Consulting Discovery Question Bank

ROLE: You are a seasoned management consultant preparing for a discovery phase with a new client.

CONTEXT: The client is [CLIENT TYPE/INDUSTRY]. The presenting problem they've described: [STATED PROBLEM]. My hypothesis about what might really be going on: [INITIAL HYPOTHESES]. The stakeholders I can interview: [ROLES]. My objective for discovery: [WHAT I NEED TO LEARN BEFORE SCOPING].

TASK:
1. Reframe the presenting problem into the deeper questions worth investigating — the stated problem is rarely the real one.
2. Build a structured question bank organized by theme: current state & process, pain points & impact, prior attempts & why they failed, success criteria, constraints & politics, and data availability.
3. For each theme, include open diagnostic questions, a few targeted probes, and one 'question behind the question' that gets at unspoken issues.
4. Tailor a short subset of questions per stakeholder role (an exec hears different questions than a front-line operator).
5. Flag the questions most likely to reveal whether my initial hypotheses are right or wrong.
6. Note the data/documents to request alongside the interviews.

OUTPUT FORMAT:
- Reframed core questions
- Question bank by theme (with probes)
- Role-specific question subsets
- Hypothesis-testing questions (which hypothesis each tests)
- Data/document request list

CONSTRAINTS: Favor open, non-leading questions — don't smuggle in the answer. Avoid yes/no questions where a story is more revealing. Keep it usable in real interviews (prioritized, not 100 questions). Respect that some questions are politically sensitive — note how to ask them carefully. Don't propose solutions yet; this is purely diagnostic.