The Six Qs
Battle-tested at large organizations to reduce the failure rate of major efforts. Ask them at the start. Keep asking them as you go.
Six questions, asked before the work starts
Q1. What problem are we trying to solve? Most teams are unclear about what they are actually trying to solve, and if you don’t start there, you go nowhere. Everything flows from this question, or you are working on the wrong thing.
Q2. Who has solved this problem before? Teams jump straight to solving before finding out who already tackled it, and miss the chance to build on others’ shoulders. Make this second nature.
Q3. What does failure look like? Teams assume success and never picture failure. A project can look healthy while the organization shifts out from under it. Define failure up front so you recognize the signs in the heat of battle.
Q4. What does success look like? On time, on budget, staffed and delivering, plus a check that the organization hasn’t changed underneath you, and the specific measures for this effort.
Q5. What did we learn the last time we tried? Hard problems are rarely a first attempt. Earlier teams may have found answers you can use today, but organizational memory is short. Do this research at the very start.
Q6. How will the stakeholders feel about it? How people feel decides a solution’s fate. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Know it stakeholder by stakeholder, up front and continuously, or it will eat your lunch.
The Six Qs and AI
AI makes each question sharper. Q1 keeps you from buying a tool in search of a problem. Q2 points you to who has already made it work. Q3 asks what happens when the tool is confidently wrong. Q4 demands measured results, not activity. Q5 brings back what the last pilot taught. Q6 asks whether the people who must use it will trust it.