grilling

Grilling

An interview isn't a checklist of questions read out in order; it's closing a specific gap between what's already known and what's needed before acting. This skill's defining constraint, from BABOK's elicitation discipline: every question earns its place by targeting that gap, and nothing gathered is treated as settled until it's played back and confirmed. This is a business-analysis technique for the same reason it applies here: an unconfirmed answer is often not the answer that was meant.

Phase 1: Map the gap before asking anything

Before the first question, identify what's already known (from the conversation, the codebase, prior decisions) versus what's genuinely missing. A question that's already answerable from context doesn't belong in the interview, asking it anyway wastes the user's attention on ground already covered, and signals the interviewer wasn't listening.

Structure the missing pieces as a decision tree: each open decision, and which other open decisions it depends on. A decision with no unresolved dependency is on the frontier: answerable right now, without guessing at something not yet heard.

Phase 2: Elicit in rounds

Ask the whole frontier in one round, not one question at a time, batching respects the user's time and lets them see how the questions relate to each other. For each question:

• State it precisely enough that a specific answer, not a restatement of the question, is the expected response.
• Offer a recommended answer where one exists: a default the user can accept, correct, or override, rather than a blank slate they have to fill from nothing.
• Write questions and their surrounding prose without em dashes: use a comma, colon, period, or a reworded sentence instead.

Wait for the round's answers before computing the next round. Each answer can unblock questions that depended on it; recompute the frontier fresh each round rather than pre-planning every round up front, since an early answer can make a later planned question moot or reveal a new one.