I tweeted “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers” earlier today. I thought it was from Voltaire, but it turns out it’s from Pierre-Marc-Gaston. Either way, I appreciate the quote, and thought it was worth sharing.

Then a LinkedIn contact asked me the simple question, “What does that mean?”

Hmmm. What started as a quick tweet back turned into this blog post. I have long said that if you’re raising money, talking to a board member, or trying to close a sale, you have to pay attention to the questions they’re asking. Their questions indicate what they’re thinking about and where their concerns / objections might be. The way they frame their questions can tell you whether they agree with your fundamental position, and how they’re approaching the concepts you’re talking to them about. In fact, I think questions are often more revealing than answers.

Here’s why I think that’s true…

Answers are a reflection

First of all, answers are by nature a reflection of a question. As such, answers are framed by the questioner, and offer less freedom for the person answering. Less freedom means less choice, suggesting that answers are less revealing of the speaker.

Reframing the question really turns an answer into a question

Of course some answers implicitly–or sometimes explicitly–reframe the question. But I see a reframe as a question, rather than an answer. And an artful transition to a new question can offer great insight into the creativity and agility of a speaker. Unless, of course, we’re talking about a politician who’s doing his or her best to avoid a useful answer.

Answers are more about knowledge than insight

Given enough time in an industry, it’s easy to offer knowledgeable answers, even for those who are not particularly insightful or creative. Some people think reading a lot and being able to regurgitate opinions of well-respected people constitutes insight. I’m not so sure. In some cases, combining and applying knowledge demonstrates creativity and insight. But it’s hard to discern where the insight of an answer really came from, because it might just be knowledge. Of course, this presumes that insight, creativity, and processing abilities are more important than knowledge.

Questions often tell you where the speaker is coming from

I think this is the money point: questions come more “from the heart and mind” of the speaker. Because the questioner controls the context of the question, it’s far more likely to reveal his or her frame of mind, unsullied by the framing of a prior question. And when people ask questions, they’re often unaware of how much they can reveal about their thoughts, concerns, perspective, and interests. People don’t always want to be an open book in conversations, but they usually focus on controlling their answers rather than their questions.

Questions are creative

Given some facts, it’s not too hard to engage in pattern recognition to offer an answer. But to take facts, and rapidly identify the questions most likely to elicit more important facts, is far more challenging. It’s creative. Instead of processing what’s been given to you, you have to identify the important things that you don’t know.

Almost every investor I’ve presented to has answered questions adroitly. They probably get the same questions over and over. But for me, listening to their questions has been a great way to sort out the brilliant ones. An unexpected question (or reframing) can launch a conversation into an entirely new dimension. How often have you said, “Damn, I never thought of that!” about a question? Racing mind follows. Much learning and insight ensues.

I think that’s much less likely to happen with an answer. With an answer, you already understood the issue. Meanwhile, the right question identifies new issues.

Questions are experiments, answers are data

I evaluate knowledge generation in the context of the scientific method. To me, questions are experiments, framed by an implicit hypothesis or insight. You test your hypothesis by throwing out a question, and hopefully get useful data back in the form of an answer. Which hopefully powers insight that can inform the next question / experiment. I think the genius is in the insight formation; take the data (the answer), and turn it into a useful hypothesis, which sparks a follow-on question.

Of course, some answers offer brilliant insights. But more often they seem to offer data. And as I suggested earlier, it’s harder to tell where any brilliance came from.

But that’s not how most questions work! And most insights come from answers!

While there are many mundane questions out there, there are an equal number of mundane answers. This whole discussion only makes sense for certain kinds of conversations. I think those kinds of conversations happen a lot around early stage companies and investors, though.

I can see a pretty strong argument suggesting answers really offer the clearest insight. But my point is that answers might be based on other people’s insights, and reveal little about the mind and heart of the speaker. Meanwhile questions are more creative and potentially revealing.

How do I use all this?

If you’re pitching to VC’s, listen for repetitive or rephrased questions; they indicate concerns or potential issues. Some VC’s are reluctant to tell you what they don’t like about your model, but their questions can still give them away.

In a board meeting, listen to their questions to understand where their concerns lie. Board members, like VC’s, rarely want to be outright rough on you, but their questions can tell you what you need to circle back to cover with them. And if you pay attention to the questions early on, you can make sure to address those questions next time around in your board deck.

In a sales or business development meeting, you can quickly identify objections by listening to their questions. Questions can also help you identify their worst pains. Usually they won’t reveal too much with their answers, but their questions almost always give them away.

That’s pretty powerful stuff.

Let me know what you think. If you know more about the context or meaning of the original quote, or have any interesting examples (or counter-examples), I’d love to hear from you.

And here’s more information about the quote itself:

l est encore plus facile de juger de l’esprit d’un homme par ses questions que par ses réponses. (It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers) — Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis (1764-1830), Maximes et réflexions sur différents sujets de morale et de politique (Paris, 1808): Maxim xvii

Courtesy of Wikiquote.

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