Questions to Ask a Presenter
Questions to ask a presenter after a presentation, whether that was a conference session, a lecture, a webinar or a slide deck in a business meeting. They start with openers that work after any talk, then check that you understood, test the evidence, turn the idea into something you can use, ask how the work was done and close the session. Some are written for a person presenting a research article that somebody else wrote, as at a journal club or in a seminar, and the guide picks five to ask after a lecture.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Openers
What's the one point you'd want us to walk out remembering?
Why ask it
It makes the presenter rank their own material out loud. When the answer is not the part the slides dwelt on longest, believe the answer and reread your notes with it in mind.
What surprised you while you were putting this together?
Why ask it
It works after almost any talk and is hard to answer with a stock line, because it asks for something that happened. The surprise has one advantage over the headline finding: nobody went looking for it, so it was not shaped to fit the argument.
What do people most often misunderstand about this?
Why ask it
You hear the correction before you carry the mistake back to your own team. Sometimes the misreading they describe is the one sitting in your notes, which is as much as a single question can do for you.
Where does this approach stop working?
Why ask it
People who have used a method for a while can usually name the conditions it fails under: too little data, too big a team, the wrong kind of customer. If the answer is that it works everywhere, ask where it has been tried so far.
If someone here wanted to try this next week, what's the first step?
Why ask it
A talk about a big change comes down to one action you could take on Monday. The answer also shows how much was already in place for the presenter: a first step that needs a budget, a tool or a specialist is not a first step for most of the room.
What did you cut for time, and what was in it?
Why ask it
Caveats and failed attempts tend to go first when a talk has to fit a slot, and those may be exactly what a practitioner wants. The cut slides usually still exist, so it is reasonable to ask for them afterwards.
What first got you working on this topic?
Why ask it
The easiest question here to ask, and a good one when the room has gone quiet and somebody has to go first. It usually gets a short story in reply, and the harder questions go down better once the room has warmed up.
Clarifying
Could you say more about [a point they went through quickly]?
Why ask it
The plainest question in any Q&A, and often the right one. Name the exact point, such as the second reason or the last line on the pricing slide, so the presenter expands on that and does not start the whole section again.
Could you go back to the slide on [topic]? I want to be sure I read it correctly.
Why ask it
Charts go past faster than anyone can read both axes. Asking to see one again costs the room thirty seconds. You are rarely the only person who missed it.
Can you walk us through one real example from start to finish?
Why ask it
A principle sounds persuasive until you try to picture it on an ordinary working day. One case told in order shows the steps the summary skipped. If time is short, ask for a typical case, not their best one.
How are you defining [a key term] here?
Why ask it
Words like engagement, quality or risk mean something different in every team, and a whole talk can turn on which meaning was intended. Ask it early in the Q&A, because the answer changes how you read everything else.
Let me check I have this right: are you saying [your one-sentence summary]?
Why ask it
Putting the argument in your own words lets the presenter correct you before you repeat a wrong version to colleagues. Hold the summary to one sentence. Any longer and you become the second speaker of the session.
Earlier you said [one thing], and later [another]. How do those two fit together?
Why ask it
Most apparent contradictions in a talk turn out to be a missing step, and this gives the presenter room to supply it. Quote both statements as closely as you can and keep the tone curious, because asked sharply it sounds like an attempt to catch them out.
How is this different from [the approach most people here already use]?
Why ask it
A new idea is easiest to judge against the thing it would replace. If the difference comes down to a new name for an old practice, you have just saved yourself a pilot project.
How does this connect to what we covered earlier in the course?
Why ask it
A question for the end of a lecture, where each session is one piece of a longer argument. Name the earlier topic if you can, since "how does this relate to last week's model" gets a sharper answer than a general request for the big picture.
What question was the article trying to answer, in one sentence?
Why ask it
Start here when a classmate or colleague is presenting a research article they did not write. Summaries of papers tend to open with the method, and the question it was built to answer can go unsaid for ten minutes. If the presenter struggles to put it in a sentence, that may be the paper's fault and not theirs.
Evidence
Which of your numbers are you most confident in, and which is the roughest?
Why ask it
Decks mix measured figures with estimates, and on a slide they look the same. Having the presenter rank them tells you which ones are safe to repeat in your own report and which need a caveat.
Where does the data behind [that chart] come from, and how recent is it?
Why ask it
Name the chart so the answer covers one source and not the whole deck. Listen for who collected it, how many cases it rests on and when. A survey of the presenter's own customers can still be useful, but it answers a narrower question than the slide title may suggest.
What were you comparing against when you say it improved?
Why ask it
An improvement is only as meaningful as its baseline. Better than last year and better than a group that changed nothing are different claims, and a slide seldom says which one is on the chart.
Which assumption in that forecast is carrying the most weight?
Why ask it
Made for a business presentation with a projection in it: a sales plan, a budget, a case for hiring. Every forecast leans on a few inputs, such as a growth rate or a price, and the useful thing to hear is what the bottom line looks like if the heaviest one turns out wrong.
Which other explanations for that result did you rule out?
Why ask it
A figure that rose after a change may also have risen with the season, a price cut or a new hire. Which of those were checked, and how, tells you more about the work than a confident delivery does.
Who took part in the study, and who is missing from it?
Why ask it
A finding belongs to the people or cases that were studied. If they were undergraduates at one university or customers who answered an email, ask how far the presenter thinks the result stretches beyond them.
How big was the effect, in terms someone outside the field could picture?
Why ask it
A result can clear a statistical test and still be too small to matter in practice. Asking for it in plain units, such as minutes saved or points on a test, separates the two.
What do the authors themselves say are the limitations?
Why ask it
Most papers have a limitations paragraph near the end, and it is the first thing a short summary drops. The follow-up is whether the presenter thinks the authors were hard enough on themselves.
Has anyone repeated the study, or published a reply to it?
Why ask it
One article is one result. A presenter who looked up what came afterwards can say whether later work agreed, and one who did not has a clear next step for the reading group.
How much of this have you seen work outside your own organization?
Why ask it
One success in one place is a result; the same thing working in three places starts to look like a method. When it has only been tried at home, the thing to find out is what was unusual about home: the budget, the backing from above, data they already had.
What has happened since the results you showed?
Why ask it
Conference material can be months old by the time it is presented, and later results, including the disappointing ones, may tell you more than the version tidied for the slides.
How does [a recent development, such as a new rule or tool] change what you've shown us?
Why ask it
Slides are usually finished well before the session, so last month's news may not be in them. Name the development exactly, and treat the reply as a first reaction: the presenter may not have had time to think it through.
Which slide gets the most pushback when you present this?
Why ask it
Asking it this way is a friendlier route to the contested claim than challenging it yourself, because the presenter gets to name it. Then ask what the objection is and whether it has changed the slide.
What's the strongest argument against your conclusion?
Why ask it
Listen for whether the objection is put in a form the people who hold it would recognize. If it comes back as a caricature, follow up with a specific objection you have heard and ask about that one.
What would change your mind about this?
Why ask it
It asks the presenter to name evidence that would count against them, which is hard to do on the spot, so allow a pause. A specific answer, such as the result failing to repeat in a second group, is something you can go and look for.
What would you need, that you don't have yet, to answer that properly?
Why ask it
Use it the moment a presenter says they don't know yet. It treats the gap as a shared problem and not an accusation, and the answer may be a particular dataset, budget or permission that someone in the room can help with.
Using it
How would this work in [your setting, such as a school or a small firm]?
Why ask it
The talk was built on the presenter's setting, so give them yours in a few words and let them do the translating. Keep the description to one clause, since the room wants the answer and not your organization chart. If they have never seen it tried there, that is worth knowing too.
What kind of problem would show whether we've understood today's lecture?
Why ask it
Following a lecture and being able to use it are different things, and a lecturer usually knows the exercise that tells them apart. It is also a politer way of asking what the assessment will expect, and it tends to get a fuller reply.
Who is this not for?
Why ask it
Save it for a product demo or a methods talk, where the pitch is aimed at everyone in the room. A named group, such as teams under five people or anyone without a few years of records, saves that group a wasted trial.
What did this cost, in time or money, to get to where it is now?
Why ask it
The figure is rarely in the talk, and it decides whether you can copy the approach. If the presenter cannot share an amount, ask for the shape of it: how many people, for how many months.
What did you measure to decide it was working?
Why ask it
You can copy a named measure, but not a general sense that things got better. Then ask when that measure first moved, since that is how long you would have to defend the project before it showed anything.
Where would someone trying to repeat this get stuck?
Why ask it
Most projects have one bottleneck: access to the data, a single approval, one person who had to be persuaded. Ask how long they were held up there and you have a realistic addition to your own timeline.
What skills or tools would we need that we probably don't have yet?
Why ask it
Talks tend to come from teams that already had the specialist, the software license or the clean data, and it is cheaper to learn that in the Q&A than in the second month of trying.
What would you keep and what would you drop for a team a tenth the size?
Why ask it
Most audiences have less money, fewer people or less authority than the presenter's own setup. Stripping the idea down shows which parts carry the weight and which were only there because the budget allowed them.
How did you get people in your organization to agree to it?
Why ask it
The method is usually the easier half, and getting it approved is the half the slides leave out. Listen for who objected and what won them over, whether a pilot, a cost figure or a sponsor higher up, because that part travels to other organizations.
We tried something like this before and it didn't last. What's different about your approach?
Why ask it
Most rooms hold a veteran of the last attempt, and the doubt is fair. Say in one line what was tried and why it stalled. The most useful replies begin by asking you what went wrong that time.
What risk worries you most if we go ahead with this?
Why ask it
This belongs after a proposal or a pitch, where the slides are built to persuade. Once a risk is named, ask what the first warning sign would be and who would be watching for it.
What would have to give way to make room for this?
Why ask it
New work is usually presented as an addition, and the same people are expected to absorb it. A presenter who has thought it through can name the report, the meeting or the project that gets dropped. A blank look means the cost has not been counted yet.
What happens if we decide to do nothing?
Why ask it
Proposals compare the plan with a better future, seldom with leaving things alone. Sometimes doing nothing is cheap and safe for another year, sometimes it has a deadline of its own, and the room should know which before it decides.
What do you need from the people in this room?
Why ask it
Built for internal briefings and project updates, which often end without the request they were written to make. A plain answer, whether a decision, a budget line or simply patience, spares everyone a week of follow-up email.
What happens next, and when would we hear about it?
Why ask it
Work presentations tend to end with thanks and then silence, because nobody said who does what by when. If the presenter has no date in mind, suggesting one yourself is a fair follow-up.
Behind the work
Which part of this was hardest to get right?
Why ask it
Slides show the finished result and leave out the effort, so the real difficulty only comes out when you ask. If the hard part turns out to be the step you were planning to skip, rethink the plan.
Why did you go with [their method] and not [the obvious alternative]?
Why ask it
A standard question at research talks and design reviews, and a fair one. The reason may be principled, or it may be that the other option cost too much or the data was not there. Both are worth knowing before you copy the choice.
Who else worked on this, and what did they contribute?
Why ask it
The person presenting is often not the person who ran the analysis or built the tool. Names give you someone to write to when your question is too detailed for the room. The team gets a moment of credit, too.
What did you set out to find, and is that what you ended up presenting?
Why ask it
Projects drift, and the gap between the original question and the final talk can be the most honest part of the story. When the aim changed, the reason matters: a dead end, a better question and a deadline are three different stories.
Was there an earlier version of this that didn't work?
Why ask it
The abandoned attempt often explains a design choice that looks arbitrary on the slides, and it seldom makes the talk unless someone asks.
Whose work has most shaped how you think about this?
Why ask it
You get one or two names to read without asking for a bibliography. It also places the talk: knowing which tradition or team the presenter learned from explains what they treated as too obvious to say.
What did you believe about this a year ago that you no longer believe?
Why ask it
A year is short enough that the answer is about this project and not a whole career. A changed belief usually arrives with the evidence that changed it, and that is the part to write down.
What would you do differently if you were starting again today?
Why ask it
Ask for one change rather than a list, otherwise the answer becomes a summary of everything they learned. The single thing they would change is usually the sharpest advice available in the room.
Why did you choose this article to present?
Why ask it
For a journal club or a seminar where the presenter picked the paper. The reason, whether a method worth borrowing, a result that contradicts the textbook or a link to their own project, tells the group what to take from it.
Having read it closely, how convinced are you by the article?
Why ask it
Someone presenting other people's research can be franker than the authors would be. Ask where they hesitated while reading, because a plain yes or no helps nobody and a specific doubt gives the discussion somewhere to start.
Closers
What's your advice for someone coming to this for the first time?
Why ask it
It suits a room of students or people new to the field. Ask for the first thing to learn or the first mistake to avoid, because advice requested in general tends to come back as encouragement.
Where should someone look next if they want more than a summary?
Why ask it
Asking the person gets you the source they rely on, which a search will not pick out for you. Ask for one thing, whether a paper, a book or a dataset: you will read one, and you will not read ten.
What are you planning to look at next?
Why ask it
The answer sorts a finished project from a progress report. If a second phase is planned, ask when its results are due, and you have a natural reason to get back in touch.
How do you expect this to look a few years from now?
Why ask it
Forecasts are cheap, so listen for the reasoning more than the prediction. A good follow-up is what would have to be true for that to happen. That, at least, is something you can watch for.
What part of this are you still unsure about?
Why ask it
Asked near the end, it lets the presenter step out of the pitch for a moment, and whatever they name is the claim to hold loosely when you write up the session.
Which question were you hoping someone would ask today?
Why ask it
Many presenters arrive with an answer ready for a question nobody asks. This hands them the floor for it, and it is a good choice when the chair says there is time for one more.
Can we get a copy of the slides, and is it all right to pass them on?
Why ask it
Worth asking before you photograph every chart from the fourth row. The second half matters more than it sounds, since internal figures and unpublished results often come with limits on who may see them.
What's the best way to follow up on a question that's too specific for the room?
Why ask it
This is the polite exit for the question only you care about. Write down the address they give and send the message within a day or two, while the session is still fresh for both of you.
Asking a Good Question in Q&A
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before You Raise Your Hand
Choose the group before the question
The list runs from Openers through Clarifying, Evidence, Using it and Behind the work to Closers. A short Q&A gives you one turn, so decide during the talk which group you need: Clarifying if you lost the thread, Evidence if you doubt a claim, Using it if you will have to act on what you heard.
Write it down during the talk, with the slide number
Questions formed in the moment come out as three questions in a trench coat. Note the slide you are asking about so you can say "on the chart with the two lines" and the presenter can find it.
One sentence, no preamble
Give your name and organization if the chair asks for them, and nothing more: no history with the topic, no extended compliment. State the question and stop talking, so the time goes to the answer.
Sort your questions by who they serve
Ask the room-sized question at the microphone and save the one about your own edge case for the coffee break. A narrow question usually gets a fuller answer one to one, when the presenter is not watching the clock.
Quote them back before you push
When you want to challenge a claim, start from their words. "You said the effect held for the second cohort as well" gives them a specific thing to confirm or correct, where a loose paraphrase gets you a correction of the paraphrase instead of an answer.
In a webinar, type it while the slide is up
Online sessions usually take questions through a chat or Q&A box, and how they are picked depends on the platform and the moderator. Type yours while the relevant slide is still on screen and name the slide in it, because whoever reads it out may do so ten minutes later with no context.
What Not to Do
The comment disguised as a question
If your opening sentence is about your own view, you are making a speech. The presenter has to guess what the question was, and the answer goes to the guess.
The two-part question
Presenters answer the easier half and the harder half quietly disappears. Ask the harder one and hold the other for later.
Pressing a third time
If someone sidesteps twice, they have chosen not to answer, and the reason is often something they cannot say in public, such as a confidential figure or an unpublished result. A third attempt uses up the room's goodwill. Ask privately afterwards instead.
Asking for a recap
A question whose answer was the headline of a slide takes time others wanted, and a neighbor can fill you in afterwards. Going back to a dense chart is different: if you could not read it from your seat, others could not either.
Sequences for Different Sessions
A conference talk with fifteen minutes of Q&A
- 1"What surprised you while you were putting this together?"
- 2"Where does this approach stop working?"
- 3"Which slide gets the most pushback when you present this?"
A talk that lost you halfway through
- 1"Could you go back to the slide on [topic]? I want to be sure I read it correctly."
- 2"How are you defining [a key term] here?"
- 3"Can you walk us through one real example from start to finish?"
A research or methods talk
- 1"Why did you go with [their method] and not [the obvious alternative]?"
- 2"What were you comparing against when you say it improved?"
- 3"Which other explanations for that result did you rule out?"
When someone is presenting a research article
- 1"What question was the article trying to answer, in one sentence?"
- 2"Who took part in the study, and who is missing from it?"
- 3"How big was the effect, in terms someone outside the field could picture?"
- 4"What do the authors themselves say are the limitations?"
- 5"Having read it closely, how convinced are you by the article?"
Five questions to ask after a lecture
- 1"How does this connect to what we covered earlier in the course?"
- 2"How are you defining [a key term] here?"
- 3"Can you walk us through one real example from start to finish?"
- 4"What kind of problem would show whether we've understood today's lecture?"
- 5"Where should someone look next if they want more than a summary?"
A business presentation you may have to act on
- 1"If someone here wanted to try this next week, what's the first step?"
- 2"What did this cost, in time or money, to get to where it is now?"
- 3"Which of your numbers are you most confident in, and which is the roughest?"
- 4"What risk worries you most if we go ahead with this?"
- 5"What do you need from the people in this room?"
Catching the speaker afterwards
- 1"What did you cut for time, and what was in it?"
- 2"Was there an earlier version of this that didn't work?"
- 3"Where should someone look next if they want more than a summary?"