ask two questions

Free · interactive · about 5 minutes

Ask before you answer.

One page for the moment someone asks you for something. Pick who is asking, fill in the two questions, choose yes, a scoped yes or not yet, and copy a plain-text reply.

Jump to your reply draft ↓

Every example on this page is fictional. What you type stays on this page: nothing is saved, sent or stored, and there are no cookies. Print gives you the filled sheet on one page.

Step 1. The request, in their words
Step 2. Who is asking?

Pick one. Each situation has its own follow-ups. Check the ones you need answered before you say yes.

Pick who is asking to see the follow-ups for that situation.

Step 3. My two questions

One for a missing fact, one for an owner. Short and answerable: how much, which, when, who. Ask a person, not the tool.

Question 1: what don't I know that someone here does?
Question 2: who decides this, and what do they need from me first?
Step 4. What I know

Confirmed is from a record or their own words. Assumed or unknown is everything else: each item becomes a question. One item per line.

Step 5. AI check

Only if an AI tool is in the picture.

Step 6. My reply

Choose one. A scoped yes or a proposal is a proposal until the person who decides confirms it.

Step 7. Before I reply

Check a line only when it is true. Leave a box empty and say what is open.

Your reply draft

It is built from the sheet above and updates as you type. Blanks stay in [brackets]. Read it once and change anything before you send it.

A scoped yes or a proposal stays a proposal until the person who decides confirms it. This checklist is practice material, not advice about a real situation. It is template 4 of the template pack; the PDF version is in the template pack v2 add-on.

Practice the two questions first.
Play a short fictional case, ask for the missing facts and see what changes.

Play a free case ↗

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