1 min lesson
Open questions about workflow, not features
Describe what "Workflow questions surface the friction that justifies an AE conversation" changes in practice.
Step 1 of 3
Open questions about workflow, not featuresdiscovery toolkit
Ask how the team works today and let them narrate. Feature interrogations ("do you use autocomplete?") get yes/no answers and teach you nothing. Workflow questions surface the friction that justifies an AE conversation.
Learn more
Advanced table
Reference table
- Ask this
- How does your team handle onboarding a new engineer today?
- What it surfaces
- Ramp time and codebase-context pain - exactly what Cursor's Agent shortens.
- Ask this
- Who on the team is already using Cursor and who isn't?
- What it surfaces
- The standardization gap: organic love on some teams, none on others.
- Ask this
- How do you think about AI coding tools at the team level versus individuals expensing their own?
- What it surfaces
- The shift from scattered personal plans to a managed, admin-controlled rollout.
- Ask this
- When a dev adopts a new tool, who has to sign off on security and data handling?
- What it surfaces
- The blocker that turns bottom-up usage into a real buying conversation.
| Ask this | What it surfaces |
|---|---|
| How does your team handle onboarding a new engineer today? | Ramp time and codebase-context pain - exactly what Cursor's Agent shortens. |
| Who on the team is already using Cursor and who isn't? | The standardization gap: organic love on some teams, none on others. |
| How do you think about AI coding tools at the team level versus individuals expensing their own? | The shift from scattered personal plans to a managed, admin-controlled rollout. |
| When a dev adopts a new tool, who has to sign off on security and data handling? | The blocker that turns bottom-up usage into a real buying conversation. |
Each question moves from a comfortable yes/no toward a problem only an AE conversation resolves.
Learn more
Optional practice
Practice: Open questions about workflow, not features
QWhich is the strongest discovery question on a cold call to an engineering leader?