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Example queries

Copy these and adapt them to your sources and timeframes. Start with the transformations to see what separates a thin query from a strong one, then use the library below as a jumping-off point.

From bland to powerful

The same question, leveled up by adding a goal and some specifics:

Bland: Summarize Discord this week.

Better: We shipped the 2.1 patch on Monday. Summarize what people in Discord are saying about it this week — especially any bugs or regressions — and flag anything that's also coming up on Reddit.

Bland: How are our creators doing?

Better: We spent $50K on creator promotions this month. Rank the creators we're tracking on TikTok and Instagram by engagement and comment sentiment, and chart the top five — we're deciding where to put a $10K follow-up budget.

The better versions tell Kinn the goal, the timeframe, the version, and what to do with the result. (See Writing good queries for the habits behind these.)

Triage: finding and grouping problems

  • What are the most common bugs reported this week?
  • Group the open complaints by theme.
  • Is anyone reporting problems with login since the latest release?
  • Which issues are showing up across more than one source?

Trend-spotting: what's changing

  • What are people talking about more this week than last week?
  • How has sentiment changed since the latest release?
  • What new feature requests have come up this month?

Release tracking: did the release land

  • Are users still hitting the crash we fixed in 2.1?
  • What's the reaction to the 2.1 patch so far, across Discord and Reddit?
  • Summarize feedback on the new onboarding flow and chart sentiment over time.

Creator and campaign performance

  • Rank our tracked creators by engagement over the last 30 days.
  • Which sponsored posts are driving the most discussion in the comments?
  • Compare comment sentiment across the creators promoting us on TikTok vs. Instagram.

Cross-platform insight

  • Are people reporting this bug everywhere, or just in one community?
  • Where is feedback most positive about the latest release — Discord, Reddit, or the comments on our videos?
  • Steam reviews are turning negative — is the same complaint showing up in Discord, or is it isolated to Steam?

Reusing a query