There Really is a Killer Question Card Deck ….

As a result of the twitter feed of killer questions I send out, I’ve received several 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. My printed (original)deck contains about 50 questions (as you see in the picture).

What was the motivation?

I’ve been fortunate to be part of teams that created some great products. During my 1st retirement (1999-2001), I was asked by a number people “how did I come up with the ideas?”. I never really thought about the “how”—it just seemed to happen… so I spent three years reverse engineering how breakthrough innovations are conceived and launched.

What role do questions play in creating breakthrough innovations?

What I found during my research was that the quality of the innovation is directly tied to the quality of the pool ideas (no big surprise). The key to improving the quality of the ideas is to improve the quality of the questions being asked during ideation (the big aha!). My research also discovered that there are a set of common questions that come up repeatedly as being key to breakthrough innovations. Those are the questions included in the deck.

After spending +3 years developing the original questions and now +6 years of using them, what have you learned?

After 100’s of workshops and brainstorming sessions using the killer questions, I’m convinced that anyone can improve their ability to create better ideas by asking the right questions.

Have you added new questions since you created the original deck?

I’ve added another 25 or so that are in my moleskin but not yet fully integrated into the deck. If you have questions, you would like to suggest, email them to me.

Is the killer question card deck available for download or purchase?

Update: You can now purchase the Killer Questions Card Deck over at our store, Innovation.Tools.