Curiosity Loops

"Curiosity loops are my method of going to a whole bunch of people and asking them structured questions. I got back such an incredible amount of information for about 20 minutes of work." - Ada Chen Rekhi

What It Is

A Curiosity Loop is a lightweight, structured method for gathering advice from multiple trusted people on a specific topic or decision. Unlike casually asking friends "what should I do?", this approach uses well-crafted questions sent to carefully selected people, yielding richer, more contextual insights.

The method is inspired by Customer Advisory Councils in marketing, where companies maintain a group of top customers they can quickly ping for product feedback. Ada Chen Rekhi adapted this concept for personal and professional decision-making.

The key insight is that most advice is "bad" not because it's not well-intentioned, but because it's not contextual. Curiosity Loops fight this by gathering multiple perspectives and looking for patterns, surprises, and disagreements.

How It Works

A Curiosity Loop has four key components:

1. Ask a Good Question

Your question should be:

Specific - Not vague like "what should I do with my career?"
Solicits rationale - Ask people to explain why
Unbiased - Don't lead with your opinion

Bad question: "What should I do with my career next?"

Better question: "You know me. I'm a marketer thinking about doing webdev. My plan is to quit my job, do a bootcamp, then find a job elsewhere. Do you think that's a good idea and why?"

2. Curate Who You Ask

Select people along two dimensions:

Subject matter experts - People who know the topic well
People who know you - Those who can assess fit for your situation

Aim for 5-10 people, expecting 3-4 quality responses.

3. Make It Lightweight

Design the ask so busy people can respond quickly:

"Here are 9 topics. Pick your top 2 and tell me why"
"Yes or no, and here's why"
Something they can answer from their couch in 5 minutes

Tell people why you picked them specifically.

4. Close the Loop

Process the information and look for patterns
Thank people for their input
Share what you decided and how their input helped

Remember: it feels good to help someone. Closing the loop makes people more willing to help again.

How to Apply It

Identify a decision or question you're wrestling with
Draft a specific question with clear options or parameters
List 5-10 people who have relevant expertise or know you well
Craft a lightweight ask - email, text, or DM that takes <5 minutes to answer
Explain why you picked them in your outreach
Gather responses and look for:
- Consensus (what do most people agree on?)
- Surprises (what did you not expect?)
- Strong disagreements (probe these further)
Make your decision using the input as data, not instruction
Close the loop by thanking respondents and sharing outcomes

When to Use It

Big decisions - Career moves, major life choices (use sparingly, ~quarterly)
Impasses - When you and a partner/colleague disagree
Unfamiliar territory - Decisions where you lack direct experience
Personal decisions too - Estate planning, parenting choices, relationship questions

The lightweight version: make it an ongoing theme in conversations, asking the same question repeatedly and looking for patterns.

Caution

Don't do what people tell you to do. Use the loop to:

Look around corners for things you missed
Test the integrity of your decision-making process
Surface surprises and disagreements to explore

The decision is still yours.

Source

Guest: Ada Chen Rekhi
Episode: "Feeling stuck? Here's how to know when it's time to leave your job | Ada Chen Rekhi"
Key Discussion: (00:04:08) - Full explanation of the Curiosity Loops framework
YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

Personal Board of Directors - Synchronous version with regular check-ins
Customer Advisory Councils - The marketing concept this is adapted from