Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Context-Framing Questions for Industry and Government Meetings

They say you should see the forest for the trees 🌲🌳 - to understand the larger context rather than getting lost in the details without grasping this vital bigger picture 🧩

That’s what today’s hashtag#HackingAcademia video is all about 🎥: the types of context-setting questions you can ask in early-stage discussions with an industry or government organization that has approached you about a working on a problem or opportunity they have🤝

Context like financial 💰, historical 🕰️, or delivery-related 📦 information is critical to making sure that the detailed conversation that follows is actually productive. Without context, you risk wasting a huge amount of everyone’s time ⌛ going down paths that context would have immediately ruled out as viable.

These questions also increase the chances that the organization finds a good solution, whether or not that includes you. The goal isn’t to win the project. The goal is to help them get a good outcome, and sometimes that means you’re part of it.

So what kinds of questions help build this context? 🤔

❓ Why are we sitting here? Why is this not already a solved problem, and how do you know that / how have you come to that conclusion?

❓ Most problems aren’t unique. Others have tried, maybe solved, or abandoned similar issues. Why?

❓ Is this a case of “more resources will fix it,” “we have a solution but want it cheaper,” or “we need major breakthroughs to make any progress”?

❓ Is this a one-off problem or a recurring one? That affects the solution space and which partners might be relevant and commercially interested 🤖

❓ Who cares, and who pays? Are people already throwing money at this out of self-interest, or is it more of a greater-good or government issue? 🏛️

❓ Why aren’t startups all over this already proposing solutions? Are there big barriers, or is the perceived incentive just not strong enough?

❓ Even if the core problem is solved, how will the solution be delivered reliably in a form the partner can use? Can the university do that entirely by themselves? Does an OEM or external provider need to be involved as well?

❓ How much is currently being spent on this problem? Are they trying to reduce that spend or get more value for the same amount? A $100k per year problem is very different from a $100M one 💵

❓ What assumptions or outdated beliefs are they operating under? In fast-moving tech spaces, (gently) making sure their understanding is current really matters 🔄💡

As colleagues who lead industry engagement at QUT and who've been in thousands of these meetings, what other context-shaping questions would you add Deon de Saldanha, Ray Johnson, Holli Evans, Kate Taylor, Melissa Nikolic and Erin Rayment?

🖥️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/sgf9_nRkRqQ

#industry #government #startups #solutions #translationalresearch #commercialresearch #research #university #academia #technology #solutions #ideation #problemscoping