'Chunking' up and 'chunking down'

‘Chunking’ means breaking problems down into smaller, more manageable pieces (‘chunking down’) or standing back to look at the bigger picture (‘chunking up’).

Both help us get a better understanding of a problem.

If we’re to solve a problem, we need both a wide overview of the problem, and a clear view of the finer details of the problem.

Questions to help us ‘chunk down’ - How did you do that? - Why do you think that happened? - What happened when? - What will happen if? - What is the underlying cause of this? - What is the most important piece of this?

Questions to help us ‘chunk up’ - What does this mean? - How does this relate to that? - What is it we’re trying to achieve? - Who is this for? - How will what we’re doing change things?