Questions: Road to Clarity
Naga Chokkanathan
Principal Technical Program Manager, Author, Keynote Speaker. Views Personal.
Whenever we read any official document, we are likely to get several questions. Start noting them down in a notebook or a digital file instead of simply keeping them in your head. Contrary to popular belief, your brain is not the best place to store data!
Writing down a question is special because many of the questions in our minds are not well defined in the first iteration. When you try to write it down, you are forced to think more about it, add context and use the right words so that it becomes less ambiguous for everyone. A well-written question is also efficient because it is likely to get a direct answer from the SME (Subject Matter Expert) on the other side of the table.
Some of the questions you note down might be answered in the later sections of the same document. In those cases, simply strike them off. If they are only partially answered, rewrite the original question to reflect what you know and what you don't.
After you finish reading a document, think about the right person to ask those questions. Sometimes, you are lucky and all those questions can be addressed to a single person. But, in most cases, they will have to go to different people: you don't want to ask a product query to a technical architect and vice versa.
Don't be apologetic about asking too many questions. Earlier, I used to feel bad about asking a lot of questions, especially silly questions. I felt I am wasting people's time because of my ignorance. But, many great leaders I worked with were only happy to answer questions and I could see that they enjoy the process and learn from it too. They told me (explicitly and implicitly) that asking questions is a sign of progress and only those who care about doing a good job ask questions.
However, we should also care about the experts' time and make it easier for them to answer our questions. This means, instead of dumping all the questions on them, we can do some reassessment, organize and present it right.
For example, you can categorize your questions into four groups:
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Presenting your questions in this manner helps the expert(s) have the right mindset when answering them. Alternatively, if you mix strategic and tactical questions repeatedly, they may have to reset their perspective every few minutes which can cause confusion in communication.
Also, think about the right medium to ask your questions: Email or Slack or Phone Call or Video Conference or A face to face meeting (if feasible). Sometimes, especially when there are too many questions, a conversation knocks off many open items in just a few minutes.
Whatever be the medium, ask relevant follow-up questions. Mentally strike off a question only when you understand the topic fully/get all the answers.
Don't be disappointed when you hear IDK (I don't know) answers. No one knows all the answers, even experts. IDK is a valid answer as long as it is followed up with another statement: "Let us figure it out now" or "This person must be knowing it."
Finally, thank the expert for his/her time and attention. Pay it forward by answering others' questions in future.