The Answer to Life is 42, but what is the Question to Life?

The answer to life is 42, at least according to the movie hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Why I love this movie is because of the point it’s trying to make; if you’re asking the wrong questions, then you’ll inevitably get the wrong answers. [Spoilers Alert] These two hyper intelligent pan dimensional beings got fed up with everyone asking about the meaning of life, so they built a supercomputer that could come up with the answer to life, the universe, and everything. So what happened when the pan dimensional beings turned on the supercomputer and asked the ultimate question? They we bestowed with a less than satisfactory answer, 42, yup, just 42, not happiness, joy, family, stepping on a cockroach. Hey, at least the computer did say it put some serious thought into it. The beings were not to ecstatic about that answer, the computer went on to tell them that, had they taken the time to build the right computer, to ask the right question, they would have gotten the answer they were looking for.

A few months ago I asked a similar, but not so profound question on the #yesphx slack channel and didn’t get the intended response I was looking for. I instead got a slightly condescending answer, which was fine, because the question itself warranted an answer of that kind. However, it also resulted in me fully realizing something important, I responded with, “‪Asking the right question is like any other form of creation, you have to start somewhere, then form it into shape over time.‬” What I meant by this was that sometimes you have to start with something rough and unpolished to get an initial response to at least do something then, over time, with feedback, form it into what it needs to become to get you the results you’re looking for. Formulating a magnificent question is just like building a product feature or system in a business. It takes iteration to get it right where it needs to be. Once there, the desired impact can be delivered.

As an example, in the slack channel I had asked something along the lines of “what’s the best marketing campaign you’ve run” to Francine Haradaway. In hindsight, and after the response (not from Francine, I honestly don’t remember who it was), I realized that the question was indeed quite ignorant and unspecific. Why would I ask a seasoned, not like a salad, marketer to pull out of her brain one instance of great marketing when there’s so much that goes into a marketing campaign, often spreading across various platforms. A better question would have been, “In your years of marketing, what print campaign for a physical product would you say generated results way above what you had anticipated?“ Even this question I’m sure could be better, because a question that cuts straight to the bone is only revealed after asking it, and the knife only gets sharpened after feedback has been received and processed.

So what’s the anatomy of a well formulated question?

Let’s breakdown a question:

“I’m sure you’re passionate about a lot, but what are 1–3 of your passions outside of what you do for work that you would like to master?”

1. Make sure it’s open ended

• Yes or no questions lead nowhere and stop conversation dead in it’s tracks, find the questions that will get people talking and thinking with parts of their brains they don’t normally use during a new conversation. In this question I ask for passions, a question that is designed to light people up, and get them talking about what they really love doing or experiencing.

2. Some context is given

• I start off with “I’m sure you’re passionate about a lot” this give context that I understand they may be passionate about many things, but I want to find 1–3 specific things that we can discuss.
• People often answer questions based on the context that they are presented in. For instance with the question above, this will most likely result in them answering with a passion pertaining to the person’s skillsets. Unlike when I ask a more broad question such as, “what are you passionate about?” With this question I’ve gotten answers ranging from; family, my kids, love, and reading, to, crochet, video games, and coffee.

3. It’s specific, but only when it needs to be

• I specifically ask for 1–3 passions, not an overabundance like 15, and also let them only pick one if they can’t think of more. I also ask what they would like to master. That frames the question, and directs the person to pick something that they want to become really one of the best at.

4. It allows for quick memory retrieval

• Again, asking them to master something helps them cut out options, whittle down the decision tree, and retrieve a relevant piece of information from their brain. Answering questions like these on the spot, with no prep, can be challenging, I like that.

5. The questionee shouldn’t need to ask for clarification

• Make sure there are no loose ends, again this is where the iteration happens. At first you’ll get people asking for clarification but, as you continue to ask the question to others you can begin to formulate the question to to account for these types of rebuttals. For this question I might even add more context specifying what I mean by mastering a passion.

On another note, I decided to source our wonderful community to get some great questions. I happend to do that by asking, well, a question!

Now since it was the first time I asked this particular question I was expecting some possible confusion, and feedback, which I got on the first response, but quite surprisingly there was no confusion after that. Everyone seemed to answer it how I had intended, for the most part. The only thing I might have done better is to provide an example, but I didn’t want to frame this particular question. That kind of happened anyway regardless of me trying not to frame the question because I only posted to the #yesphx Facebook group so I got, in the majority, all business context answers. Although some were slightly more broad.

The Question

“Tell me about a time in your life when you were stuck in an intense moment with another individual and asked a question that helped ease the tension and get you out of that predicament? Mainly, what was the question?”

The Answers

Randy Gustafson

Vice President, Innovation at Arizona Commerce Authority

“What do you really need or want, to make you happy?” … Asked in a very calm tone, especially if the tone has been elevated up to then …. It simply reframes the existing intensity by making THEM the priority …

Tony Felice

Co-founder at Felice+Whitney Agency — Marketing Advertising Branding PR

“I’m so sorry that’s happening to you, do you need to vent or can I help in some way?” Most people want to be heard, they don’t need fixed.

Ro Vanaki

Co-Founder & President at Pursuit Health Technologies

Take a deep breath, remove everyone’s attention from the problem at hand, and simply ask “what’s next”

Luke Miller

Customer Success and Community Development at Prenda & community organizer at 1million cups

The question: “Is it secret, is it safe?” Then I took the ring to Mordor.

To see more of the questions check out the question on the facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesphx/

(You’ll have to search for “predicament,” I can’t link directly to the question.)

Now go and use one of those questions, or better yet, formulate your own. Only by asking the right questions in the right way, can we be sure to get the right answers that will garner the right results.

Oh, and check out Hustle Moji, it’s a great way for hustlers like you and me to answer simple questions in the right way with stickers! www.husltemoji.com It’s also on Product Hunt!