People will answer uncomfortable questions. They just want to know why

In January 2025, I interviewed 8 people about checking in at the doctor's office, for the project that later became my Check In App. I expected to hear that the forms were confusing. They weren't. Almost everyone understood the questions.

It wasn't until I sat down to synthesize the interviews that the real pattern showed up: purpose. Questions about sexual history, drinking and smoking, or a Social Security number made people uneasy, but most answered anyway. One participant put it simply: being open with your doctor gets you better care. Discomfort wasn't the blocker.

Not knowing why was. People kept asking:

• Why does this matter for the visit I'm here for?
• Does anyone actually use this?
• Why am I being asked again in the exam room?

That changed the problem I was solving. I had framed it as "make the form faster." The research said "make the form make sense." So the core idea became a short line under each section explaining why it's being asked, and skipping questions that don't apply to the visit.

Looking back, it's the same lesson I'd learn again a year later working with AI: context and reasoning change how people respond. Patients need the why. So do teammates. So does Claude.