This article is an adaptation of a conversation I had with Naomi Clare Crellin, founder at Storycraft Labs. Our conversation began by talking about how to ask good questions, which is something people are always wondering about. I thought we’d dive deep on the art of asking questions, but as we unraveled the art and science behind how to ask questions, it became apparent that there’s several layers to build before you can start asking good questions.
Those layers consist almost entirely of knowing your audience. And by know your audience, I do not mean their age or marital status, I mean what word they use to describe happiness, or how they would react when something uncertain comes up.
Naomi provided several frameworks for how to know your audience better and I want to share those with you. Here’s what I posed to Naomi, and she gave three excellent answers.
How do you build knowledge of your audience so you can feel confident speaking to them in the way they want to be spoken to, and ask them questions in a way that makes sense to them?
User Testing: The tried and true method for getting quick feedback. This can be a user group, or if it makes sense, can be people around you or coworkers. You can see where people have questions or get stuck, you can experience their reactions to what you’ve created. If you’re asking questions, you can see where the words you are using are universally understood, or where people have different interpretations of what you are asking.
- Let people get involved. Let them be hands-on in the process. This way, by the time you launch your quiz, or whatever it is you’re building, they will be bought in to what you’ve created. They’ll have skin in the game and want to help promote it.
- User groups who are highly engaged with the process feel agency and ownership of what you’re creating. They believe in it because they’ve had a chance to help mold the product.
Emotional Word Mapping: In this exercise we give people words and emojis. Then we ask them to rank those words on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the lest positive and 10 being the most positive. What you find is that some words and emojis are universally seen as positive. Others are mixed, like the “Fire” emoji might mean “That’s hot, that’s great” or it might mean “That’s on fire, it’s very bad” so it’s a mixed reaction. We want to look for the words that are universally seen one way or the other so we can use them to confidently mean the same thing every time.
Choosing the right words to include in your messaging can be the difference between “This feels generic” and “This feels like it was made for me.” And people will react totally differently if something is generic. I’ve never seen so many generic pieces of content fall completely flat as I have the last few years, and it’s more important than ever to speak directly to a person, in their vernacular, in order to actually break through and be relevant to them.
The words you use can spark thoughts, feelings, ideas, creativity, and so much more. Asking people questions using words that you know will resonate with them is a gift you can give them. It’s a gift of helping them to lean into self discovery.
Let’s talk about the concept of Joyful Curiosity
Naomi used this term several times, and in terms of knowing an audience I think it’s the pinnacle. She defines joyful curiosity generally as follows.
“The excitement one feels when asked a question that ignites curiosity in them and encourages them to think about possibilities for themselves which spark joy”
Joyful curiosity encourages people to think about what’s possible. And think about those possibilities in the context of their own interests and propensities. Naomi and her team created this type of experience for NASA’s Artemis mission by building a “Find Your Moon Boots” quiz to connect people with their role on a mission.
For context, the quiz was used within a booth at Comic-Con. People could scan a QR code to take the quiz, and then there were physical manifestations of the quiz results once someone took the quiz.
So someone goes into the booth, scans the QR code, and takes a quiz on their phone. Every element of this quiz follows the audience-knowledge principles we covered at the top. It also incorporates actual language from NASA because the idea of finding out what boots you will wear comes from the Mission Control Team at NASA who use the phrase “We are the boots on the ground who help put boots on the moon.” So the quiz idea of “What boots will you wear” comes from actual language and words used by NASA.
When the questions start we see the audience research incorporated. The question is simple, but speaks directly to the mindset of the audience who is taking it. The answer choices each position a scenario for the quiz taker to picture themselves in. That’s what sparks the joyful curiosity where you can quickly cycle through in your head the idea of being in each of these scenarios and choose if it’s what you want.
There are a variety of personality, interest-based, and aptitude-type questions. Again, each question is purpose-driven and pre-planned to resonate with some aspect that Storycraft and NASA know will connect to the audience. The differentiator here between this quiz and a generic “What’s Your Space Personality?” quiz you’d find on an entertainment website is both minute and massive. On the one hand it’s pretty similar, but then you drill down to the specific words used and the specific suggestions given as answer choices, and that’s where you can tell that the NASA quiz deeply understands the audience in a way that something generic never could.
One more quick note before we move on here. The absolute hardest part of creating questions can be offering up answer choices. You have to choose set answer choices so people have to be able to pick one. And at the same time you need the answer choices to be compelling. I think back to what Naomi said about audience research and it really shines through here when you look at the specificity of these answer choices, but also realize that as someone goes through this quiz it’s easy for them to identify with one of the answers.
After answering the questions of the NASA quiz you immediately see your results. Once again, every word is expertly placed and designed to create a narrative for the quiz taker that resonates with them. Let’s look at one specific sentence which says “You are a tech-savvy inventor who pursues knowledge, asking “what if” questions in order to solve the unsolvable and express big ideas with clarity.” This sentence is super specific, anchoring on actual scenarios, leading to joyful curiosity. And it’s also positive in the way that can only be achieved through specificity. It’s not like the result is just saying “You’re awesome and you can go to the moon.” It’s instead citing two specific things (solving the unsolvable, and expressing big ideas with clarity). Because these things are specific, they are much more meaningful. And once again, it ties back to the research done by Storycraft to know which specific motivational positive attributes shown in these results will actually connect with people.
The result continues with more description, three short paragraphs overall. I would assume that Storycraft did a lot of research on that length for a quiz result description, but it aligns perfectly with what we see as a best practice. At the end of the result there’s a button to learn more. But in person there’s also additional interactivity based on which quiz result you get.
In-person at Comic-Con, NASA had actual boots set up for each of the Artemis Moon Boots roles within the mission. People can take photos with their boots, learn more about them right away, and feel connected to the whole experience. Storycraft did a full breakdown about the booth in a case study video here.
For folks who prefer to continue the experience online, or are taking the quiz not in-person, there is still additional learning about the Artemis mission. At this point in the experience, someone has felt seen and heard after being asked questions which spark joyful curiosity. They are also more interested in the topic being discussed, so it’s the perfect place to offer additional learning.
I’d like to thank Naomi, Storycraft, and NASA for creating such a wonderful experience to exemplify how deep audience knowledge can translate into a wonder-inspiring experience. As I reflect on Naomi’s expertise on audience research, the most common theme is word choice. By which I mean, the methods she’s describing are so dialed in that she can focus on one word at a time and build back up from there to create questions, content, and messaging. This is appreciated because Storycraft goes into the nitty gritty to really understand the context of what an audience wants and needs before jumping in to create anything.
This is a lesson we can all benefit from. Get so in-tune with your audience that you can choose every word you say to them with intention.