Throughout history, one basic factor has generally set innovators apart from everyone else. Regardless of the problem being solved, the most successful innovators start by asking a question. Not just any question. A question that leads to deeper thinking and insights.

And more often than not, they are questioning an assumption that everyone else accepts as the status quo. Through relentless questioning and asking better questions in general, you can unlock the innovative solutions that will solve your most pressing problems, no matter what they look like.

Companies routinely spend millions of dollars answering the wrong question extremely well. They optimize products customers no longer need, automate processes that should be eliminated, add features nobody requested and use sophisticated technologies to solve problems that matter far less than the ones hiding just outside the frame.

Innovation begins when someone is willing to challenge the frame. The best innovators understand that a question is not merely a request for information. It is a boundary around possibility.

Are You Asking The Right Questions?

For many in the business world, one of the biggest challenges comes in identifying what questions they should be asking in the first place. An article from Harvard Online notes that this is especially common in business, where questions can have a tendency to focus entirely on efficiency. Instead, they advise using the “Five Why’s” method: “ask ‘why’ repeatedly until you start to uncover the root cause of a problem. You don’t need to ask exactly five questions, you just need to go until you arrive at a statement that feels fundamental.”

Think of it in the same vein as a young child who repeatedly questions “why?” to every statement their parents make. The initial explanation is not enough. There needs to be a deeper explanation. And while this can be frustrating as a parent, it can make all the difference in uncovering the real problem you are trying to solve in your organization.

Most of the time, the first answer you come up with will not be the most effective solution. It can be tempting to jump on the first idea (especially if you are coming at it from a pure business efficiency perspective). Deeper questioning forces you to more carefully consider what is being questioned in the first place, which can be a powerful engine for innovation.

This approach of asking “why” may seem relatively straightforward when trying to identify a known problem with your own business. This is a situation when asking why makes sense, because there is a clear problem that needs to be solved.

What is often less obvious, but has the potential for even more innovation, comes when this same approach is applied to the status quo in your industry. For example , Jordan Brown, managing partner of Jet Agency, explains in an article how his company applied this mindset to private aviation:

“Questioning why private aviation had to operate the way it always had was the starting point for everything that followed. By re-examining the assumptions the industry treated as permanent, we were able to build a tiered membership model with transparent, fixed hourly rates that remove the unpredictability members had simply come to accept. That willingness to challenge the established model is what allowed us to complete thousands of trips within our first five years, and it continues to shape how we think about the member experience today.”

Many of today’s most dominant brands got their start by innovating after questioning the status quo. Amazon’s approach to e-commerce was novel in the 1990s but has now become a status quo of its own. Netflix was a double status quo questioner — first through its DVD-rental-by-mail business model, and then when it introduced streaming. Amazon built a powerful competitive model to brick-and-mortar retail. Netflix essentially ended traditional video rentals.

Standard practices and “best habits” do not exist in a vacuum. Particularly as AI upends the status quo in many industries, the best innovators know to continually question and challenge the hidden rules or standards that exist in their industry to see if they can find a better way.

Other Questions Innovators Use

Asking “why” is not the only way you can uncover better questions that lead to better innovations. “What if?” and “How?” can be equally powerful questions that help you uncover new insights. In a previous article on relentless questioning, I also noted some of Guy Kawasaki’s favorite questions, such as “Therefore, what?” and “Is there a better way?”

Each of these questions can be a powerful springboard. “What if?” has long been considered the go-to question for fiction writers , covering every aspect from basic plot creation to finding ways to subvert reader expectations.

The same questions can be equally powerful in business. Asking “what if?” in relation to a particular strategy or idea requires you to think through the potential outcomes that come from that course of action. Done right, it can lead to even more questions that help you think deeply about a potential solution before putting it into action.

By following this path, you do not just ask more questions. Chances are, you will be better able to identify what’s missing from your current solutions and even uncover new pathways that you might not have expected.

Even more importantly, this process also allows you to more thoroughly vet your ideas before deciding to try them out, which greatly increases the chances for success. Questioning your new ideas and solutions can help you truly uncover what will and will not work, allowing you to fine-tune things before putting in a huge investment of time and money.

AI Makes Question Quality Even More Important

This matters enormously as artificial intelligence becomes embedded in business. AI is exceptionally good at generating answers. That makes the quality of the question more important, not less.

If an executive asks an AI system, “How can we reduce customer-service costs?” it can generate dozens of plausible answers. Perhaps the more valuable question is “Why do customers need to contact us at all?” That reframing might lead to better product design, clearer communications, predictive service or an entirely different customer experience.

Likewise, “How can we make employees more productive?” might become “Which work should humans stop doing altogether?” “How can we sell more?” might become “What outcome are customers actually paying us to achieve?” “How can we use generative AI?” might become “What becomes economically possible if intelligence becomes dramatically cheaper?”

The second question in each pair opens a much larger field of possibility.

Better Questions, Better Results

Innovation rarely happens by accident. In the vast majority of cases, the innovations that prove to be the most effective and impactful only come after persistent, careful questioning.

By learning to ask better questions at each stage of the innovation process, you can identify the shortcomings of the status quo, as well as the pathways that will lead to the best short- and long-term results.