Ask Powerful Questions

Asking Powerful Questions

You can ask these questions in any situation, feel free to use/improve this list and link to any additional helpful resources.

Example questions to bring up technology gripes

1.) What is one piece of software you use, but hate? What makes you keep using it?
2.) What is the worst feature of social media? How could it be improved?
3.) What is the most annoying thing about cell phone apps?
4.) Have you ever played a video game that you wished you could change? Did you do it?
5.) What frightens you the most about the development of AI technology?
6.) If you don’t enjoy learning about technology, what annoys you the most about it?
7.) Have you ever lost a feature on some software or device that you needed? How did you feel about that?
8.) What cell phone app do you hate the most, but still use? Why?

Example questions about how people make technology decisions

1.) How do you know the best software to meet your needs?
2.) How do you decide what technology products or services to use?
3.) How do you know is someone is an expert in software development?
4.) What is a word software developers use, that you don’t understand?
5.) How do you decide what social media platforms to use?
6.) Do you use Linux on your computer? Why or why not?
7.) Do you think paid membership programs could be used to improve software for everyone? Why or why not?
8.) What do you do when you get frustrated that software doesn’t do what you want it to?

Example questions for specific communities

 Fill in the blanks with software related to the specific topic (don’t actually use **** or blank when asking people the questions!)

1.) How do you know the best software to *****?
2.) How has software affected your industry?
3.) What software do you use for **** ? How could it be better?
4.) What frustrates you about the software you use for ****?
5.) Do you trust software used for *****?
6.) Have you tried using *name of freedom respecting software program* for ****?
7.) Do you think paid membership programs could be used to improve software for ******? Why or why not?
8.) How do you deal with frustrations with software used for ***?

Examples of deeper questions

For when you have already started the conversation about software and what to get deeper into topics relating to freedom respecting software. 1.) How could we make ***** software better? What is stopping us?
2.) Do you think **** has too much power over the software?
3.) How can people in your industry avoid future problems like that with software?
4.) What would happen if a group of people got together to create better applications?
5.) How can we trust the software we use for *****?
6.) What existing solutions improve upon it, how do they avoid the problems caused by *****?
7.) What freedom respecting software solutions already exist to do that?
8.) Do you realize how the freedoms provided by freedom respecting software can prevent problems such as *****?

This page was a featured resource in September 2023.