Questions to Ask a Guest Speaker
The general set, aimed at the argument rather than the person making it. Use these when you came for the subject and want to find out how solid the case is: where the evidence sits, who disagrees, what is still unsettled. If you are chairing the session rather than sitting in it, the moderator questions on Questions to Ask Guest Speaker suit that job better, and a careers visit is served by the working-life questions on Good Questions to Ask Guest Speakers.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What made you interested in this subject in the first place?
Why ask it
An easy opener that gets a personal answer rather than a rehearsed one, and it often produces the story the prepared talk left out.
What is the part of your talk that people most often misunderstand?
Why ask it
Lets the speaker correct the room's likely misreading while it is still fresh, which is more useful than a general request to clarify.
Which part of your case rests on the weakest evidence?
Why ask it
Marks the line between what is demonstrated and what is inference, which slides tend to blur. Honest speakers welcome the question because it stops them being overquoted later.
How do you know that? Where does the evidence come from?
Why ask it
Asked politely, this is a fair and important question. A confident speaker will name the source; an evasive answer tells you how much weight to give the claim.
What do people who disagree with you say, and what is their strongest point?
Why ask it
Asking for the best version of the opposing case, rather than any objection, is what separates a thinker from an advocate. Dismissing critics wholesale is a warning.
What is still genuinely unsettled in your field?
Why ask it
Reveals the live edge of the subject rather than the settled summary, and it is often where an audience finds something worth pursuing.
What have you changed your mind about?
Why ask it
A specific reversal, and the reason for it, tells you far more about someone's judgment than a list of their conclusions.
What is the most common mistake people make when they first try this?
Why ask it
Turns expertise into something usable. The answer is usually specific and practical in a way that general advice is not.
What is a question in your field that you cannot answer?
Why ask it
Willingness to say I do not know is a good measure of how reliable the rest of the talk was.
What would change your view on this?
Why ask it
If nothing would, you are hearing a position rather than an argument. A specific answer shows the thinking is still open.
What does your argument not explain?
Why ask it
Every account has a residue it cannot cover. Someone working seriously on a problem knows exactly where that edge is; someone repeating a position will tell you it explains everything.
What has surprised you most in the last few years of doing this?
Why ask it
Surprise marks where reality departed from expectation, which is often where the interesting material sits.
What should someone read next if they want to go deeper?
Why ask it
Gets you a recommendation from someone who knows the field rather than a search result. Ask why that one, since the reason usually tells you where to start.
How would you explain this to someone who thinks it does not affect them?
Why ask it
Forces the speaker to make the case from scratch, and the version they produce is usually clearer than the talk.
What is overhyped in your field right now?
Why ask it
Practitioners tend to answer this candidly and it is rarely covered from the stage. It also helps an audience calibrate what they read elsewhere.
What did you have to unlearn from your training?
Why ask it
Names the gap between what is taught and what turns out to be true in practice, which is exactly what a general audience cannot find out on their own.
Who is doing work in this area that we should be paying attention to?
Why ask it
Directs the room to other voices, and a speaker who cannot name anyone outside their own group is worth treating cautiously.
What would you want us to actually do differently after today?
Why ask it
Asks for one action rather than a takeaway. A speaker with nothing specific to offer has given an interesting talk rather than a useful one.
What is a good next question for someone at my level to think about?
Why ask it
Better than asking for general advice, because it hands the speaker a defined job and produces something you can pursue.
What would you rather we checked for ourselves than took on your word?
Why ask it
A closing question that treats the talk as a starting point. The answer is usually a dataset, a document or a claim they know is contested, and it is the most useful thing you can leave with.
Getting value out of a guest talk
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the talk
Find out what they argue, not just who they are
Ten minutes on their published work or a previous talk lets you ask about their actual position. It is the difference between a question they have answered a hundred times and one they have to think about.
Write your question down before the Q and A
Questions formed on the spot tend to come out as three questions in one. A written sentence stays a sentence when you are standing up in a room.
Decide what you want from the session
A reading list, a contact, a decision about your own work. Knowing that in advance changes which question is worth your one turn.
In the Q and A
Skip the preamble
Introducing yourself and summarising your view uses the time and rarely improves the answer. Open with the question.
Ask about the specific, not the general
What is the future of this field gets a vague answer from anyone. What changed your mind in the last two years gets a real one.
Take the disagreement seriously but politely
Challenging a claim is legitimate and speakers usually welcome it. Name the specific point you doubt rather than the whole argument, and ask what the evidence is.
Note the names and sources
The papers, people and tools mentioned in passing are often the most durable thing you take away, and they disappear from memory within a day.
Common mistakes
Making a statement instead of asking
The most common failure in any Q and A. If your question does not end with a question mark, the speaker has nothing to answer.
Asking what a search would answer
Biography, dates and definitions are all available. What is only available in the room is their judgment.
Asking about everything at once
A three-part question gets one part answered, usually the easiest. Choose the part that matters.
Not following up
If they offered contact details, a short and specific message within the week is far more likely to get a reply than a general one later.