Asking About Process, Not Just Outcome
Launch library · evergreen read
Outcomes are easy to ask about and easy to summarise, but they flatten everything that led up to them. Asking instead how a subject arrived at a decision, step by step, usually reveals far more about their judgement than the bare fact of what they ultimately chose to do. A verdict on the outcome alone tends to close a conversation rather than open it further.
Process questions also tend to be less threatening than outcome questions, since they do not immediately demand a defence of the final result. A subject asked to describe how they weighed a choice can be candid about doubt and uncertainty in a way that a verdict on the outcome rarely allows. Doubt and uncertainty become easier to admit once the question no longer demands a final judgement.
For an interview aiming to teach a reader or listener something transferable, process is usually the more valuable material anyway. Outcomes are specific to one situation; the reasoning behind them can often be applied far more broadly. Readers looking to learn something transferable usually find process far more useful than any single outcome.