Before you ask around
Kind-Lie MeterWill your questions get the truth, or a kind lie?
Ask kind people whether they like your idea and they will say yes. Ask what they did the last time, and you learn something. List the questions you plan to ask about your small idea and see which ones leave room for a polite yes. The reads and the chart are free, in your browser.
1 Your idea free
2 The questions you plan to ask free
Up to eight, one per box, in the order you would ask them. The page reads each by its wording; change the read if it is off.
3 The chart free
No reading yet
4 Run the meter
One run says why each question draws the answer it does, rewrites the risky ones to ask about a real moment, says what a real answer sounds like and suggests one small closing ask. The reads stay as the page set them.
The reading - none yet
-Listen for
The page's check
5 Saved readings
How the page reads a question
Six reads, riskiest first. Fishing for praise asks what they think of your idea. A pitch in disguise tells them about it or leads them to agree. Someday maybe asks them to guess what they would do. Usually-speaking asks about habits in general. Life today asks how things go for them now. A real last time asks about something that already happened.
The read, first match wins. The page looks for cue words in this order: praise (do you like, good idea, what do you think of), pitch (I'm planning, my idea, isn't it), someday (would, will you, if there were), usually (usually, always, do you ever), a real last time (last time, did you, have you tried), today (how do you, at the moment). A question with no cue waits for you to pick its read.
The lamp. No question about their life (today or a real last time): kind lies all round. Every question about their life: straight answers likely. Otherwise: some kind lies likely. Start with the riskiest question that is not already about a real last time; on a tie, the earlier one.
Friendly suggestions, not professional advice. The reads come from wording alone; you know your people better than the page does.