From Request to Business Question

Rohan walks over to Ishaan's desk: "I need all the Instagram data." Ishaan could export every post, like and ad for the last year. Rohan would scroll through it, feel busy, and decide nothing. Requests arrive as requests for data. Your job is to turn them back into the question underneath.

The rule

Ask for the decision before you ask for the data.

A request names the data someone thinks they need. A business question names the decision it serves, so you can judge which data really matters. A useful template:

To decide [decision], [who] needs [KPI] by [breakdown], compared with [baseline], over [time window], by [deadline].

Each slot guards against a common failure:

• Decision stops you building something nobody will use.
• Who tells you the level of detail and the language to use.
• KPI forces one measurable target instead of "all the data".
• Breakdown says how to slice it: by channel, by warehouse, by product.
• Baseline answers "compared with what?", because a number alone is not good or bad.
• Time window and deadline set how much history you need and when the answer stops being useful.

A second tool is the so-what test: ask "What will you do if the answer is high? And if it is low?" If both answers lead to the same action, the question does not need a report.

The shortcut

Ask one question, then fill the template from the answer: "What will you do differently depending on what this shows?"

Instead of a year of posts, Ishaan now builds one small table. The request shrank and the value grew.

Drills

Answer fast — trust the rule.

Remember

• Ask for the decision before you ask for the data.
• "What will you do differently depending on what this shows?" Then fill the template.
• Trap: exporting "all the data", which feels helpful and decides nothing.