Last week, I gave a keynote speech at Edelman’s Leadership event in Chicago.  Once a year, the company brings together the top ~100 executives from around the world.  Richard Edelman asked me to present a talk at lunch about the “future of technology”.  I took some liberty with the topic and focused on the needed skill of “planning for the future”....

I’ve been asked (more like challenged) to create a dozen or so killer questions that could be used by teachers, schools, districts, state education agencies, federal agencies, etc. to help  innovate the educational system in the US.  I took up the challenge as a “pay it forward” project to help the officials think differently about the problem they...

Last Friday, I sat down with Brian Caulfield (Senior Technical Writer at Forbes.com) to discuss the killer questions and the card deck. Enjoy . . . Forbes Interview:  Killer Questions

As a result of the twitter feed of killer questions, I’ve received a number of emails asking about the background on the killer questions.  Since it seems like of a topic of interest, I thought I would give you some insight into how they came about …   Is there really a physical deck of killer questions? Yes – there really is a killer question card deck....

Killer Question #38: What makes my product hard to use? Have you ever wondered what life was like before battery powered power tools?  I’m a nut for tools … drills, saws, nail guns … you name it, I want it.  I remember as a kid helping my dad do odd jobs around the house.  The biggest hassle was dragging power cords around to power the tools. ...

(audio) I’m amazed at the breadth of human ingenuity to solve social, economic, political and even technical challenges.  The one area where I don’t see ingenuity applied nearly as much is when it comes to planning our careers and preparing future job prospects. Can you apply the same killer question approach to planning your career?  YES! By asking better...

  Killer Question #7: Could you customize a mass product? When things get tough, the common reaction is to scale back and standardize the processes.  The objective is to take costs out of the business.  What would happened if you went the opposite direction?  Rather than standardize, why not customize? The perfect example of this is the recent phenomena...

Killer Question #54: What are the unshakable beliefs in my industry about what customers want?  What if the opposite where true? Its easy when we are being successful to stick our heads in the sand and believe our own PR.  We can easily brush off minor threats with the argument that the customer wouldn’t go for whatever was being offered.  We hold...

Killer Question #8: Could you standardize a custom product? Design quickly becomes one of the key differentiators in highly competitive markets.  Furniture, fashion, architecture and products have benefited from a focus on design.  The standard belief is that if a product can be highly customized (a product of 1), then even a higher value can be extracted from...

Killer Question #27: Who is passionate about your product or something it relates to? Why or why not? It all started with an idea and a passion.  In 1901, William Harley, age 21, took an idea and created a blueprint drawing of an engine designed to fit into a bicycle.  Over the next few years, its the passion and determination of William Harley and Arthur Davidson...