#2 Just ask questions?
Was the “question behind the question” framework wrong?
from Unsplash Michael Descharles
Hello friends and strangers, Welcome.
For this newsletter, I will steal Jason Fried’s approach: ship fast and iterate later. My goal is to share observations, thoughts and learnings every week, via this soon-to-be old-school communication channel. Hopefully one tiny thing from the letters would spark a quick thought and turn into something meaningful for you. At least that’s the hope.
I have another website to host longer articles, which frankly I rarely proof-read either. If life is a series of games and you can choose which ones to play, then this is my playground.
Welcome to the playground.
1. Just ask questions
I had a chat with my colleague who is a data scientist and also an author of two books. Prior to his life in tech, he used to work as a librarian at a university. He shared a very interesting part of a librarian’s job: when the students came to ask for one specific book, he’d ask them questions and figure which books they actually need.
This instantly reminded me my recent epiphany on the ultimate value of a data analyst — the ability to understand the real questions behind stakeholder’s questions.
Although in data analytics, we are rarely asked about the philosophical indication of users’ behaviour, there is certainly a chance that not all questions have an answer. Knowing what questions to ask is the key because not only the additional information distracts decision making, the asking itself comes with an opportunity cost.
Seeing him using the same mental model reinforced my confidence in the “question behind the question” framework.
2. The Fairmount Story
Over a recent trip, I stayed at the Fairmount hotel.
On the last day of my trip, I needed to move the checkout time down for a couple of hours because of an appointment in the morning. I went to the front desk to confirm late checkout.
Since my room came with complimentary breakfast, I also asked if the breakfast would be over by 11:30am, which is the time I planned to return. The front desk staff confirmed my late checkout, and to my surprise, told me that 10:30am would probably be the latest for breakfast. As I was trying to figure out by what time I’d need to get back to the hotel, he called the hotel restaurant and confirmed 10:30am was the latest time I could get breakfast without feeling rushed.
3. Just ask questions?
I was left in shock again, this time by his approach to my question. If I was wearing the analyst's hat, my instinct would be to confirm the real purpose behind the question. “Is breakfast over by 11:30?” really meant “will there be food at 11:30?”, and if yes, I was ready to grab something to go real quick. If I were him, I would suggest myself to return by 11:20am, or to pack some food to go before I leave for my appointment.
The staff, on the other hand, approached the question very differently. He was a treating me as a guest of the hotel (which is true), and his priority was to make sure I have a great experience instead of helping me understand what I was trying to ask. A great experience is probably not rushing into the restaurant to grab a croissant, a great experience is taking my time between the omelette station and the salad bar. Thus, the solution he proposed was to visit the restaurant by 10:30am and enjoy my breakfast without feeling rushed.
4. Final thoughts
Was the “question behind the question” framework wrong?
It will be if I ignored the context. Just because it works great in the analyst / librarian world, doesn’t mean it’s the only valid way to respond to a genuine question.
Anyways, a good lesson learnt.
Until next time