How Asking More Questions Accelerated Our Business at Dvinci.co

Building a product... is undoubtedly about serving people 

Building a feature.... about serving people 

Building a company.... about serving people 

Making an “impact”..... is all about serving people - a ton of people.

If you’re on LinkedIn, you’re probably by one means or another connected to providing some sort of work that serves another human being.

If so, you may relate to the remainder of my message here.

In our journey from serving a few to serving many at Dvinci. Our team learned something so basic and but proved to be radically pivotal to our evolution as an emerging company. This small change that I am going to briefly get into has created a lasting, positive impact in our top-line performance, in our customer-base growth, in our employees' morale and so much more. 

Here's what we did.....

Instead of proactively looking for the right answers externally (which we all inevitably do), we began the ol’ searching for the right questions to ask!

We began authentically asking the people we set out to serve and the people we were serving simple but well-thought-out questions to serve them better.... and once we started doing this, things started changing. We found out for ourselves first-hand that “questions are (indeed) the answer” to tackling a lot of our problems and they're the source of our biggest (and usually most avoided) growth.

During leadership meetings, at the end of each quarter, amidst troubling times, during/before/after new product/feature launches, when big changes happen, or whenever we simply felt the need or had a routinely-scheduled feedback session - we began asking questions like:

“(Customer or Employee), how do you like how X or Y is going?” Fill in the variable with anything you would like feedback on...

“Really? Why?” “Why else? And why else?

“Why do you work with us?” "Why do you think others don't?"

“Why did you originally start working with us? 

“What has made you stay? What would continue to make you stay?”

“What would it take to make you want to work elsewhere? And why?”

“What are the gaps - in our product/feature/company/etc..- that you think we are missing out on?”

“Where are we delivering exceptionally? Where are we not?”

“What would you do differently if you were in our shoes, or if you were CEO/or leader/ or manager?”

“What are you or others afraid to tell us about our products, company, your experience, etc ?”

“I really care about doing my job better, what could I have done better (insert whatever experience is relevant to you here)?”

“What turns you off and what turns you on about your experience with us?”

"What are your goals? What are you looking to achieve here? How would you ideally want this to work out?"

Some of these are yes very basic, but if asked in the right spirit, to the right people, and at the right times (i.e. right after a product/feature launch, end of month/quarter/year and many more suitable occasions), and asked often - "magic" happens.

Questions like these have enabled the Dvinci team to hack through the BS and noise in the marketplace, and connect with the truth; the truth about why we even existed as a company in the first place, and the truth about what we can do to make the world better. And by making the world better, we don't mean by getting us to Mars... we mean things as seemingly "small" as improving the frequency or time at which an email is sent to a customer - so that they are only notified of an update when they don't want to be.

Delivery of these questions, we have learned, is also critical. And here are some key ingredients for such questions to be carried out intentionally and impact-fully in our businesses, and our relationships:

1. Be relentlessly willing to fail, and this means experiment often and be willing to get half-a##ed answers from our customers/employees at first. 
2. Tell our customers or employees why we’re really asking these questions - i.e. to be a better service provider, a better leader or better resource for them. 
3. Probe and probe and probe by asking “why” and/or by insisting on them to “tell (me) more.” Usually, most of us are told what we want to hear, but by going deeper here, we cut to the truth... and we get to the feedback that may be painful to be both said and heard - thats the feedback that matters most.
4. Be genuinely curious and deeply interested in what our people have to say. If we want to lead and serve the many, this is an absolute must.... we cannot “fake it” or “do it for the money” or the “fame” or “status” and expect to win over the long term. The money will always follow real value. And real value is only created when we serve others. 
5. Less ego. Listen with the intent to listen, take notes (when necessary) and be a student to our people. We should only do 10-20% of the talking in these kinds of feedback-focused settings
6. Make a note of the questions that trigger those insights we’re looking for. Reuse those questions often. No need to invent/re-invent these questions either. There are plenty of resources that can provide a starting framework for us. Direct message me if you want some of these.
7. Maximize the use of tools like Google Form - which make aggregating this kind of feedback simple if we have a ton of customers and/or employees. However, nothing beats the feedback we get in real-time on a phone call with our customer or employee. 

By asking such simple but intentional questions at Dvinci, we’ve learned to co-create an experience - for our customers, our community members and our employees - that is actually of real service to these people. We've evolved our business model, our processes & systems, and so much more to be that of a people-centric, customer-centric, employee-centric company that keeps on winning - irrespective of time, environment/industry, or resources.... and one that - we strongly believe - will keep winning - because our customers and employees are collaborating with us to build the experiences & services that they want.

The option on the opposite side of this spectrum here is to copy and paste the “answers” from others in our industries and/or markets. This is an option where we feel like we are always reacting and in effect of external variables. This option creates a workplace and service that feels like it has to chase every trend that glitters or a need to copy its competitors’ strategies or completely premeditate assumptions & hypothesize experiments of what may or may not work just to have a chance at winning... although each of these are elements to building as well, we believe this isn’t a place to operate from in order win in the long game, and (despite a rather small sample size) our market feedback has continued to validate this.

Instead, to win, go direct to the source: our people. 

And: ask. 

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P.s. I would love to hear some of your relevant feedback-driven questions or similar experiences.

If you dig this post, give me some likes or comments, so I know it resonates. If not, what would you rather hear from me about? Thank you! ????