Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change

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SCIENTIFIC QUESTIONS

Asking through a science lens starts with a question, which becomes a hypothesis you can test. This involves observation, experimentation, and measurement—and trying to prove your hypothesis wrong. Answers to these questions are building blocks, which often raise more questions along the way, allowing you to explore the unknown. This process brings data and discipline to your discovery.

Observation: What do you see? What do you know? What are you trying to explain? Observe and define the problem you want to solve. Look around. Wonder aloud. Then craft the question.

Hypothesis: You know that more widgets sell in the afternoon, but why? Your hypothesis: More widgets sell in the afternoon because people get paid in the morning. Keep your hypothesis crisp and logical. Write it down. Come back to it. It forms the basis of what you are trying to prove or disprove.

The Data: How much, how fast, how big, how far? Ask what you need to measure and how you can do it over time. Try it. Do an experiment. Collect numbers—the data. Ask if you can replicate the data. Then do it again to see if your findings hold up. Are they supporting or contradicting your hypothesis?

The Contrarian: What disproves or contradicts your hypothesis? What evidence argues against it? Why? You went into this exercise knowing that the only way your hypothesis holds up is if you cannot prove it wrong. So ask the toughest questions. Question the data. Where did it come from? What’s weak, what’s inconsistent, what doesn’t hold up? If you can’t disprove your hypothesis, you might actually be onto something.

Conclusion: What does the data prove? How does it answer the question you started with? What’s next? Review your question, your hypothesis, your evidence, and your areas of uncertainty, and then you can draw a conclusion. Share it with other smart people and ask them what they think. Where do they see problems? What have you missed? Does your conclusion hold up?

Onward: Now what? What’s the next thing I want to figure out? Like all good science, one piece of knowledge builds on another and invites the next. Having answered the question you started with, what is the next question to ask?

Listen: Pay attention to the data. Listen to what is real and can be measured, seen, heard, felt. Listen for hints that your hypothesis is off target, misguided, or flat-out wrong. If it is, start again.

Try: Ask a what’s-going-on-here question and then come up with a hypothesis about what causes or complicates the situation. Now figure out how to test your hypothesis over a finite period of time. Think of three ways you will try to prove yourself wrong. Write those reasons down and put them someplace you’ll see them every day.