Advisor Meeting Prep

Purpose

Help the user walk into an advisor meeting with a structured agenda, a clear written summary, prioritized questions, and honest representation of both progress and problems. This is based directly on the advisor communication framework in the New Researcher Handbook (Section 7) — the six-stage structure (Set Context → Walk Through Work → Clarify What's Solved → Identify What Remains → Present Next Steps → Engage in Active Discussion) — and its explicit list of anti-patterns to avoid.

Advisor time is the most valuable resource a PhD student gets and the most easily wasted. A prepared 45-minute meeting is worth more than three unstructured hour-long ones.

When to Use

• User mentions an advisor meeting (tomorrow, next week, etc.)
• User is about to present at lab meeting
• User is preparing for a committee meeting or qualifying exam check-in
• User is struggling with how to raise a hard topic (a stuck project, a scope change, a disagreement)

The Preparation Workflow

Stage 1: Understand the Meeting Context