Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction

The ladder of abstraction is a useful technique to use during an interview, a workshop or to better understand the research question.

In order to understand if you are on the right level of abstraction with an answer or question, you can either go one level op (more abstract) or one level down (more concrete). The simplest way is to ask why questions to go up, and how questions to go down. Read Tom Barrett’s article to get more ideas on how to test if you’re on the right level.