The Art of Asking Questions with Karen Johnson

The Art of Asking Questions
Karen N. Johnson
© Karen N. Johnson, 2014

Karen N. Johnson
• Software Test Consultant
• Published Author (Beautiful
Testing) For a list of
published articles, see my
website.
• Teach Software Testing
• Speak at conferences
• Co-founder of WREST, the
Workshop on Regulated
Software Testing
• Website:
www.karennicolejohnson.com or
www.karennjohnson.com
• Twitter: @karennjohnson
The Art of Asking Questions - © Karen N. Johnson, 2014

What is the purpose of this talk?

“The scientist is not a person who
gives the right answers, he's one
who asks the right questions.”
- Claude Lévi-Strauss

What do I think are the two most
important elements
of asking a question?

Timing
When you ask a question
can impact what you get for a
response.
Where you ask a question,
can impact what you get for a
response. The where you
ask a question, factors into
timing.
You can ask the right person
the right question but ask at
the “wrong” time.
Timing matters.

“The right thing at the wrong
time is the wrong thing.”
- Joshua Harris

Tone
How you ask a question can
impact what you get for a
response.
You can ask the right person
the right question at the right
time but ask in a tone that
can affect not just the
response but your ongoing
relationship with the person.
Tone matters.

“We often refuse to accept an idea
merely because the tone of voice in
which it has been expressed
is unsympathetic to us.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

“Humble Inquiry is
the fine art of
drawing someone
out, of asking
questions to which
you do not already
know the answer, of
building a
relationship based
on curiosity and
interest in the other
person.”

“The best scientists and explorers have the
attributes of kids! They ask questions and
have a sense of wonder. They have
curiosity, “Who, what, where, why, when
and how! They never stop asking
questions, and I never stop asking
questions, just like a five year old.”
- Sylvia Earle

The journalist’s six
basic questions.
A short look at the
basic journalism
questions.

Who?
Find the right source for
information.

What?
Ask questions of
substance.

Where?
Find a good location for
a discussion.

When?
Timing matters.

Why?
Know what you want to learn
from your questions.

How?
The tone of how you ask
a question influences
the outcome.

"What people think of as the moment
of discovery is really the discovery of
the question."
- Jonas Salk

The Five Whys
The concept of using the five
whys is that by persisting to
ask why, the underlying
issue, the cause of the issue
will be discovered. Harvard
Business Review has a great
short video that explains this.
See:
https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=JmrAkHafwHI

THE FIVE WHYS
• Harvard Business Review,
http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/04/the-five-whys-for-startups/
• Harvard Business Review,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmrAkHafwHI

The Phoenix
Checklist
The Phoenix checklist is a list
of questions developed by
the United States Central
Intelligence Agency. The list
is comprised of questions
arranged in two sections: the
problem and the solution.
The questions are meant to
help an investigator ask
questions. The questions are
intentionally context-free.

THE PHOENIX CHECKLIST
• Malbon, Ben. Blog: How the CIA define problems and plan solutions: The Phoenix
Checklist http://bbh-labs.com/how-the-cia-define-problems-plan-solutions-the-
phoenix-checklist/
• Tinkham, Andy, blog post: Context-free questions
http://testerthoughts.com/2003/07/16/context-free-questions/
• Strazzere, Joe, blog post: http://www.allthingsquality.com/2010/04/phoenix-
checklist.html
• Lambert, Rob blog post: http://thesocialtester.co.uk/professional-skeptics-dispeller-of-
illusions-and-questioner/ and http://thesocialtester.co.uk/the-phoenix-checklist-mind-
map/
• Kaner, Cem and Bach, James Black Box Software Testing Special Edition
www.testingeducation.org/k04/documents/specBased.ppt
• Bolton, Michael blog: Context-free Questions for Testing.
http://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/11/context-free-questions-for-testing/

The Socratic Method
The “teacher,” or
leader of the dialogue, asks
probing questions in an
effort to expose the values and
beliefs which frame
and support the thoughts and
statements of the
participants in the inquiry.
- Source:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/CT
L/Newsletter/socratic_method.p
df

The Paper Chase
In a well-known movie, The
Paper Chase, a scene between
a student and professor
demonstrates the Socratic
Method.
While the Socratic Method may
be a favored method of
questioning for knowledge.
• Intimidation
• Fear
• Being put on the spot
Are some of the negative
reactions to using the method.

SOCRATIC METHOD
• The Paper Chase, YouTube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx22TyCge7w
• Socratic Method applied to teaching:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Newsletter/socratic_m
ethod.pdf
• Socratic teaching and critical thinking:
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/socratic-
teaching/606
• Socratic method and scientific method compared,
http://www.niu.edu/~jdye/method.html

Roadblocks
to asking questions and to getting answers

Not everyone shares
In the book, “Questions That
Work” the author Andrew
Finlayson claims there are
question killers.
“Question killers can also
stifle curiosity and openness
with obtuse or bureaucratic
answers.”

Relying on only one
source for
information
Sometimes, you might ask
the wrong person for
information.

Fear &
Intimidation
"He who asks a question is a
fool for five minutes; he who
does not ask a question
remains a fool forever."
- Chinese proverb
*
“It can be intimidating to ask
questions. Sometimes you
have to be humble and yet
brave to ask questions.”
- Karen N. Johnson

“And I like asking questions, to keep
learning; people with big egos might
not want to look unsure.”
- Heston Blumenthal

Not doing your
homework
Don’t expect people to tell
you everything, instead learn
as much as you can ahead of
asking questions.

A Few Tips
on
Asking Questions

Set
a Constructive
Atmosphere
Create the right atmosphere
to ask questions.
The “right” atmosphere won’t
just be the location but the
mood and tone of the
conversation.

“Creating the right
questioning
atmosphere means
adapting your
presentation to the
situation and the
other’s personality.”

Learn
Different
Types of Questions
There are many types of
questions: open-ended,
rhetorical, leading – learning
about questions is a
worthwhile “self schooling.”

Give people the
tools and space to
give visual answers
Some people think more
visually. Asking visual people
to explain the inner workings
of software without having
tools to draw can be
frustrating for the person.

Allow answers to
come in the form of
a story
Some people answer
questions best when they
can tell a story, walk you
through an entire process
instead of having a Q&A
session. Give the person
answering the ability to
answer in the format that
works for them.

Don’t get lost
It’s ok to let the other person
lead but at intervals, review
your questions and notes
and make sure your
questions get answered.

Look for
spontaneous pickup
of information at
unexpected
moments
Realize you may pickup
some information “on the fly.”
Be ready and be open to it.

“I love the early process of asking
questions about a story and deciding
which questions matter most.”
- Diane Sawyer

Collect the artifacts
of investigation
Gather together the
information, including your
notes from interviews and
see what you have.

Separate facts from
opinions
Journalists are taught early
on to distinguish between
fact and fiction. Sometimes
you can receive the wrong
information or conflicting
information and you have to
be able to discern those gaps
and misleading of
information.

Make Sense of what
you’ve gathered
You may need to mentally
reassemble what you have
gathered and even mentally
reformulate what you
believed or understood as
information is gathered,
consumed and understood.

Can you walk me through the process of the
software?
I like this question because:
• It gives the other person space to answer in a variety of
formats, including drawing.
• It assumes little.
• It is an open-ended question.

Can you tell me what you’re most concerned about
with this application?
I like this question because:
• It gets to the heart of risk.
• It gives a developer the chance to open up about where
coding may have been challenging.
• It gives a developer an opportunity to discuss what has
been minimally tested or is minimally working.
• It enables product owners to articulate their concerns
which I can turn into test ideas and follow-up.
• It speaks directly to high-level executives who want their
concerns heard and addressed.

“… the talking,
listening, thinking,
analyzing, selecting
and editing
segments that all
good interviewers
incorporate, whether
they realize it or
not.”

"Judge a man by his questions rather than
his answers."
– Voltaire

“Maybe some of the best questions
we ask, are the questions we ask
ourselves, the internal questions, the
ones that keep us exploring.”
- Karen N. Johnson

Questions?

The Art of Asking Questions with Karen Johnson

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