Question about the best way to handle open-ended questions here

I see a lot of people saying you should just answer the question directly and move on, but I compared that to the method in the book 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' where you ask a clarifying question first. The second way gets way better answers, like 70% more useful info, because it makes the person think. Has anyone else tried slowing down the 'ask anything' process on purpose?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliotb571mo ago

Slowing down the ask anything process" reminds me of how customer service scripts kill real answers.

colemiller1mo ago

Our team switched to a 24 hour rule for internal questions last year. It forced people to write clearer problems and find their own answers first. The quality of discussion improved dramatically.

scott.grace20d ago

Doesn't the 24 hour rule just punish people who are stuck on something simple though? Like sometimes you just need a quick sanity check on a config line, not a whole research project. I get the idea of forcing clarity, but I've seen teams take that too far and people just stop asking for help entirely. Then you end up with someone wasting 3 days on a problem someone else could solve in 5 minutes. It really depends on the team culture and whether people actually know when to ask vs. when to dig deeper.