PRD-06 · SEC. 04 Product & Planning

Batch Every Clarifying Question Before Planning Starts

Batch every clarifying question into one list instead of guessing or asking one at a time.

FORMAT: workflow
DIFFICULTY: beginner
TIME: 10 min
TOOLS: universal
MODELS: any
COPIES: 0 so far

When to use this

You've given an agent a request with real gaps in it (unclear scope, unclear users, unclear constraints), and you'd rather answer everything once than get interrupted five separate times, or worse, have it silently guess and build the wrong thing.

The pattern

Pastes as plain text

Don't start work on the request I paste below the line. First, list every question you'd need answered to do it confidently, grouped into:
- Scope: what's in/out
- Users: who this is for, who it explicitly isn't for
- Constraints: technical, timeline, budget
- Success definition: how we'll know this worked

Only include questions you actually need answered, not ones you could reasonably assume. If a section has no real gaps, write "none" under it. Stop after the list, don't proceed until I answer.

Paste the request below this line:

Real example output

"SCOPE: Does the expense tool need multi-currency support at launch, or USD only?
USERS: none — target user (US freelancers) is already clear from the brief.
CONSTRAINTS: Any existing tax categories to map to (IRS Schedule C categories, or custom)? Hard deadline, or scoped to 'whenever it's solid'?
SUCCESS DEFINITION: Is success 'user manually confirms categorization is right' or 'categorization accuracy hits X% without user correction'?

(after answers) Proceeding: USD only, IRS Schedule C categories, no hard deadline, success = 90%+ auto-categorization accuracy without correction."

Why it works

A single batched list costs you one interruption instead of five staggered ones, and forces the agent to distinguish "actually blocking" ambiguity from things it could reasonably infer, so you're not fielding lazy questions it should have answered itself.