Jason Fried shared this idea from Clayton Christensen several months ago:
Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven’t asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It hits your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question – you have to want to know – in order to open up the space for the answer to fit.
It’s a small but powerful insight. It seems natural that it could be useful in other domains.
I’ve used it to think about how to talk to potential customers of ideas I have. Customers are people who have a need in their life that your product addresses. Their need is the question and your product is the answer.
It made it obvious why some people don’t understand a product or see why it would be useful. They’ve never asked themselves the question you are answering.