1 min lesson
Scope the ask before you build the metric
Tell someone how to act on this idea: "Plan mode ships with an ask-clarification tool that surfaces questions before it builds."
Step 1 of 2
Scope the ask before you build the metricclarify, then implement
Half the bad metrics come from a vague request answered too fast. "Build me a reliability chart" hides a dozen decisions: which population, which window, how to handle multiple user IDs, which domains to include. The strongest practitioners force those decisions to the surface before they write a line of query.
Cursor bakes this in. Plan modeA mode that makes no edits: it researches the codebase and produces an editable plan you review before any code changes. Press Enter for the full definition. ships with an ask-clarification tool that surfaces questions before it builds - it triggers on its own when a prompt is vague, or you can invoke it explicitly. One DS leans on it hard enough that they wrote a skill to make it non-optional.
It surfaced exactly the questions a metric owner should ask first - how should charts handle multiple user IDs, which extra domains to include - before drawing anything.
“I actually have a skill that tells Cursor that anytime you use plan mode, ask me at least six or seven questions before going in and making the plan.”