.” -> your boss immediately understands you are having an issue with your work, and need her help.

Identify

“There are two main areas I am having trouble with: the technical content, and my relationship with my colleague.” -> your boss understands the overall areas they need to help you with.

Explanation

“I don’t have prior experience with this IT system, so I am having difficulty understanding how to use it. My colleague has also not been answering her emails or phone calls, and I need information from her.” -> your boss understands the specific issues you are having difficulty within this problem.

Conclusion

Overall, your questions should be straightforward and easy to understand. They should be as specific to your problem as possible. No one likes to be confronted with the, ‘I don’t know what to do, I need help with EVERYTHING’ question. It is better to spend 15min asking a good question, than 1min asking a bad question, and having to ask multiple follow-up questions. Perfect the art of asking good questions, and you will get good answers.