What would you do if you weren't afraid?

I LOVE that question! It's my all-time favourite and regularly gets me unstuck!

But what makes a good question? Good question 😇! Over the past 3 years, I've read dozens of books on the topic. The following three books have improved my ability to get people and projects unstuck, and they can help you too.

Let's get to it!

Book #1: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended On It - Chris Voss

I bought this audiobook in April but only read it in August! I regret waiting so long - please don't make the same mistake!

Here's why you'll love it: It takes the coaching concepts of active listening and powerful questions and applies them in a different context!

My favourite question from the book: "How am I supposed to do that?"

Book #2: The Mom Test - Rob Fitzpatrick

I got my hands on this one after Rob appeared on the Indie Hackers podcast (episode #154, to be precise!). Check it out once you've finished reading this!

Here's why you'll love it: The Mom Test is all about how to speak to people to explore concepts and ideas before a line of code has been written or a prototype has been built. Does that sound useful to you, dear software development chums? 😊

My favourite question from the book: "Can you talk me through how you handled it?"

Book #3: Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques - Michael Michalko

I found my way to this one by reading a few testing blogs. It contains a list of questions called Phoenix Checklist. These are questions designed to help you find solutions to complex problems. They're related to the Context-Free questions from the late great Jerry Weinberg.

Here's why you'll love it: The book contains the Phoenix Checklist. The checklist (and its cousin Context-Free questions) are perfect for story refinement sessions, incident management, test design, and more.

My favourite question from the book: "What benefits will you gain by solving the problem?"