How You Can Ask the Right Questions to Succeed with Your Security Projects
summary
Explains concrete question patterns that improve security projects: use open-ended probes like please tell me about your approach to classifying information to gauge jargon and follow with mirrored terms; use How might we collaborative framing to co-design fixes (example: redesign to minimize data exposure); use checklists and specific prompts during incident response; broaden narrow prompts (from “stop clicks” to “mitigate phishing risk”); force empathy with prompts such as how am I supposed to do that? and flip yes/no framing for clearer buy‑in.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Intro
- 2:02How can we ask the right questions, the right way, and at the right time? Consider 3 types of cybersecurity activities that involve questions
- 2:40Discover activities include
- 3:27How would you determine whether this is the best way to pose the question?
- 5:06Know your audience to decide which terms to use. When unsure, begin with an open-ended question
- 8:22Your follow-up questions are key to the interaction.
- 9:43What aspects of this question might be counterproductive?
- 13:30Checklists can help in stressful situations and help prevent creative interpretations of your questions.
- 16:17How would you strengthen this question?
- 18:13Use collaborative framing, where appropriate, to include everyone in the solution.
- 22:20Takeaways for plan questions
- 25:37Ask a question that causes the other person to think about the issue from your perspective
- 27:36What might be a stronger way to defend your security budget request?
- 28:42Align your question with shared objectives
- 31:41Takeaways for persuade questions
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