What are some signature solution-focused questions, and what is each designed to do?

A toolkit of forward-pointing questions: defining the solved state, finding exceptions, spotting early signs, and tracing first steps — all building a picture of the wanted future.

A catalogue of the moves, each with its job:

• Define the solved state — "How would you notice the problem is solved?" Turns a vague wish into observable signs.
• The difference question — "Suppose the problem is solved: what is different then?" Makes the desired future concrete.
• "What else?" — keep asking until a direction or image appears; if an answer is abstract ("trust is back"), ask how they'd notice it.
• The "harbingers" question — "What's already working today in a good direction?" Finds the future that's partly present.
• The exceptions question — "When do you feel nothing of the problem? What's different then?" Locates times the problem is already absent.
• First-steps-from-the-future — "Assuming it's all worked out as you wished: what were the first steps that set it in motion?"

The unifying logic: build the desired future in vivid, observable detail and mine the present and past for resources that already point that way.

Tip: "Suppose it were solved — what's different?" is the engine question; most of the others are variations refining its answer.