What Makes A Question Great?
Michael Perman
Insights + Innovation Leader and Sommelier @ C'EST WHAT? LLC | Wine and Sensory
Discover Insight Oceans & Revenue Streams
Which do you value more - great questions or great answers?
My life has been devoted to helping people and organizations mindfully craft their future; revealing what can’t be easily seen, charting their best path forward and creating experiences and products their customers CRAVE. In so doing, I've asked thousands of questions and gained insight into which questions are provocative, which questions garner shared empathy and which questions lead to answers that help create the future.
Now, I am charting my own professional course for the future and seeking an ideally curated collection of collaborative clients who wish to use insights to create what’s next. One of my main criteria is the desire to identify the right questions, solve the right problems, imagine the right answers that lead to action.
I am totally tuned into the pressure for delivering connections between breakthrough insights and future growth. Whether it is six month or six years ahead, uncovering consumer desires and competitive insights, then transforming those insights into tangible outcomes are the keys to new revenue streams.
Why great questions? I am thrilled when someone says to me: “that’s a great question”. I am proud to be recognized for my deep curiosity and empathy for others, which opens doors for people to reveal what’s in their subconscious mind, to stretch their spectrum of imagination, and to feel that they have been heard, that someone is truly listening.
My Professional Sweet Spot
In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice in a profession to achieve mastery. I realize now that Michael Perman has devoted more than 10,000 hours of asking great questions that lead to actionable insights, innovation and growth. Through hundreds of ethnographic studies, professional interviews, creative workshops and other forms of inquiry - the questions have flowed like a fountain of chocolate, all delicious with fascinating answers, too!
Insights and Stories
There are so many meaningful stories that emerged from my 10,000 hours. Here’s just a few memorable highlights.
The lumberjack from Albany, Oregon who collected more 600 pairs of Levi’s, brought that sea of indigo in a truck to Levi’s HQ for us to hear decades of stories and his unique expectations, which helped be more relevant and drive our business forward.
Dozens of conversations with Millennial women from around the globe, who helped us completely re-stage Levi’s women’s business, revealing personal stories of cultural currency that made our brand much, much more relevant.
Playing in the kitchen with dinner-prepping moms in Minneapolis, Minnesota, enabled me to reveal new product ideas for Del Monte.
The corn farmer from Des Moines, Iowa helped General Mills to understand “authenticity” leading to more relevant new products and acquisitions.
Teenage basketballs player from the Bronx who illuminated the perpetual meaning of Michael Jordan for Nike in life beyond basketball, which drove growth in brand Jordan’s apparel business.
I honored the voice from graduate students in Punjab and the hotel service workers who lived in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, who helped me understand the relative meaning of the term “value” in their lives, which led to creation of a new apparel brand.
What do your customers CRAVE?
My passion about the future inspired me to produce the CRAVING THE FUTURE podcast. I’ve been delighted to ask great questions to more than 40 innovation luminaries, on the future of learning, sports, space exploration, currency, playing, customer engagement, blockchain, craftsmanship and work and much more.
What are YOUR Great Questions?
Great questions challenge your own thinking about what is possible and how far you can stretch your potential to create. Great questions make people feel comfortable they are engaging in a genuine and trusting conversation with shared curiosity. Great questions respect people's reality and help them consider alternative realities. Great questions unleash imagination.
What questions have you asked that tap subconscious thinking, revealing unfiltered truths about your brand? Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics can only drive strategy decisions if the right questions are being asked. How are you peeling back the layers that lead to engaging brand narratives. What questions can you ask that guide future design and business transformation?
I established C’EST WHAT? LLC to mindfully craft innovation and explore ideas that leads to actionable results. With 10,000 hours of experience banked, I love the hands-on sensation of directly facilitating my craft. If you are responsible for driving future growth, then let’s connect and begin asking the best frickin’ questions that will help your organization to create what’s next and thrive!