Asking The Right Questions

QUESTION –a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information.

We begin to ask question at a young age. Some of them are silly (“Why can’t I eat fifty chocolate bars?”), while most are surprisingly good and fitting for the occasion. However, when we grow older, I believe we begin to lack the intentionality in which we used to ask questions. We stop being inquisitive and either pretend to know everything, or if we do ask questions, we stop asking the right questions.

For instance, when starting a project (and throughout a project), I’ve found that asking certain question actually makes a difference in the way a concept meeting unfolds, the way a project timeline is laid out, and the way an idea is executed. Here are some of those questions:

• What is this?

• What it is trying to achieve?

• Who is it for?

• How can we talk about it?

• What does it remind me of?

• What is the cultural moment – will the message stand out in this culture at this moment in time?

• What is the risk?

• What kind of action or response do we want?

• What kind of resources do we have/need in order to pull this off?

• What is the strongest plan for how to achieve it?

We have to remember that we are usually trying to target a certain audience and a certain response when we create something. In order to hit the target, we must have a clear picture of the product and the market in which we are presenting the goods. If we do the work of asking these questions before we dive headfirst into a project, we’re more likely to meet our desired objective.

So start asking the right questions. Start with these. Take your first pass at them at the beginning of the project and revisit them through each phase to see if your focus has changed or stayed the same. If you find that the focus has changed, then you must discern if the shift was intentional (we meant to change directions) or if it was unintentional (oops, where did we get off track?!).

As a producer, project manager, director, designer, writer, etc. – it’s crucial that you ask the right questions.