When you just get started on any new assignment, it’s common to have tons of questions. Especially when you have the luxury of having experienced people around you whose experience you can tap.
First up, let me clarify upfront that questions are good. It’s probably among the biggest benefits of having youth – the curiosity helps re-clarify the need for many a thing that has ‘always been done a certain way’. Curiosity helps, a lot!
The big issue here is that it’s terribly unproductive for people around us if we kept interrupting them with questions. The side issue is that the luxury of knowing that we can ask questions at any time can make us lazy problem solvers. Comfort is no good when it comes to finding solutions.
The Hack: Mark Suster wrote a great post about a point sheet where you collect 7-8 issues before going to your boss. It’s definitely a worthwhile read.
I would do it slightly differently. I would schedule 15 minutes every day, preferably sometime in the afternoon so you have time to work before and after clarifying your questions, and fire away during that time. (I call my 15 minute slots R15)
This way, you keep it quick and most importantly, stick to what’s most important. The natural process of being forced to work through these problems for a long period is that we automatically find most answers ourselves. And, the questions that remain are likely to be the ones where we would most need some insight.
Besides, no one ever objects to 15 minutes! :-)
A Learning a Day 