learn-asking-right-questions-as-da-with-phoebe / Session 6 of 6
Learn Asking the Right Questions as a Data Analyst with Phoebe · Session 6 of 6

The mock meeting and the one-page brief

Five sessions built the parts: the corridor of six doors, the plain questions for the data state, the kinds of question and what each costs, the second sentence that teaches, the tree that turns her pains into three projects. Tonight they run end to end. You take your own sheet into a full 45-minute meeting with Adeline on the bench, read your score against the five presets, and then do the thing that decides whether the meeting was worth having: write the one page she reads the next morning. What you heard, in her words. What you will build first, and what you will not. How you will both know. Who does what next week. It goes out within 24 hours, or the meeting fades into "the analyst came by once".

🟠 Capstone Bring the sheet, the map, the tree No code. A pen and the bench. 45 min
0-3 · Welcome 3-18 · The run, the brief, the gate 18-40 · Build-along: the brief she reads 40-45 · Q&A
Part 0

Where we start

A discovery meeting produces two things: what is in your notes, and what is in her head. The bench in session 3 counted the first. The brief is how the second is fixed in place before it fades, and it is also the first piece of work she sees from you, which means it is the first evidence she has about whether the next six weeks are worth her time. Harbourline and Adeline Tan are constructed, as on every page; the brief you write tonight is for a real request if you have one, and for hers if you do not.

🎫 Clear all three quiz questions to stamp your passport Live = presented in the 45 minutes Self-study = the full depth, after class ★ Build-along = write it yourself

★ What you walk out with tonight. One scored run of the full meeting with your own sheet, a one-page brief ready to send, and the eight-row ship gate that says whether it goes out tomorrow morning or needs another hour first.

Part 1 · covers the full run

Your meeting, scored against the ladder

5 min live

Open the bench on session 3 in a second tab, reset the lower half, and run the whole 45 minutes with your printed sheet beside you. Do not look at the preset transcripts first. When the clock reaches zero, write down four numbers: net value, false beliefs, doors opened, and the value in your notes at minute 20. Then read them against the ladder below.

WHERE YOUR RUN LANDS net value out of 67 on the analyst bank · scale: 11 px per point, from x = 60 0 67 15 fast interview 17 jargon 28 shuffle 48 Six Doors 52 tuned 61, needs her sheet your run below 28 the order is costing you 28 to 48 the doors are there, the order is not above 48 you walked the corridor Read false beliefs before net value. A run at 40 with none is a better meeting than a run at 44 with two.
🔍 Click to zoom - the marker is yours to place; the bands are what each region of the ruler usually means
LiveReading your four numbers3 min▶

False beliefs first. Any number above zero means a leading question slipped through, and each one is a build decision you will get wrong in week six. Find it in the transcript, write the open version of it on your sheet, and carry that version into the real meeting.

Doors opened. Six is the only answer that lets you write a brief without guessing. A shut door is a section of the brief you cannot fill; on the analyst bank the door most often left shut is constraints, because it feels like the least interesting one, and it is the one that decides whether the first project is possible this quarter.

Net value against the ladder. The Six Doors in printed order score 48 blind; tuned for an analyst, 52. A run in that region means the sheet works. A run near the shuffle's 28 means the questions are good and the order is not: usually decision was opened late, or jargon crept in early and cost trust the rest of the meeting needed.

The 20-minute counter. The tuned order puts 21 points in your notes by minute 20. If she is called away halfway, that is the meeting you actually had. A run with a strong finish and a weak twenty minutes is a run that will fail on the day her phone rings.

Self-studyWhat the bench cannot see about your run2 min▶

The bench scores what you asked and what came back. It does not hear your tone, see whether you looked at her or at your laptop, or notice the moment she leaned forward because a question was about her actual Monday. Those matter, and no widget measures them honestly. The run is a rehearsal for the order and the kinds, not a verdict on you as an interviewer. If you can, run the real meeting next week with a colleague taking notes, and ask them one thing afterwards: when did she start giving longer answers?

Real world

The rehearsal that found the leading question. A constructed case. An analyst ran the bench twice before a real discovery meeting. The first run scored 44 with one false belief: "the stock numbers come out of the POS, correct?" had slipped onto her sheet as a confirmation she meant to ask at the end. She rewrote it as "where do the stock numbers come from, step by step?" and moved it up. In the real meeting that open question produced the three spreadsheet versions and the Friday typing, and the brief she sent the next morning had a section it would otherwise have got wrong.

Part 2 · covers the one-page brief

One page, in her words, sent within 24 hours

6 min live

The brief is not minutes and it is not a proposal. It is the meeting handed back to her in a form she can check, correct and forward to the regional GM without rewriting. It has six blocks, each fed by a door, and every sentence in it is either something she said or something you will do. If she reads it and says "yes, that is what I meant", the gap from session 1 is closed. If she corrects a block, it was worth sending for that alone.

THE BRIEF: SIX BLOCKS, EACH FED BY A DOOR 1 2 3 4 5 6 outcome decision current way, data state constraints success partnership WHAT YOU TOLD ME, IN YOUR WORDS "six outlets keep running out of chronic meds" The decision this will serve reorder per outlet, area managers, Tuesday noon Where your numbers live today till, three spreadsheets, WhatsApp the map What I will build first, and what I will not one Monday list, four outlets; no dashboard yet How we will both know your Monday afternoon phone goes quiet Who does what next week Priya and I, Tuesday 10:00, the product codes within 24 hours read on her phone
🔍 Click to zoom - block 1 is the only one in her words alone, and it is the one she will correct if you misheard
LiveThe six blocks, and the rule for each4 min▶

1 · What you told me, in your words. Two or three sentences she said, quoted. Not your summary. This is the block that closes the gap from session 1: if the tune you heard is not the tune she was humming, she will say so here, and it costs one email instead of six weeks.

2 · The decision this will serve. The action, the person, the deadline, from door 2. One line. If you cannot write it, you did not open the door, and the brief should say "I still need to understand who acts on this and by when" rather than invent it.

3 · Where your numbers live today. The data-state map from session 2, as a thumbnail or five lines of text, with one question: "which box is wrong?"

4 · What I will build first, and what I will not. The pilot from session 5, one sentence, and one sentence naming what you are deliberately not doing yet. Saying "no dashboard yet" out loud, to a person who asked for a dashboard, is the most useful line in the brief when the outcome behind it was something else. It is also the line that most needs her agreement.

5 · How we will both know. Her success test, in her words: "your Monday afternoon phone goes quiet". Not an accuracy figure, not a login count.

6 · Who does what next week. Names, a day, a time, one task each. Fitzpatrick's test for whether a conversation went anywhere is whether the other side committed something, time, a name, an introduction; this block is where her commitment is written down so it cannot quietly lapse.

LiveWhy 24 hours, and why one page2 min▶

Within a day she still remembers what she meant, so a correction is cheap and specific. After a week she remembers that you came by, and a brief arriving then reads as a proposal to be evaluated rather than a record to be checked. No study is quoted for the 24 hours; it is a working norm, and the reason is the one above.

One page because she will read it on her phone, between outlets, as door 5 told you. Two pages is a document; a document goes into a folder to be read later; later is after the board. If a block needs more than three lines, the detail goes in an attachment she can ignore.

Self-studyWhat the brief must never contain2 min▶

A word from the jargon column of session 4. A number you have not seen yet stated as if you had. A timeline longer than the date she gave you at door 5. A fact she told you in confidence, most importantly the one about Kenneth leaving in January: it shapes block 4, because the first step must not depend on a login that disappears, but it goes into your plan and not into a document she may forward to the team she has not told. The brief is hers to forward. Write it as if it will be.

Part 3 · the final scorecard

The ship gate for a discovery brief

4 min live

Eight rows, each scored 0, 1 or 2 against your own brief. This gate is strict on purpose: a brief that half-names the decision is read by the business as a brief that has the decision, and the gap it leaves opens again in week six. Anything under 16 of 16 gets another hour before it goes out.

Block 1 quotes her own words, two or three sentences, and none of them is my summary of what she meant. Session 1. The tune she was humming is only audible in her words. A summary is you tapping, and the listener cannot correct what she never sees.
Block 2 names the action, the person and the deadline, or says plainly that I still need them. Sessions 1 and 3. On the analyst bank the single most valuable fact is the Tuesday-noon reorder by three area managers, and it sits behind door 2.
Block 3 says which numbers are recorded, which are typed, and which are not recorded anywhere, and asks her which box is wrong. Session 2. Typed on a Friday, recorded by a till and absent behave differently, and a map she can correct is worth more than a schema she cannot.
Nothing in my notes, and nothing in the brief, came from a leading question I did not later confirm with an open one. Session 3. On the bench the fast interview recorded five beliefs that were wrong and scored 15 against 48 for the doors in order.
Every sentence passes the read-aloud test: no word she would have to ask about. Session 4. Jargon costs twice on the bench, in minutes and in trust; in a brief it costs the correction she never makes because she did not understand the line.
Block 4 names one first step that needs no budget this quarter and does not depend on a login that is about to disappear, and names one thing I am deliberately not building yet. Sessions 2 and 5. No budget until Q1 and a single IT person leaving in January are both constraints on the first step, not footnotes to it.
Block 5 is her success test, in her words, and I could check it without asking her. Sessions 1 and 5. "The Monday afternoon phone goes quiet" is observable and hers. An accuracy figure is neither.
Block 6 has names, a day, a time and one task each, and her side of it has been agreed, not assumed. Session 5. Priya's two hours a week are the reason the work survives the analyst leaving; a partner who was never asked is not a partner.
Build-along

Write the brief she reads tomorrow morning

★ 22 min · everyone writes

Six blocks, one page, built from the three artifacts you already have: the Six Doors sheet from session 1, the data-state map from session 2, the tree and pilot from session 5. Nothing new is invented tonight. Every line is either something she said or something you will do, and the worked example below is Adeline's, written from her fact sheet.

THREE THINGS YOU ALREADY HAVE, ONE PAGE SHE READS Six Doors sheet session 1 · blocks 1, 2, 5 Data-state map session 2 · block 3 Tree and pilot session 5 · blocks 4, 6 THE BRIEF 1 in your words 2 the decision · 3 the map 4 first, and not yet 5 how we know · 6 next week one page, her phone Nothing new is invented tonight. Every line was already on one of the three pages on the left.
🔍 Click to zoom - if a block has no arrow feeding it, a door was left shut and the brief should say so

Block 1, her words. Open your sheet and copy two or three of her sentences exactly. Pick the ones closest to the outcome, not the request. If your sheet has no quote in her words, that is the first thing to fix, and the brief should ask rather than guess.

★ Step 1 · what you told meWhat you told me, in your words: "The Monday report is always late and honestly nobody trusts the numbers in it." "The real worry is the six Malaysian outlets running out of chronic medication." "If my phone is quiet on Monday afternoon, it worked."

Blocks 2 and 3, the decision and the map. One line for the decision. Five lines for the map, each marked recorded, typed or not recorded, ending with the question.

★ Step 2 · decision and mapThe decision this will serve: Next week's reorder quantity per outlet, made by the three area managers, due Tuesday noon. Where your numbers live today: - Sales: recorded by the till (one POS vendor, one CSV per outlet) - Stock: typed by outlet managers on Fridays, three versions of the sheet in circulation - Supplier orders: not recorded anywhere (WhatsApp) - Product codes: different in Singapore and Malaysia, nobody owns the list - Loyalty: held by the app vendor, export needs a contract clause Which of these is wrong?

Block 4, first and not yet. The pilot from session 5 in one sentence, then one sentence naming what you are not building. The first step must need no budget this quarter and must not depend on a single login that may not be there in January.

★ Step 3 · what I will build firstWhat I will build first: One Monday list per outlet, readable on a phone, with a suggested reorder for the 40 chronic-medication products, in four pilot outlets, built with Priya from the exports that exist today. What I will not build yet: A dashboard. Not until the list has changed a reorder, because the last one was opened for two weeks.

Blocks 5 and 6, how we know and who does what. Her test in her words. Names, a day, a time and one task each.

★ Step 4 · the test and next weekHow we will both know: The area managers stop phoning you on Monday afternoon. You count the calls; I do not need to. Who does what next week: - Priya and me, Tuesday 10:00, one hour: one product-code list for both countries - You: pick the four pilot outlets by Friday - Me: the first draft of the Monday list, for Priya to check, the Monday after

Read it on your phone, then score it. Send the draft to yourself, read it on the phone standing up, and run it through the eight-row gate above. Anything under 16 gets fixed before it is sent. Then send it, within 24 hours of the meeting, with one line on top.

★ Step 5 · the covering lineSubject: What I heard on Thursday, and the first step Hi Adeline, here is what I understood from our meeting, on one page. The part I most want you to correct is the first block: is that what you meant? And in the third block, which box is wrong?

The reply is the second meeting. Whatever she corrects is the most valuable fact you will get this month, because it is the one you would otherwise have built wrong. Put it straight into the sheet, the map or the tree, and send a one-line thank-you that says what changed.

Homework

After the course

1 week
  1. Run the real meeting. Take your sheet to the real request, walk the doors, and send the brief within 24 hours. Score it on the gate before it goes.
  2. Log the reply. Write down every correction she made, and which block it was in. Block 1 corrections mean you heard the request and missed the tune; block 3 corrections mean the map was guessed.
  3. Re-run the bench with the question you would now ask first, and compare the score with your session 3 run. The gap is what five sessions bought.
  4. Teach one teach-back line to a colleague on the data side, and ask them to use it in their next meeting. The framework is only a framework once two people use it the same way.
Check yourself

Three questions

Clear all three and session 6 gets stamped in your passport.

1 · Your run on the bench scores 44 with two false beliefs. A colleague's scores 40 with none. Whose meeting was better, and what do you do next?

Read false beliefs before net value. The fast interview's raw value on the bench is 29, a middling meeting, and its five false beliefs take it to 15. Two false beliefs in your run are two sections of the brief that will be confidently wrong.

2 · Why is block 1 of the brief her words quoted, and not your summary of what she meant?

This is session 1's gap, closed on paper. The tappers could not hear that their taps were only knocking; a brief in her words lets her hear what you heard, and the correction is the most valuable fact of the month.

3 · Adeline told you, once trust was high, that Kenneth, the only IT person, is leaving in January. Where does that fact go?

The fact shapes the work and does not appear in the document. Write the brief as if it will be forwarded, because it will be; a confidence that surfaces in a forwarded brief costs the trust that produced it.

Sources covered

What this session teaches, and where it came from

✓The preset scores the run is read againstCounted by the bench on session 3 from the printed bank file, and verified headlessly before any page quoted them
◐A conversation went somewhere if the other side committed somethingRob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test, 2013, reported from summaries; block 6 is that test written down
◐The 24-hour norm and the one-page ruleWorking norms, not research findings. No study is quoted for either, and the reasons given are the ones on the page
◐Harbourline, Adeline Tan, and the worked briefConstructed. The worked brief is written from her printed fact sheet and is an example, not a template to copy

Every fact on this page, and its verification tier, is recorded in the course's source map.

Session 6 cheat sheet · pin this

Read your run in orderFalse beliefs, doors, net value, the 20-minute counter. Two false beliefs outweigh four points.
Six blocksHer words · the decision · the map · first and not yet · how we know · who does what.
Block 1 is quotedHer words, not your summary. It is the block she corrects if you misheard.
Say what you will not build"No dashboard yet" is the line that most needs her agreement.
24 hours, one page, her phoneWhile she still remembers what she meant, in the format door 5 told you.
16 of 16, or another hourA partly-named decision is read as a named one by the person who acts on it.