ASKING RUDE QUESTIONS AS YOU START UP
- ecmadore2
- Jun 5
- 3 min read
Note to Readers: During the startup phase of a social enterprise social entrepreneurs are usually filled with excitement, high expectations and an eagerness to get going fast.
The following are excerpts from two sources on the whys and how’s of asking rude questions about your social enterprise before you waste time and money.
How and Why To Write a Rude Q&A (Excerpts)
“One handy technique I learned years ago at Microsoft was the Rude Q&A (RQA). Whenever we had a major launch, we’d start preparing by writing a document that listed all of the difficult, unfair and perhaps rude, questions we’d rather not be asked, but might come up.
Why do this?
Helps you prepare for criticism. If you do hear a tough question you want to be ready. A RQA runs you through the unpleasant things you might hear, and increases the odds you’ll handle that situation well. A good RQA raises confidence in tough meetings or presentations.
Many people will not give you the benefit of the doubt. When you work on a project your optimism makes it hard to see what you’ve built objectively. A RQA forces you to see your blind spots of how the project will be received.
Revision. If you have lots of good RQA questions, but don’t have good answers, it’s a red flag that your plan, design, or pitch needs more work.
When to do it
Before Launch. …….
Early in the project……….
How to create a RQA
Ask friends who excel at giving tough feedback for their opinions
Make sure to include questions that are unfair or based on erroneous, but popular, assumptions.
Spend more time on the answers than the questions.
Write polite answers
Review them with your staff.
Rude Q&A: The constructive devil’s advocate (Excerpts)
“Nothing clarifies things quite like a hyperactive, all-knowing, all-seeing, real asshole of a devil’s advocate beating the living crap out of you.
When you’re contemplating an exciting new idea, you don’t want to hear questions that might contradict your concept.
And of course, that’s exactly when you need the biggest, baddest, smartest, devil’s advocate to challenge all your assumptions.
So how do you go about writing your Rude Q&A? The hardest part can be coming up with the questions.
To get you started, I’ve assembled a laundry list of questions common to many startups:
Your biggest competitor just dropped their price to $0. How do you continue to justify your price point?
If your idea is any good, you’ll soon have competition and even copycats from multiple players, both incumbents and new startups, both funded and bootstrapped, both smart and stupid, both large and small. How will you persevere?
If the economy stays bad for two more years, how will you survive?
The last thing anyone needs is another damn tool. What’s the overwhelming reason I should even bother looking at you?
Competitor ______ is doing better than you. What are you going to do about it?
Technorati reports one million new blog posts appear every day. Why should I read yours?
If you raised prices 50%, would any customers stay? How are you going to 10x the quantity of those kinds of customers?
What are the top three features your competitor has that you lack? How do you address that today, and what are you doing about it in the next six months?
How can you call yourself an expert when you’ve only been at this for a year?
There’s only two of you. What happens if someone leaves? The company is finished?
What’s the single most important thing you need to accomplish in the next 12 months, and how are you going to get it done? (Do you even know what it is?)
Your company is going to top out of growth soon because of your high cancellation. How are you going to fix the fact that so many people decide they don’t like you, even after buying from you?
What are three tangible, undeniable ways in which your product/company saves more money than you cost and saves more time than you consume?
Truly great products and companies are rare, even when smart people are at the helm. What makes you think you have what it takes?
There are thousands of consultants who make the same claims you make: high-quality, on-time, on-budget, good service, happy customers. What makes you any different?”
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