skills/meeting-prep/references/question-and-evidence-bank.md

# Question and evidence-request bank

## Table of contents
1. Question design rules
2. Question matrix format
3. Universal finance question categories
4. Evidence request patterns
5. Weak questions to avoid
6. Escalation prompts

## 1. Question design rules
Good meeting questions are pointed, evidence-seeking, and decision-linked. For every key question, know why it matters.

Use this hierarchy:
1. decision-critical questions;
2. questions that validate or invalidate the thesis;
3. questions that expose downside, fraud, data quality, or execution risk;
4. questions that clarify process, ownership, or timing;
5. background questions only if needed.

Avoid asking questions that can be answered from available sources unless the goal is to test consistency, credibility, or judgment.

## 2. Question matrix format
Use a matrix when the user needs rigor:

| Priority | Topic | Question | Why it matters | Good answer | Concern answer | Evidence to request | Follow-up |
|---:|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

For shorter prep, use bullets with "why it matters" after each question.

## 3. Universal finance question categories

### Business model and market
- What are the two or three drivers that most explain growth over the last 12-24 months?
- Which customer segments or channels are growing fastest, and which are deteriorating?
- What competitor behavior has changed most recently?
- What is the clearest evidence that the market is expanding versus the company taking share?

### Revenue quality
- How much growth is volume, price, mix, new logo, retention, upsell, usage, or acquisition driven?
- What portion of revenue is recurring, contracted, usage-based, transactional, seasonal, or non-recurring?
- Where are bookings, backlog, ARR/MRR, pipeline, or revenue recognition not comparable across periods?
- What customer or contract cohorts are performing materially better or worse than plan?

### Customer and sales motion
- What are the largest customer concentration risks and renewal dates?
- What is the sales cycle by segment, and how has it changed?
- What are win rates, loss reasons, discounting, implementation time, and ramp times?
- Where is pipeline quality strongest and weakest?

### Margins and operating leverage
- What explains margin movement: price, mix, labor, input cost, utilization, cloud/hosting, procurement, freight, or one-time items?
- Which costs are truly variable versus fixed or step-function?
- What cost actions are available in a downside case, and what growth would they impair?
- Where are current margins above or below normalized potential?

### Cash flow, working capital, capex, and liquidity
- What drove cash conversion relative to EBITDA or net income?
- Which working-capital movements are timing versus structural?
- What capex is maintenance versus growth?
- What liquidity stress case has management modeled, and what actions are available?

### Non-GAAP and adjustment quality
- Which adjustments are recurring, discretionary, one-time, run-rate, or unsupported?
- Which revenue or cost items are subject to recognition, deferral, capitalization, or comparability judgment?
- How do reported EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, Street EBITDA, and internal-case EBITDA differ?
- Which adjustments would fail under auditor, SEC, investor, or Credit Markets or equity-investor scrutiny?

### Valuation, returns, and downside
- What assumptions drive most of the valuation or return outcome?
- What is the breakeven revenue, margin, exit multiple, leverage, or cost of capital?
- What downside scenario is realistic rather than punitive?
- What would make the investment unfinanceable, unattractive, or non-actionable?

### Management credibility and incentives
- What has management consistently under- or over-forecasted?
- What incentives could bias the story?
- What examples show operational discipline, customer insight, or capital allocation judgment?
- What would management do differently with unlimited capital versus constrained capital?

### Process and decision mechanics
- Who is the decision-maker, who can block, and what is the approval path?
- What is the next decision gate and what evidence is needed before it?
- What are the timing constraints, confidentiality issues, and communication rules?
- What would cause the process to stop?

## 4. Evidence request patterns
Separate asks by timing and burden.

### Pre-meeting asks
Use for documents that materially improve the call:
- latest filing, earnings release, transcript, investor presentation, KPI supplement, guidance bridge, or model output;
- customer concentration, cohort, churn, renewal, backlog, bookings, or pipeline data;
- debt schedule, covenant/indenture extracts if public or user-provided, liquidity forecast, capex plan, credit rating report, or maturity schedule;
- management bios, org chart, sales pipeline, product roadmap, litigation/regulatory summary when relevant and source-backed.

### In-meeting asks
Use for judgment, explanation, and prioritization:
- what changed, why it changed, and how management knows;
- which assumptions management has the least confidence in;
- which issues are most likely to surprise investors, PMs, credit investors, or the committee;
- what evidence management would provide to prove the claim.

### Post-meeting asks
Use for follow-through:
- specific support file, source data, bridge, tie-out, or owner;
- deadline and format;
- who is responsible;
- what decision the ask supports.

## 5. Weak questions to avoid
Replace generic questions with specific ones.

- Weak: "What keeps you up at night?"
  Better: "Which KPI in the latest forecast has the widest downside range, and what operational trigger would tell us by mid-quarter that plan is at risk?"

- Weak: "How is the pipeline?"
  Better: "What percent of next-quarter pipeline is committed versus best case, how does that compare with the last four quarters, and what is the conversion rate by segment?"

- Weak: "Can you talk about margins?"
  Better: "How much of the 300 bps margin improvement is price/mix versus one-time cost actions, and which portion should we underwrite as recurring?"

- Weak: "What are the risks?"
  Better: "What is the single assumption in our base case you would be least comfortable underwriting, and what data would change your view?"

## 6. Escalation prompts
Escalate or caveat when questions touch:
- material non-public information, selective disclosure, or trading restrictions;
- privileged, confidential, or competitively sensitive information;
- legal, regulatory, antitrust, sanctions, tax, accounting, or audit issues requiring specialist review;
- employee, customer, patient, or personal data;
- topics that should not be asked in an expert call or external meeting.