question-design skill

---
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.

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## 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.

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## 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?" |

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## 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..."

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## 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?" |

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## 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.

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## 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 skill
```

The walk-and-talk skill handles presentation. This skill handles content.

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## 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.

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## 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

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*Questions serve the story. The story serves the insight. The insight serves all beings.*