Stupid Questions — What are they thinking?
Breaking down poorly structured questions in 5 minute lessons.
Learning how to ask a great question is one of the more overlooked skills in analytics. It is amazing, given the consequence. Plenty of rework, additional meetings, and client dissatisfaction can be linked to simply not asking the a question with proper thought and clarity.
This new series will take some fairly innocuous questions and break them down to demonstrate the missteps that are often taken. At times, this may feel like an old school grammar lesson that brings you back to long afternoons with Mother Margaret… but for analyst, it is a necessary and empowering exercise.
Example 1 — What are they thinking?
This question has been bandied about the halls and conference rooms of nearly every business that deals with clients or customers. Sometimes it comes in the form of the slightly better — what are my customers thinking? or I need to know what my customers are thinking about my business (which is technically not a question but does contain one).
Let’s break this down — word by word.
WHAT
This is the wrong interrogative, in this case, for two reasons. What is not actionable. Knowing what does not lead to anything more than a minor amount of knowledge. Knowing how is actionable. How should be every analysts interrogative of choice. More on that here -
The second problem in this example is that the questions is eluding to (it is certainly not defining) attitude, behavior, interest, and other very human motivations for what. But what never interested or motivated anyone. The golden circle tells us that how & why are much more motivational, more connective, and more powerful drivers of human action. For those who would like to pick why — stick to philosophy and let the rest of us get some work done.
ARE
This is the wrong tense. Does that really matter? Yes! The person asking this ill-formatted question is not interested in a history lesson… unless it informs them of what to do in the future. They really want to know what their clients, customers, or whoever WILL be thinking in the future.
Note — sometimes a history lesson is a great way to build insight and knowledge, though still not very actionable. All analysis doesn’t need to be actionable, that is an odd myth used to sell expensive and ineffective solutions. If you were looking to perform the history lesson — you should still chose WERE, just to be clear.
THEY
There is a reason Mother Mary didn’t like pronouns. They are far too vague. Even in context, they have a bad habit of getting muddied as time distances your analysis from the original inquiry. Do yourself a favor, define they.
My customers is better, but only slightly. Is this about existing customers, customers who disappeared, loyal customers, trial customers, US customers? As a good Rule of Hand (copyright pending)— try to get five adjectives. Five is an easy number to remember and it has a wonderful habit of being just right (think Goldilocks just ignore the bears).
THINKING
No one knows what, how, or why anyone is thinking anything. And — it wouldn’t matter if you did. People are often asked what they are thinking by marketers the world over — news flash/s:
- they lie
- they don’t know themselves
- it is no way aligns with their actions
- you are likely to misinterpret their thoughts
- they forgot
This is an overly simplified verb. What the person likely meant was a verb more akin to reacting, responding, regarding, or some other verb of the sort. Again, you want something actionable.
Next up, you need a direct object in this sentence structure. Mother Madelyn is shaking her head and sighing. This object needs to come from a much deeper client/partner conversation. How will the individual asking the question use this knowledge? Are they contemplating some program changes, branding, product adjustments, a new pricing structure, or all of the above?
Any of these answers has merit. All will add a wonderful new object to your question. Some will require a lot more work than others…
Trying this again
So let’s throw out that first question and try something a bit more insightful and specific.
How will the behavior of our active, US customers using the XYZ platform change as a result of our current marketing strategies? (with emphasis on those who have been customers for more than 6 months and made three or more purchases)
Ugly, yes it is. I think this often scares off inexperienced analyst. This is why Powerpoint gets a bum rap. You can greatly simplify this question with some bullet points or (as shown below — a call out). Powerpoint is a great platform to allow further development without this turning into a full on white paper.
How will the behavior of our customers using XYZ platform change as a result of our current marketing strategy?
Customer defined: US Only, Active, 6 months as customer, 3 or more purchases, and using XYZ platform
Our stupid question is now the beginning of a well-formed model. We really haven’t gone far enought to create a great question. This being our first article, we will need some time to integrate measurability, timing and other factors into our questions. Stay tuned.
You may also realize that, if this question does not produce the expected or wanted answer, the client is likely to ask quite a few more. Welcome to the field of analytics!
