Role-specific questions
The same report. Different useful questions.
Use role-specific ChatGPT and Claude prompts to examine the same report from board, finance, operations, research and customer perspectives.
Updated
Choose the lens that matches your responsibility
The role is a way to prioritise questions, not permission to invent expertise. A manager should still inspect evidence and consult qualified specialists where needed. The following lenses are editorial frameworks you can adapt to a real decision.
| Role | Priority question | Evidence to request |
|---|---|---|
| Board / leadership | What decision needs oversight, and what could fail? | Strategic assumptions, downside scenarios and accountability |
| Finance | Which costs and returns depend on uncertain assumptions? | Time period, cash timing, units and sensitivity calculations |
| Operations | Can we implement this with our actual capacity? | Dependencies, owners, sequencing and resource constraints |
| Research / analysis | Does the method support the conclusion? | Definitions, sampling, comparison and missing observations |
| Customer-facing team | What changes for the customer? | Service impact, promised outcomes and unresolved exceptions |
A finance lens
A positive return can depend on a projected adoption rate or cost excluded from the headline. Ask for the arithmetic, the assumptions and the timing of cash flows. Keep this as analytical preparation, not a substitute for professional financial judgement.
Review the report's cost and benefit model for our finance discussion. Reconstruct the calculations from the supplied figures. Separate one-off and recurring costs, identify omitted categories and show sensitivity to the two largest assumptions. Flag missing inputs rather than estimating them silently.
An operations lens
A recommendation that is sound in principle may fail during handover. Identify the work, people and dependencies it assumes. Ask what has to happen first, where the bottleneck lies and which small trial could reduce uncertainty.
Read this report as the person responsible for implementation. Convert the recommendation into prerequisites, tasks, owners and dependencies. Mark any resource assumption that the report does not justify. Propose a pilot with a measurable stopping or expansion decision.
An analyst's lens
Separate the report's method from the persuasiveness of its writing. Check whether claims refer to the population actually observed. Test whether the result survives plausible alternative definitions and whether the evidence supports causality or only association.
Evaluate the method supporting [conclusion]. Identify the unit of analysis, population, period, comparison and exclusions. Explain which claims the design can support and which need a stronger design. Give three precise questions for the report's analyst.
A board member's lens
Oversight is not the same as rewriting the operational plan. Ask which decision requires approval, what risk the organisation would accept and who is accountable for the assumptions. Distinguish a reversible experiment from an irreversible commitment.
Prepare a board discussion note from this report. Identify the decision requested, alternatives, material assumptions, downside scenarios and proposed accountability. Separate matters requiring board judgement from operational details. Cite the evidence and list three questions whose answers could change the decision. Do not treat management's preferred option as the only viable option.
A customer-facing team's lens
An internal recommendation can create a promise the organisation cannot deliver. Read the report for changes to response times, eligibility, pricing or support. Ask which customer groups face exceptions and what colleagues need to explain honestly.
Review this report from our customer-service perspective. Identify proposed changes that customers would notice, promises that require verification and exceptions the report does not resolve. Draft an internal FAQ using only supported facts. Mark unanswered questions for the responsible owner rather than filling them with reassuring language.
Common questions
Should I ask for every role in one analysis?
Only if the decision needs them. Start with your own responsibility, then add a second perspective to expose an important blind spot.
Keep exploring
About this workflow
This is an original AI-assisted editorial workflow. Illustrative scenarios are not customer case studies, and the prompts have not been systematically evaluated on live models. Check consequential outputs against your sources and use qualified review where needed.