RunsheetFacilitation

Question Burst

ComplexityLow

Time15-30 min

Participants2-8

FormatWorkshop

MaturityEstablished

Preparation

What needs to be ready before start

Materials

Whiteboard or Miro board with list or table for questions; pens; visible timer; optionally markers in two colors for later marking.

People / roles

One facilitator who enforces the questions-only rule; two to eight participants, ideally including people from outside the domain; one scribe who writes in parallel.

Pre-read

Challenge in 1-2 sentences; known context of the challenge in at most one minute briefing; clear statement that no solution discussion will happen.

Time needed

15-30 min

Setup

Challenge at top of board. Prepare list or table for at least 30 questions. Set timer to 4 min for first burst round. State rule: no answers, no discussion, only questions.

Core question

The one question this method answers

Which questions about the challenge open new perspectives before anyone attempts an answer?

Flow

Marker: Minute

Step	Duration	Action	Hint
10-3 min	3 min	Facilitator presents challenge in max 2 min. No solution sketch, no pitch. Repeat rules: only questions, no answers, no evaluating.	If briefing takes more than 3 min, assumptions of the presenter already dominate the questions. Keep it strictly short.
23-7 min	4 min	First burst round: all participants write or call out questions, scribe writes along. Aim for at least 20 questions. No discussion between questions.	If answers or suggestions appear, facilitator interrupts and reformulates into a question. "We should do X" becomes "What would happen if X?"
37-12 min	5 min	Second burst round: perspective shift. Questions from the user's, competitor's, skeptic's or foreign industry's point of view. Again without evaluation.	Perspective shift is the most valuable phase. Anyone only writing variations of their first questions stays in their own frame.
412-20 min	8 min	Mark questions: up to three questions that most strongly change the thinking (star). Up to three questions that cannot yet be answered (question mark). Reframing attempt: derive new problem formulation from marked questions.	Reframing is not a consensus act, but a proposal. Multiple reframings in parallel are allowed and often productive.
520-30 min	10 min	Next steps: owner and research or discussion action per marked question. Document reframing proposal.	If no owners emerge, the session is theater documentation. Better 1-2 owners with date than 10 without.

Artifact

What comes out at the end

Form

Markdown document with challenge, complete question list in order, marked top questions, reframing proposals and next steps with owner and date.

Versioning / ownership

One entry per session with date and challenge. When repeated on same challenge, quote existing questions at the beginning to avoid repetition and make new perspectives visible.

Tool alternatives

Miro with Question Burst template
Whiteboard with photo export
Google Doc with numbered list
Notion database with columns Question / Marking / Owner

question-burst-working-template.md

Compact working template for Question Burst with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.

Question Burst Working Template

Goal

Generates many questions about a challenge before looking for answers.

Context

When and for what do we use this method?

Input

Which data, observations, decisions, or materials are available?

Execution

Short notes along the runsheet.

Output artifacts

Question List:
Reframed Challenge:
Learning Prompts:

Assumptions and open questions

Decision / Next step

Owner, date, and success signal.

Example output

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

question-burst-beispiel.md

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

Question Burst - Onboarding for Sabine, Solo Tax Advisor (2026-05-15)

Challenge: We cannot make our onboarding as lean as we want. Activation remains at 22%.

Question excerpt (38 total):

What blocks Sabine specifically in minute 1?
When are her 10 free minutes?
What if onboarding did not happen in the tool, but in her email inbox?
What do the 22% who activate learn that the others do not?
How would an account opener at a direct bank welcome Sabine?
What happens if Sabine's employee Anna does onboarding instead of Sabine herself?

Marks:

Star: questions 3, 4, 6 (changes thinking).
Question mark: question 2 (Sabine's time window).

Reframing: Instead of "how do we make onboarding leaner" -> "how do we fit onboarding into Sabine's existing inbox routine".

Next steps:

Question 2: 5 interviews. Owner @anna, by 2026-05-25.
Question 4: cohort analysis activated vs not activated. Owner @lisa, by 2026-05-22.

What to do

Enforce Phase 5. Maximum three top questions with owner and date. Rest goes to backlog, not every question must be pursued.

Stop criteria

Done signals checkable in under a minute

Challenge cannot be formulated in 1-2 sentences, briefing becomes explanation.

Group continuously slips into answers, question discipline cannot be established.

Workshop scheduled under 15 min, five phases cannot be run.

Acute crisis with time pressure, reframing is a luxury the situation does not allow.

No person available for follow-up actions, reframing dissipates.

Challenge is already clear and execution is underway, method only creates delay.

Finished the runsheet?

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