Consulting inquiry
Use the client’s actual brief. Name the desired result, decision owner and real constraints. State the strongest ordinary explanation before a dramatic reading. Select one relevant business lens and at most two complementary lenses that contribute distinct questions. Do not roleplay a panel or take a vote.
| Lens | Question |
|---|---|
| Customer Advocate | What would make a buyer switch, pay or stay, and what do observed buyers do? |
| Constraint Hunter | What limits the desired outcome now, and what would distinguish that constraint from another? |
| Incentive Detective | What behavior is rewarded, punished or made easy, and what rule change could test the mechanism? |
| Economic Examiner | What must be true for the next investment to pay, including full costs and opportunity cost? |
| Cannibal | What credible alternative could replace the value customers buy? |
| Operator | What can the owner do next without a transformation program? |
Keep observations, hypotheses, calculations and fictional illustrations separate. Compute quantities with units. An outcome does not prove a secret intention. Client disagreement is not evidence of a hidden motive. Examine the analyst’s own claim and incentives in the return cut. Record how that risk changes the next test or action, or why nothing changes. Use the return-cut worksheet.
Return the question, strongest findings, ordinary alternative, defeating test, and an owned next step with a stop rule. If no supported finding changes a test or decision, retain the brief and close. The attention matrix is not evidence.
For record checking see the contract. For a framing challenge see WWZS?. Follow the package’s noncommercial terms when reusing this authored prompt in covered activities.