Adding these two questions can help uncover opportunities & resources in your research interviews

Photo by Alex Green

Of all the tools in the innovator’s toolbox, the most powerful is a good question.  

A good question is the key to unlocking insights, ideas, and solutions, especially when asked to people you want to understand — whether they are end users, customers, community members, people impacted by an issue, or others. To get the greatest benefit from your good questions be sure tap into a diverse range of perspectives by interviewing people from all three sectors (private, social, public) and people with lived experience. 

When you are conducting qualitative interviews for your project, program, or product/service consider adding these two power questions from the Tri-Sector Innovation spotlight interview process to surface resources and open up tri-sector insights and opportunities. Seeing the world with a tri-sector mindset is new for many people, so we lean into questions that help interviewees reflect on their knowledge and experience in new ways that unbind answers from prevailing mindsets. 

These two questions are flexible – if you are already doing Customer Discovery, practices from Design Thinking , Human-Centered Design, Liberating Structures or Appreciative Inquiry, adding these two questions can bring additional dimension and insights. Through our hundreds of interviews, these questions consistently prompt interviewees to go beyond the obvious and to uncover unmet needs, opportunities, and resources.   

Question 1 - If you had a magic wand, how would you use it? 

Why this question works 

The magic wand question removes constraints and creates a ‘What if’ mentality that focuses on possibilities and reframes problems.  

This question is helpful in numerous ways, such as when working in or on: 

  • “Wicked problems” 

  • user/customer discovery 

  • tackling ill-defined or unknown problems 

  • topics with entrenched conventions or approaches 

What to listen for 

  • What is the desired result (or experience) and how was it described? 

  • How is the response reframing the problem?  

  • Where and to what do they apply the magic wand? 

  • What resources or orgs are mentioned? 

  • What limitations or unmet needs are highlighted or addressed? 

  • What new takes or new possibilities emerge in the answer?  

Tips 

  • If an interviewee falls back on wishing for money or funding, ask a follow-up question to help them reflect and go beyond the obvious, for example: ‘What would the magic wand fund?’   

 

Question 2 - “If you could command any resource from any [company / nonprofit / government agency] to accomplish your desired outcomes, what resources would you use and how would you use them?  (Ask for each sector) 

Why this question works 

This question provokes un-siloed thinking and examination to identify specific drivers, roles, and resources across sectors that could be reimagined and repurposed.  

This question is helpful in numerous ways, such as when working in or on: 

  • product or service discovery 

  • collaboration and partnerships 

  • “Wicked problems” 

  • open innovation 

  • complex systems 

  • topics where there are entrenched roles or approaches 

  • community development 

What to listen for 

  • What orgs and resources are identified?  

  • How are resources repurposed or deployed? How does this differ from the current state? 

  • How are drivers or relationships reimagined? 

  • What assumptions or limitations about sectors or orgs are being bypassed?  

  • What new takes or new possibilities (beyond any commonly known) emerge in the answer?  

Tips 

  • Encourage the interviewee to be specific and expansive with reminders that they can command ANY resource without restriction and with follow-up questions that help them dig deeper. 

  • If an interviewee limits their thinking to money or funding, follow-up with a question to prompt them to consider other potential resources, for example: ‘Thinking about the whole range of resources of x (potentially including data, expertise, tools, connections, assets, and more), what other useful resources might be available?’ 

  • If they can’t come up with anything aside from money, ask a follow-up question that gets more concrete, for example: ‘What resources would you fund and how would they be used?’   

Do you have a favorite ‘good’ question? Or a variation on these two questions? We’d love to hear more about the questions you find most powerful. 

Beth Roberts