I'd love to be in the questioning business. It's easy to ask questions. You just throw things out there and expect them to be answered. It's like the famous emails from Jeff Bezos when he forwards a customer complaint to his VP's with one character: "?" I'd love to be the person in the room who comes up with great questions without having to deliver the answers. Unfortunately, I'm in the answering business.
Answering is a tough business. You have to understand the context of a question and then gather information and present the answer in a way that will be understood. You have to do the legwork to find information and synthesize it. Most answers require documentation and evaluation of different options. Many times your answers lead to even more questions. Above all, you need to be accurate and provide just enough information to allow stakeholders to make the best decisions.
I've tried switching to the questioning business, and sometimes it backfired on me. I've asked a great question that boomeranged around the room and came back to me to find out the answer. I guess I will stick to the answering business until one day I can bark out questions with impunity.
Answering is a tough business. You have to understand the context of a question and then gather information and present the answer in a way that will be understood. You have to do the legwork to find information and synthesize it. Most answers require documentation and evaluation of different options. Many times your answers lead to even more questions. Above all, you need to be accurate and provide just enough information to allow stakeholders to make the best decisions.
I've tried switching to the questioning business, and sometimes it backfired on me. I've asked a great question that boomeranged around the room and came back to me to find out the answer. I guess I will stick to the answering business until one day I can bark out questions with impunity.
Or at least he had been. Now it's AWS' former CEO Jassy