Finding the Story: 16 Story-Mining Questions to Ask C-Suite Executives

Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash

One of the most exciting parts of my job as a consulting brand journalist is interviewing startup executives and helping them turn their ideas into publishable, brand-owned content.

Much of the time, we have a concrete strategy in place — goals to reach using content as the vehicle for getting there — while other times, we work with a blank slate and brainstorm thought leadership ideas tied to niche topics that either answer questions for the target audience or help that executive build credibility through writing.

A few of my friends have asked if I have a go-to list of questions that I use when story-mining. My initial answer was no, as I cater every set of interview questions to the individual with whom I’m working. But I do find myself asking a number of the questions below when an executive is just beginning to explore their voice.

So, in an effort of assisting my fellow content and communications comrades in developing thought leadership writing programs, here’s a hardy list.

Story-Mining Questions for C-Suite Executives

1. What are you uniquely qualified to write about given your past experience?
2. What are you uniquely qualified to write about given your current role?
3. What industry-relevant story is uniquely yours (or your company’s) to tell?
4. What stories, within your industry, have not yet been told, and why are they important?
5. What managerial lessons have you learned in the past five years?
6. What career lessons do you wish to pass on to newbies in your field, and why?
7. If you retired tomorrow, would you have regrets? What can others learn from this?
8. Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work and learned from it.
9. Tell me about a professional challenge you navigated with grace.
10. Tell me about a realization you had in the workplace, whether it was self-reflective or in response to feedback you received from a colleague.
11. Are there sub-categories of content your competitors are not addressing?
12. What customer questions do you receive most frequently?
13. Have you told your company’s origin story in your own voice? If so, what might that sound and look like?
14. Describe your leadership style.
15. Name a few provocative, industry-relevant topics that inspire long discussions among you and your immediate colleagues.
16. Describe a news article that resonated with you lately, and let’s discuss what made it so strong.

These starting-point questions should unveil a swarm of content ideas that you can then build upon and refine. Wherever they take you, ensure your ideas map back to company objectives, emanate the brand’s mission, and tell fact-backed or personal, lesson-rich stories that have yet to be told.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 340,876+ people.

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