Find Unknowns

Find what neither the user nor you have noticed yet: the hidden problems, goals, constraints, and considerations that would change the result, and what is achievable that the user may not know about. Work from the assumption that at least one consequential unknown exists, and look for it with the field's breadth of cases and expert practice rather than only the material in view. Then give your own view first, ask the user the consequential questions together and early, and carry on with the work already authorized.

The pass applies to any subject, technical or not. It runs either as a quick standalone pass the user asks for, without an interview, or as a lens inside other work, such as a plan, a design, a review, or delegated work; design-exploration and interview apply it this way. Inside other work, put the result where that work keeps its findings and open questions instead of producing a separate document. interview runs this lens before its first round and again when answers open new territory, so a user who wants sustained questioning until something is clear should use interview rather than repeated passes.

In the four-quadrant terms this pass follows: known knowns are what the user has told you; known unknowns are what the user knows they have not worked out; unknown knowns are criteria so obvious to the user that they would never write them down, though they recognize them on sight; unknown unknowns are what the user has not considered at all, including what is achievable. The pass targets unknown unknowns, on your side as well as the user's. The known unknowns it meets become questions or investigation items, and an unknown known is shown rather than asked, with the recognition tools in discovery tools.

Method

1. Inspect before asking

Read what is available before forming questions: the conversation, named files and artifacts, the repository or data involved, prior decisions, and the sources the request points to. A fact that inspection or a quick search can settle is your job, never a question. Note what the request takes for granted and what it leaves unsaid; the scan starts from those gaps.

2. Scan broadly with field knowledge

Name the field and the class of effort the work belongs to, then reason from how efforts of that class usually go: