grill-me

Grill Me

Grill Me is a focused pre-implementation interrogation loop. Instead of brainstorming broadly, it forces the plan through one concrete question at a time when branches are dependent, or through a numbered batch when the open questions are independent, until the unknowns, dependencies, and tradeoffs are visible.

Unlike interview-me, which is for gathering missing intent and can switch into an async questionnaire, Grill Me is for pressure-testing a plan that already exists through decision-focused dialogue.

When to Use

• A plan sounds reasonable, but key assumptions have not been made explicit yet
• The user wants to stress-test a design, approach, rollout, or scope boundary before building
• You need to expose hidden dependencies and unresolved branches in the decision tree
• The next useful step is sharper questioning, not more implementation detail

When NOT to Use

Instead of grill-me	Use
You need multiple competing viewpoints on a decision	council
The plan must be checked against existing docs, glossary terms, or ADRs	grill-with-docs
The implementation already landed and now needs review against the original spec	implementation-review

Workflow

1. Pick the exact artifact to grill

Choose one target:

• a proposal
• a plan
• a spec
• a rollout idea

Do not grill an entire vague conversation. First compress the target into the thing that needs pressure-testing.

2. Default to linear questioning; batch only independent branches

Choose the mode before each round:

• Linear mode (default): use when one answer changes what you should ask next. Ask one question at a time and fully resolve that branch before moving on.
• Batch mode: use only when several questions are mutually independent and the extra round-trip cost is high enough that asking them together will materially save time. Present the whole ready set in one numbered round, with one decision per question and a recommended answer attached to each.