We all know that whenever we build a product or design a service, we have to talk to our users. Observe. Ask questions. It’s the often the only way to find out what the real pain points and problems are.
Asking (the right) questions is an incredibly powerful tool.
And asking yourself simple questions all along the way, might very well be the most powerful tool in your product development process.
Keep asking yourself questions like:
- Therefore, what?
- Is there a better way?
- Isn’t this interesting?
That last question got 3M to famously discover PostIt: One of 3Ms engineers was playing with a very weak adhesive, realized that it made paper stick to surfaces and can be peeled off easily. The question “Isn’t that interesting?” led to one of the most important office products ever.
Why don’t you ask yourself a couple of simple questions this weekend? It might help you find your “PostIt”.
P.S. I recently did a TEDx Talk in Hamburg on “Solving the World’s Biggest Challenges” — you can watch it here.