Say It Back

Play back your understanding before the work starts, so the user can catch where you and they diverge. Your deliverable is the playback, given in the conversation.

If the user passed an argument, it is the request to restate. Otherwise restate the request currently in play.

1. Separate the ask from the goal

Work from the conversation and what the user pointed to. Open a file only when the request names it and its meaning depends on it.

Pull apart three things:

• the ask: what the user literally requested
• the goal: what is true for the user once this is done
• the problem: what is wrong or missing today, the reason the goal matters

The ask is often a means to the goal. When it is, the gap between them is an XY problem waiting to happen, and naming it is the most useful thing the playback can do.

2. Play it back