Questions and answers

Complexity

Some answers are easy to find – you or someone in your staff knows, or else you can find it on the internet. But you may regularly come across more complex questions, such as: How should we change the company? Where should we invest? What should we stop doing? Where is the market going? How should we innovate? 

Sometimes these questions can be answered by forming an internal team (call it a project team) that is assigned to find the answers. More often than not, you will hire some external expert who will guide you through the process. 

This is where the problems start. An expert usually does not provide answers, but starts working on your question. Often, it becomes apparent that the question was not clear enough, that there where missing aspects, etc. No need to panic, the consultant is just doing his or her job in helping you to understand your question. But chances are the work slowly piles up until you start to wonder if it was all worth the investment. 

Get a grip on your questions

So, how can you get more grip on your questions before you invest in finding answers? Understanding your problem means you are halfway to a solution. A few simple questions will help you get a grip on the problem you are trying to tackle. Three examples:

1. Elaborate: What is really important?
2. Focus: How can you make this visible?
3. Action: So, what should be the first step?

You can, of course, use variations on these questions, depending on the topic, but the overall objective is that these questions help you clarify the problem. This will help you to explain to the experts what it is you really want. The Google results could be down to 200.000 hits now, instead of over a million. 

Search tools

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool that allowed you to send your questions to a large group of experts from the pet industry, and only those three of four people who really understand the topic would respond with a valuable, in-depth answer? It would definitely bring you a step closer, and you have the option to choose whether to work with these experts or not.

This could be a perfect win-win situation, as it gives the questioner a starting point for a solution, and the expert or consultant might land a consultancy assignment, while he also has the chance to build his reputation in the industry based on the questioner’s positive review.

Proof of concept

A tool that is capable of doing exactly this is currently being developed. In the next few months, a proof of concept will be launched. Working with experts from different segments of the pet industry, this question and answer game will be played in real life. The proof period will identify exactly what the benefits are for all parties involved, how the questioner can be protected and how the expert who provides the answers can be rewarded.

Of course, we will publish the results of this proof in due course of 2016. Anyone interested in participating is more than welcome to send me an email for more information.