1 min lesson
Mock discovery rep
Explain the practical point behind "Discovery is the deliverable, not the warm-up."
Step 1 of 3
Discovery is the deliverable, not the warm-up. If you mishear Northwind's real bottleneck here, every later artifact aims at the wrong target. You are not gathering ammunition for a pitch. You are reconstructing how this org ships software in their own words.
Treat the rubric as a gap finder, not a score to admire. Mark the weakest proof, turn it into one practice rep and keep the artifact you would show an interviewer.
Three audiences, three different conversations. Developers feel the workflow friction. The platform team owns the gates. Leadership owns the outcome and the money. Ask the same generic questions across all three and you learn nothing precise.
Learn more
Advanced table
Twelve questions across four stakeholder types
- Stakeholder
- Developer (payments squad)
- Question
- Walk me through the last change you shipped - where did it sit waiting?
- What it's really for
- Surface the concrete bottleneck worth money, in their language.
- Stakeholder
- Developer
- Question
- What are you using Cursor for today that Copilot didn't give you?
- What it's really for
- Find the wedge that already works, the thing you scale.
- Stakeholder
- Developer
- Question
- Where do you still not trust AI output and why?
- What it's really for
- Locate the trust line so the demo respects it instead of fighting it.
- Stakeholder
- Principal engineer
- Question
- What did the Copilot rollout actually prove or disprove for you?
- What it's really for
- Hear the real objection before you have to handle it live.
- Stakeholder
- Principal engineer
- Question
- If AI authored 30% of a PR, what would have to be true for you to merge it?
- What it's really for
- Convert “AI writes bad code” into testable, reviewable conditions.
- Stakeholder
- Platform team
- Question
- What is your bar for any tool that sees source code and who signs off?
- What it's really for
- Lock the privacy / ZDRZero Data Retention. A contractual guarantee that the model provider won't store your code or train on it. Press Enter for the full definition. / model-routing requirements explicitly.
- Stakeholder
- Platform team
- Question
- How does SSOSingle Sign-On. One company login (usually via SAML or OIDC) instead of a separate password per tool. Press Enter for the full definition./SCIMSystem for Cross-domain Identity Management. A standard for automatically creating and removing user accounts when people join or leave. Press Enter for the full definition. provisioning work for your sanctioned dev tools today?
- What it's really for
- Scope the SSOSingle Sign-On. One company login (usually via SAML or OIDC) instead of a separate password per tool. Press Enter for the full definition./SAMLSecurity Assertion Markup Language. The XML-era enterprise standard that powers single sign-on: your identity provider vouches for you to each app. Older than OIDC but still what many enterprise tools speak. Press Enter for the full definition. + SCIMSystem for Cross-domain Identity Management. A standard for automatically creating and removing user accounts when people join or leave. Press Enter for the full definition. migration off self-serve seats.
- Stakeholder
- Platform team
- Question
- What admin controls and audit visibility would you need before approving expansion?
- What it's really for
- Pre-empt the governance review you'll run in section 4.
- Stakeholder
- VP Eng
- Question
- Which metric, if it moved, would make this obviously worth doing?
- What it's really for
- Define the success criteria you'll instrument, not invent.
- Stakeholder
- VP Eng
- Question
- What would make you kill this in quarter two?
- What it's really for
- Surface the disqualifiers early so the pilot can address them.
- Stakeholder
- CTO
- Question
- What does “all-in on AI-native development” look like if it works?
- What it's really for
- Pin the vision to something measurable and board-presentable.
- Stakeholder
- CTO
- Question
- Who, besides you, has to believe this for it to survive a budget cycle?
- What it's really for
- Map the buying committee and find your champion candidate.
| Stakeholder | Question | What it's really for |
|---|---|---|
| Developer (payments squad) | Walk me through the last change you shipped - where did it sit waiting? | Surface the concrete bottleneck worth money, in their language. |
| Developer | What are you using Cursor for today that Copilot didn't give you? | Find the wedge that already works, the thing you scale. |
| Developer | Where do you still not trust AI output and why? | Locate the trust line so the demo respects it instead of fighting it. |
| Principal engineer | What did the Copilot rollout actually prove or disprove for you? | Hear the real objection before you have to handle it live. |
| Principal engineer | If AI authored 30% of a PR, what would have to be true for you to merge it? | Convert “AI writes bad code” into testable, reviewable conditions. |
| Platform team | What is your bar for any tool that sees source code and who signs off? | Lock the privacy / ZDRZero Data Retention. A contractual guarantee that the model provider won't store your code or train on it. Press Enter for the full definition. / model-routing requirements explicitly. |
| Platform team | How does SSOSingle Sign-On. One company login (usually via SAML or OIDC) instead of a separate password per tool. Press Enter for the full definition./SCIMSystem for Cross-domain Identity Management. A standard for automatically creating and removing user accounts when people join or leave. Press Enter for the full definition. provisioning work for your sanctioned dev tools today? | Scope the SSOSingle Sign-On. One company login (usually via SAML or OIDC) instead of a separate password per tool. Press Enter for the full definition./SAMLSecurity Assertion Markup Language. The XML-era enterprise standard that powers single sign-on: your identity provider vouches for you to each app. Older than OIDC but still what many enterprise tools speak. Press Enter for the full definition. + SCIMSystem for Cross-domain Identity Management. A standard for automatically creating and removing user accounts when people join or leave. Press Enter for the full definition. migration off self-serve seats. |
| Platform team | What admin controls and audit visibility would you need before approving expansion? | Pre-empt the governance review you'll run in section 4. |
| VP Eng | Which metric, if it moved, would make this obviously worth doing? | Define the success criteria you'll instrument, not invent. |
| VP Eng | What would make you kill this in quarter two? | Surface the disqualifiers early so the pilot can address them. |
| CTO | What does “all-in on AI-native development” look like if it works? | Pin the vision to something measurable and board-presentable. |
| CTO | Who, besides you, has to believe this for it to survive a budget cycle? | Map the buying committee and find your champion candidate. |
Twelve questions across four stakeholder types. Tag every answer: fact, hypothesis or unknown.