This field guide grew out of a longer essay I wrote on questioning and stories. I was trying to understand how questioning actually works in practice, and whether there is a minimal structure behind it.
Most material I found focuses on techniques or interview tactics, or is very abstract like the Erotetics literature. I was more interested in understanding the parts and how they work together.
Questioning seems to be an underrated skill in incident investigations, debugging, and project clarification.
I tried to compress what I found into a single visual model.
The diagram reduces inquiry to a few simple moves:
- Track nouns, verbs, qualifiers, time and place
- Move in phases: overview => details => loose ends
- Use question types and tools appropriate to the goal of each phase
It is intentionally small and easy to remember. It will not make anyone a brilliant interrogator, but it provides a minimal structure when you would otherwise improvise. It might be helpful to practitioners.
I would be interested in critical feedback, especially from people who use structured questioning in technical or investigative work.
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