Open Questions Versus Closed Questions
Launch library · evergreen read
A closed question asks for a fact and receives one: a date, a yes, a number confirmed. An open question asks for a world and receives a story. The interviewer who wants texture reaches for the open form first, saving closed questions for the confirmations that come later. Even a single early open question can set that expectation for everything that follows.
Closed questions still matter. They anchor a timeline, fix the spelling of a name, or pin down a detail that would otherwise drift. Used too early, though, they can shut a subject down before they find their own words, training them to answer in fragments rather than full thoughts. A subject taught early to answer briefly rarely unlearns that habit later in the same sitting.
The practised chair moves between the two on purpose: opening wide enough that a person can think aloud, then narrowing once the shape of the answer is clear. Sequence teaches a subject how much room they are allowed, which matters more in the end than the ratio between the two forms. Sequence, in other words, is a tool in its own right, worth planning as carefully as any single question.