Described are techniques used in fulfilling an information need not formulated as a natural language question. A query is accepted that includes one or more words not formulated as a natural language question. The query is syntactically analyzed in order to extract a concept from the query. Documents are identified containing the one or more words. The analyzed query is matched to one or more question keys in a structures repository. A best match is determined between the analyzed query and a question key of the structures repository. The key of the at least one best key match is mapped to partially specified queries and the key of the best question key match is mapped to questions representing an information need corresponding to the query. The partially specified queries and questions are matched to potential answers contained in a collection of documents. One or more matching answers are returned based on a metric.