Phoenix is a question checklist developed by the CIA to encourage its employees to look at a challenge from as many angles as possible.
We may remember the television detective Columbo, played by Peter Falk. Columbo’s successes in solving criminal cases lay in his way of questioning suspects.
He asked not just one or two questions, but a long series of questions. To ask just one question would be like hoping to understand a wheel by examining just one spoke.
Only the sum of all spokes plus tire and hub make the complete wheel. Only by looking at all the elements does an understanding of the whole emerge. The entire Phoenix question checklist can be found in two parts in the implementation of this method.