When every retailer was working on making the checkout process seamless or empowering shoppers to checkout in self-service terminals, someone at Amazon asked "Why don't we just get rid of the checkout process itself?" and it led to Amazon Go!
The right question can be a disruptive agent. Another example of innovation and disruption is in cooking. A pressure cooker works on the principle of building high pressure and cooking food at a high temperature. High pressure allows cooking with water at temperatures higher than 100 °C. The first generation pressure cooker came around 1960 and the design had not changed until recently. A weighed pressure regulator is used to cover the steam vent. Based on the weight, the regulator releases steam when the pressure cooker reaches a particular pressure (and temperature). The instructions guide the cook to wait for the regulator to start releasing the steam indicating the reaching of the correct pressure. From there, the user counts the number of times steam is released before stopping the cooking.
Everyone was asking the question "How do we automate the process of counting the whistles and inform the user?". That lead to solutions like the Cookoo or the Pressure Cooker Whistle Counter.
Whereas, Robert Wang asked "How can I build a pressure cooker that cooks without supervision?" and he came up with the Instant Pot. He got rid of the whistles completely and used sensors and electronics to automate the cooking process completely. No more whistles to count!
That is the power of the right questions. Questions are more important than answers. Right questions have a way of leading you to the answer. Right questions lead to big ideas.
Asking the right question is an art. It is an art that is cultivated by being curious, being open minded, being engaged and being customer centered.