- name
- question-design
- description
- Design questions that elicit authentic insight and story material. Core skill for walk-and-talk guides and interviews. Draws from oral history, UX research, clean language, and motivational interviewing traditions.
Question Design Skill
Purpose: Design questions that surface tacit knowledge and authentic personal insight.
Core Principles
1. Epistemological Humility
The person is the expert on their own experience. Questions reveal rather than direct.
2. Experience-Specificity
Ask about particular events, not general processes.
- "Tell me about the last time you..." not "How do you usually..."
3. Progressive Revelation
Start broad and easy, narrow to specific and deep. Follow their energy.
4. Clean Language
Use their exact words when following up. Don't introduce your metaphors.
5. Collaborative Authority
Exploration, not interrogation. They control what they reveal.
Question Type Taxonomy
| Type | Purpose | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Build trust, establish context | "Tell me about..." / "Walk me through..." |
| Experiential | Access lived experience | "What was it like when..." / "Take me back to..." |
| Sensory | Embody the experience | "What did that feel like?" / "What did you notice?" |
| Value | Surface what matters | "What was important about that?" |
| Process | Understand change | "How did you come to realize..." |
| Meaning | Elicit significance | "What did that teach you?" |
| Meta | Surface tacit knowledge | "What haven't I asked that matters?" |
Tacit Knowledge Triggers
Contradiction questions surface the unexpected:
- "What surprised you?"
- "What didn't work the way you expected?"
- "Where do others get it wrong?"
Expertise markers extract unconscious competence:
- "What do you notice that others miss?"
- "How can you tell when it's really working?"
- "What are the subtle signs?"
Embodied knowledge accesses felt sense:
- "How do you know when you're getting it right?"
- "What does success feel like in your body?"
Context shifting breaks habitual framing:
- "How would you explain this to a child?"
- "If you had to teach this without words..."
Anti-Patterns
| Anti-Pattern | Problem | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Leading questions | "Don't you think..." | "What was that like for you?" |
| Why questions | Sound judgmental | Use "how" instead |
| Multiple questions | Cognitive overload | One at a time, wait |
| Assumption questions | "When you struggled..." | "What was that period like?" |
| Empty fillers | "That's interesting" | "Tell me more about [specific]" |
| Premature solutions | "Have you tried..." | "What have you experimented with?" |
Story-Type Selection
This skill works with story-type-specific question templates:
| Story Type | When to Use | Template Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Journey | "How I learned X" | questions-journey |
| Insight | "I discovered X while doing Y" | questions-insight |
| Evolution | "X changed from A to B" | questions-evolution |
| Methodology | "Here's how to do X" | questions-methodology |
Load the appropriate template skill after identifying story type.
Integration with Walk-and-Talk
Question design happens BEFORE walk-and-talk formatting:
1. Identify story type
2. Load question template (this skill + story-type skill)
3. Design question sequence
4. Format for walking using walk-and-talk skillThe walk-and-talk skill handles presentation. This skill handles content.
The Clean Language Foundation
From David Grove's work - questions that don't contaminate:
Basic clean questions:
- "And what kind of [their word] is that?"
- "And is there anything else about [their word]?"
- "And where is [their word]?"
- "And that's [their word] like what?"
Sequence questions:
- "And what happens next?"
- "And what happens just before?"
- "And where does [their word] come from?"
Use their exact words. Don't paraphrase. Don't introduce your metaphors.
Quality Check
Before finalizing questions, verify:
- [ ] Uses their language, not your frameworks
- [ ] Specific events, not generalizations
- [ ] One question at a time
- [ ] Progressive depth (easy → deep)
- [ ] No leading or assumption questions
- [ ] Includes tacit knowledge triggers
- [ ] Matches story type arc
*Questions serve the story. The story serves the insight. The insight serves all beings.*