How to ask the right questions on any topic?

Starbursting Understanding new ideas by brainstorming questions When a colleague suggests a new product or idea, and you’re trying to understand it and how it works, a typical response is to bombard the other person with questions. What features would it have? How much would it cost? Where would we market it? Who would be responsible for it? Who would buy it? Why would they buy it? And so on. To get the most out of this approach, it’s important that the questions asked are systematic and comprehensive. After all, there would be no point identifying every feature and the intended customers of a new product, and starting to manufacture it if you haven’t asked how you would bring it to that market.

So it’s worth going through a comprehensive, systematic questioning exercise every time you explore a new idea. The Starbursting technique is useful way of going about this.

How to Use the Tool:

Starbursting is a form of brainstorming that focuses on generating questions rather than answers.
For example, a colleague suggests a new design of ice skating boot. One question you ask might be “Who is the customer?” Answer: skaters. But you need to go further than this to ensure that you target your promotions accurately: “What kind of skaters?” Answer: those who do a lot of jumping, who need extra support, and so on. This would help focus the marketing, for example to competition ice dancers and figure skaters, rather than ice rinks that buy boots to hire out to the general public.

Key points:

Starbursting is a form of brainstorming that focuses on generating questions about an idea or challenge in a systemmatic, comprehensive way. It’s a useful tool to support your problem solving or decision making processes by helping you to understand all aspects and options more fully.