1 min lesson
The mock discovery call
Show why this lesson detail matters: "An interviewer plays an engineering-leader buyer and you run discovery."
Step 1 of 3
An interviewer plays an engineering-leader buyer and you run discovery. They grade three things: the quality of your questions, whether you actually listen and how rigorously you qualify. This is the round where ‘happy ears’ candidates get filtered.
Run a methodology visibly. You don't have to name-drop the acronym, but the interviewer should be able to map your questions onto a qualification framework - MEDDIC/MEDDPICC or Command of the Message.
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Advanced table
The Discovery Arc
Interactive diagram. Step through it with the Next and Previous controls below, or Tab to a region to read its detail.
Qualification is the gate - wrap without surfacing economic buyer, decision criteria and champion and you've failed the round.
- MEDDPICC element
- Metrics
- What you're uncovering
- How they measure dev productivity today
- A question that gets there
- “How do you currently measure engineering throughput or velocity?”
- MEDDPICC element
- Economic buyer
- What you're uncovering
- Who controls the budget
- A question that gets there
- “Who ultimately owns the tooling budget for engineering?”
- MEDDPICC element
- Decision criteria
- What you're uncovering
- What ‘good’ has to clear
- A question that gets there
- “What would a tool have to prove before you'd roll it out?”
- MEDDPICC element
- Decision process
- What you're uncovering
- The path to signature
- A question that gets there
- “Walk me through how a tool like this gets approved here.”
- MEDDPICC element
- Pain
- What you're uncovering
- The real bottleneck
- A question that gets there
- “Where does your team lose the most time in a typical week?”
- MEDDPICC element
- Champion
- What you're uncovering
- Who'll sell internally
- A question that gets there
- “Who on your team is already pushing for better AI tooling?”
| MEDDPICC element | What you're uncovering | A question that gets there |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | How they measure dev productivity today | “How do you currently measure engineering throughput or velocity?” |
| Economic buyer | Who controls the budget | “Who ultimately owns the tooling budget for engineering?” |
| Decision criteria | What ‘good’ has to clear | “What would a tool have to prove before you'd roll it out?” |
| Decision process | The path to signature | “Walk me through how a tool like this gets approved here.” |
| Pain | The real bottleneck | “Where does your team lose the most time in a typical week?” |
| Champion | Who'll sell internally | “Who on your team is already pushing for better AI tooling?” |
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Optional practice
Practice: The mock discovery call
QIn the mock discovery call, the buyer says ‘that sounds interesting, can you show me how Cursor handles that?’ ten minutes in. What's the strongest move?