Home > Question to Query > Featured Article

Kitchen Conversations

Glenn is the kind of guy you would definitely want on your team in a game of Trivial Pursuit.  As we stood in my sister-in-law’s kitchen on a rainy spring day, I asked him for recommendations on how to tackle a few rust spots on a minivan I recently purchased.  He immediately directed me to a new car wax that provides excellent protection against radiation from the sun. I asked about fuel additives for maintaining engine performance and he explained in detail how an engine responds to “unnecessary” additives.  Our conversation meandered to other engine parts and the positive effects of eating local honey for tackling the annoying symptoms of seasonal allergies.

Then Glenn asked me if I knew where he could rent a climbing wall in the Chicago area.  He had tried a Google search and hadn’t found anything after a couple of minutes and wondered whether I had a favorite search engine that might be useful for finding the answer to his question.  I don’t think he knew what I did for a living, but he was about to find out.

Over the next 5 minutes we took his research question “Where can I find rental services for rock climbing walls in Chicago?” and turned it into a query.  We identified the key concepts, discussed which intermediate words might be replaced by more effective terms based on professional vocabulary (e.g. Is there a better word for “rental services” or “rock climbing wall”?)  We weren’t sitting at a computer, so he grabbed a note card and carefully mapped out these keywords and tips.
I referred him to http://beaucoup.com as a possible place to search the invisible web in case there might be a listing of rental services included in a database that Google may not be able to find.  He hadn’t thought of that strategy and stated an interest in refreshing his search skills for a new job role.

It was time to get my girls home to bed. As we headed out the door, I thanked Glenn for all his practical advice and asked him to keep me posted on the results of his next search.  As I reflect on that kitchen conversation, two fascinating things stand out:

1. We had used the Question to Query Checklist as a tool to unpack Glenn’s search challenge.
2. We had organized and critically analyzed the search before ever touching a computer keyboard. 

When Glenn does find that climbing wall I’m sure he’ll do two things before he starts climbing.  He’ll get the right tools for the climb (ropes, shoes, helmet) and he’ll scope out a strategy for getting up that wall. 

That evening I discovered that tackling an Internet search isn’t much different! 

P.S.  I couldn’t help myself when I got to a computer again.  I just had to try that search.  I typed in

“rock climbing wall”
Chicago
rental

and after refining the query a couple times I found this local rock climbing wall rental agency.

Try It!

Today when you sit down to start your next Internet search, before you touch the keyboard, take 1 minute to frame your search using the Question to Query Checklist.