The shortcut to powerful messaging

.. is asking each other the right questions. I have a worked on a list of questions over the years. At times they were informal and half-remembered, at times they were in a notepad, or Google Forms (bleh). Maybe 100 questions have cycled through. Most are transactional or straightforward but some rise to the level of “strategy starter questions”. Of this sort, I like 10-15 the most; here’s a sampling: What do you know about your customers that hardly anybody else knows? How do you think things should be done in your area? What do you and your customers both agree on about your industry or market? By now these questions and I are on close terms. Sometimes they even come out in casual conversation.. ” what do you know about your dog that no one else does?” But ultimately, questions like these are one-trick ponies and not worth as much as the art of question-asking.  By themselves such questions get you maybe one small volley of insight. They’re “starter” questions because they’re only really valuable if they ignite an exchange. The exchange affords the chance to ask a better question, one that is personalized specifically to what someone has just said. This is like in the 5 Whys, which works pretty well, albeit moreso with simplistic problem discovery: What’s the problem? I can’t find a good designer? Why do you need to find a good designer? Because … Etc. It’s not unlike Gestalt Therapy; focus on what surfaces. Holding that focus and asking the right follow-up questions is where the value is: if you do it well, you can find excellent words to put on your website.