7 ms·

Brainstorm questions not ideas

270 points by marban 4y ago

zabzonk 4y ago
hasn't everyone always said that "anyone can have an idea, implementation is what matters"?
- kkoncevicius 4y ago
  I like J. Blow's take on ideas vs implementation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3UrdwnAu3o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3UrdwnAu3o
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  Yes. Also ideas can be something like “lets move the search box to the menu bar to save space”. The question might be “do users use our search?” “what are the users trying to achieve with search?” and so on. Probably the solution falls out of the air once these questions are thought about and answered.
  - bryanrasmussen 4y ago
    I once worked at a place where I pointed out the search sucked (with 100s of examples and references to research), at which point the UX guy said “do users use our search?” which it turned out, no, they didn't (which I thought was so obvious considering how bad it was) but since they didn't use it the solution fell out of the air that it didn't need to be improved. on edit: typo correction
    - quickthrower2 4y ago
      A braver solution is get rid if the search (less code to maintain) then talk to the users to solve their biggest problems
      - bryanrasmussen 4y ago
        it was a streaming service. I believe search is probably the best interface if you know exactly what movie you want to watch.
    - sanitycheck 4y ago
      Why didn't they use search? Could it be because it sucked so much? How were users actually finding the things they needed? Had there been any usability testing? If your UX guy was anything like 90% of the ones I've dealt with, the answer to those questions would all boil down to "don't know, don't care, I'm focusing exclusively on this cool idea I came up with yesterday". It appears I've been slightly "triggered", my apologies!
      - alexvoda 4y ago
        I was about to post exactly what you wrote.
      - CharlieDigital 4y ago
        Some contexts work better with structured navigation. One that comes up off the top of my head is the electronic trial master file in FDA submissions. Because it has a standard structure, users can navigate it faster through the structured navigation than through a freeform search. I think other contexts this might hold true are when the content is browse oriented (how often do you use search on HN or reddit?) or it's a mobile context where a structured nav would allow less tapping than typing a search query.
    - marcosdumay 4y ago
      Well, looks like the ideation process was cut shortly. A simple "why users don't use our search" could maybe steer the process into a useful direction (or conclude that it's because our users don't need search). Of course, that all probably happened because somebody involved didn't want your product to have search. Process can not solve political problems.
- isaacfrond 4y ago
  I don't think anyone has ever said that. There is the famous Edison quote though: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
- munchbunny 4y ago
  That saying is often used in the context of non-practitioners throwing ideas at practitioners. The flip side of the coin is practitioners who are too focused on what’s immediately in front of them to the exclusion of creativity.
Cardinal7167 4y ago
After all, a good question is half the answer.
atoav 4y ago
I often find most people are really bad at taking a step back and thinking freely about the problem at hand — especially if they are stressed out. And they (we) are stressed out all the time, because apparently it is considered good managment to not consider what happens when you put pressure on people. I tend to say: "You cannot afford to go fast if you are in a hurry, because this is where stuff goes wrong. And if you are in a hurry you cannot afford stuff going wrong." If you are a manager and you want your people to deliver the most innovative, creative, best solution you have to lift stress of them and that also means freeing them of their daily duties and giving them the space to think openly about solutions. If your shop will collapse when you relive the best people of their daily duties for a week that means you shop is badly managed.
- whiplash451 4y ago
  Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
  - rco8786 4y ago
    Somebody drives race cars
    - bdunks 4y ago
      This phrase is also a mantra of the US Navy SEALs.
      - weatherlight 4y ago
        Really any US military outfit. I was airborne infantry in the US ARMY and this was our mantra when learning anything new.
  - xtiansimon 4y ago
    “I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.”
  - scns 4y ago
kqr 4y ago
One of the benefits of questions that this article did not seem to cover is that it helps one avoid solutionising. "How can we help our users feel less frustrated with our service?" inherently gives you more alternative courses of action than "we gotta optimise page load time of the checkout function". Sometimes the question leads to the first solution that came to mind, but the technique is at its most valuable when it does not. Maybe the checkout page load time isn't as bad as the dark patterns and getting rid of them improves user flow more at a lower cost than rewriting a critical component.
- marban 4y ago
  It's the classic Amazon-popularised method of working backwards from the user benefit. Write the press release first, evaluate feasibility, build.
  - srikz 4y ago
    Interesting. I had only heard this in the context of Apple before and not Amazon. There is a clip from a Steve Jobs video describing how you need to work backwards from the end user experience and then figure out the technology
    - kqr 4y ago
      Toyota did it before either. Part of their A3 process is asking "what's the problem (discrepancy between expectation and observation), and is it stated from the customer's point of view?"
    - wpm 4y ago
      https://youtu.be/oeqPrUmVz-o https://youtu.be/oeqPrUmVz-o
  - hutzlibu 4y ago
    "the classic Amazon-popularised method of working backwards from the user benefit." They do not implement that for everything, though. My last order done with a mobile browser, I could not checkout my order, without also choosing amazon prime. I had to activate "desktop mode" that it let me proceed. And I am pretty sure that is intentional to nag more users into prime.
iamsanteri 4y ago
Asking good questions, ones that can be studied and investigated and ones that have an impact, is hugely underrated in my opinion.
- dgb23 4y ago
  Reminds me of the book “Schule des Denkens” AKA “How to Solve It” by Polya. It’s all about the art of asking questions in order to solve problems.
  - iamsanteri 4y ago
    Added to read.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
igtztorrero 4y ago
Soo true, it's better bounce ideas with good questions. A good question can lead to a better feature.
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Easily perverted. "How can we {do it my way}?"
scotty79 4y ago
Do evil brainstorming. Instead of imagining solutions to the problem try to imagine ways how you can make the problem worse. Mischievousness unlocks creative potential and frees people from fear that some versions of those ideas will be implemented. But you can get a lot of insight why the problem is a problem and which parts of it are malleable and which are most worth addressing.
- ledauphin 4y ago
  i would love to see a transcript or video of this in action (not a simulated exercise, but a real instance). It sounds hilarious, but I feel like it would take a lot of experience to extract something meaningful from it.
hermannj314 4y ago
I am discovering this is also helpful in improving my listening and conversational skills. Asking questions is a powerful skill. So when is it ok to brainstorm ideas first and not questions? Emergency situations may call for rapid execution of any idea. A drowning child doesn't evoke a need for us to ask why we think it should be us that saves the child or what does it really mean to drown anyway? Probably ok to just throw out an idea and spring to action. Most of the time; however, no one is drowning.
s1mon 4y ago
It’s not exactly the same thing, but brainstorming questions reminds me of brainstorming problems or failure modes. That makes me think of fishbone diagrams, which are used to try to root cause failures by structuring the main contexts of possible causes.[0] I’ve used this technique to solve for failures in the past. I could see the categories being good prompts for this type of brainstorming. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram

270 points by marban 4y ago

zabzonk 4y ago

hasn't everyone always said that "anyone can have an idea, implementation is what matters"?

kkoncevicius 4y ago
I like J. Blow's take on ideas vs implementation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3UrdwnAu3o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3UrdwnAu3o
quickthrower2 4y ago
Yes. Also ideas can be something like “lets move the search box to the menu bar to save space”. The question might be “do users use our search?” “what are the users trying to achieve with search?” and so on. Probably the solution falls out of the air once these questions are thought about and answered.
- bryanrasmussen 4y ago
  I once worked at a place where I pointed out the search sucked (with 100s of examples and references to research), at which point the UX guy said “do users use our search?” which it turned out, no, they didn't (which I thought was so obvious considering how bad it was) but since they didn't use it the solution fell out of the air that it didn't need to be improved. on edit: typo correction
  - quickthrower2 4y ago
    A braver solution is get rid if the search (less code to maintain) then talk to the users to solve their biggest problems
    - bryanrasmussen 4y ago
      it was a streaming service. I believe search is probably the best interface if you know exactly what movie you want to watch.
  - sanitycheck 4y ago
    Why didn't they use search? Could it be because it sucked so much? How were users actually finding the things they needed? Had there been any usability testing? If your UX guy was anything like 90% of the ones I've dealt with, the answer to those questions would all boil down to "don't know, don't care, I'm focusing exclusively on this cool idea I came up with yesterday". It appears I've been slightly "triggered", my apologies!
    - alexvoda 4y ago
      I was about to post exactly what you wrote.
    - CharlieDigital 4y ago
      Some contexts work better with structured navigation. One that comes up off the top of my head is the electronic trial master file in FDA submissions. Because it has a standard structure, users can navigate it faster through the structured navigation than through a freeform search. I think other contexts this might hold true are when the content is browse oriented (how often do you use search on HN or reddit?) or it's a mobile context where a structured nav would allow less tapping than typing a search query.
  - marcosdumay 4y ago
    Well, looks like the ideation process was cut shortly. A simple "why users don't use our search" could maybe steer the process into a useful direction (or conclude that it's because our users don't need search). Of course, that all probably happened because somebody involved didn't want your product to have search. Process can not solve political problems.
isaacfrond 4y ago
I don't think anyone has ever said that. There is the famous Edison quote though: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
munchbunny 4y ago
That saying is often used in the context of non-practitioners throwing ideas at practitioners. The flip side of the coin is practitioners who are too focused on what’s immediately in front of them to the exclusion of creativity.

Cardinal7167 4y ago

After all, a good question is half the answer.

atoav 4y ago

I often find most people are really bad at taking a step back and thinking freely about the problem at hand — especially if they are stressed out. And they (we) are stressed out all the time, because apparently it is considered good managment to not consider what happens when you put pressure on people. I tend to say: "You cannot afford to go fast if you are in a hurry, because this is where stuff goes wrong. And if you are in a hurry you cannot afford stuff going wrong." If you are a manager and you want your people to deliver the most innovative, creative, best solution you have to lift stress of them and that also means freeing them of their daily duties and giving them the space to think openly about solutions. If your shop will collapse when you relive the best people of their daily duties for a week that means you shop is badly managed.

whiplash451 4y ago
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
- rco8786 4y ago
  Somebody drives race cars
  - bdunks 4y ago
    This phrase is also a mantra of the US Navy SEALs.
    - weatherlight 4y ago
      Really any US military outfit. I was airborne infantry in the US ARMY and this was our mantra when learning anything new.
- xtiansimon 4y ago
  “I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.”
- scns 4y ago

kqr 4y ago

One of the benefits of questions that this article did not seem to cover is that it helps one avoid solutionising. "How can we help our users feel less frustrated with our service?" inherently gives you more alternative courses of action than "we gotta optimise page load time of the checkout function". Sometimes the question leads to the first solution that came to mind, but the technique is at its most valuable when it does not. Maybe the checkout page load time isn't as bad as the dark patterns and getting rid of them improves user flow more at a lower cost than rewriting a critical component.

marban 4y ago
It's the classic Amazon-popularised method of working backwards from the user benefit. Write the press release first, evaluate feasibility, build.
- srikz 4y ago
  Interesting. I had only heard this in the context of Apple before and not Amazon. There is a clip from a Steve Jobs video describing how you need to work backwards from the end user experience and then figure out the technology
  - kqr 4y ago
    Toyota did it before either. Part of their A3 process is asking "what's the problem (discrepancy between expectation and observation), and is it stated from the customer's point of view?"
  - wpm 4y ago
    https://youtu.be/oeqPrUmVz-o https://youtu.be/oeqPrUmVz-o
- hutzlibu 4y ago
  "the classic Amazon-popularised method of working backwards from the user benefit." They do not implement that for everything, though. My last order done with a mobile browser, I could not checkout my order, without also choosing amazon prime. I had to activate "desktop mode" that it let me proceed. And I am pretty sure that is intentional to nag more users into prime.

iamsanteri 4y ago

Asking good questions, ones that can be studied and investigated and ones that have an impact, is hugely underrated in my opinion.

dgb23 4y ago
Reminds me of the book “Schule des Denkens” AKA “How to Solve It” by Polya. It’s all about the art of asking questions in order to solve problems.
- iamsanteri 4y ago
  Added to read.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

igtztorrero 4y ago

Soo true, it's better bounce ideas with good questions. A good question can lead to a better feature.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Easily perverted. "How can we {do it my way}?"

scotty79 4y ago

Do evil brainstorming. Instead of imagining solutions to the problem try to imagine ways how you can make the problem worse. Mischievousness unlocks creative potential and frees people from fear that some versions of those ideas will be implemented. But you can get a lot of insight why the problem is a problem and which parts of it are malleable and which are most worth addressing.

ledauphin 4y ago
i would love to see a transcript or video of this in action (not a simulated exercise, but a real instance). It sounds hilarious, but I feel like it would take a lot of experience to extract something meaningful from it.

hermannj314 4y ago

I am discovering this is also helpful in improving my listening and conversational skills. Asking questions is a powerful skill. So when is it ok to brainstorm ideas first and not questions? Emergency situations may call for rapid execution of any idea. A drowning child doesn't evoke a need for us to ask why we think it should be us that saves the child or what does it really mean to drown anyway? Probably ok to just throw out an idea and spring to action. Most of the time; however, no one is drowning.

s1mon 4y ago

It’s not exactly the same thing, but brainstorming questions reminds me of brainstorming problems or failure modes. That makes me think of fishbone diagrams, which are used to try to root cause failures by structuring the main contexts of possible causes.[0] I’ve used this technique to solve for failures in the past. I could see the categories being good prompts for this type of brainstorming. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram