Grilling
A structured interview technique that exposes assumptions and turns a vague idea into a precise brief.
Illustrative conversation
- The request just says ‘build a dashboard.’ Should the agent start coding?
- Not yet. Grill the idea about users, decisions, data, failure states, and acceptance criteria, then write the agreed brief.
Definition
Grilling is an informal AI-workflow label for deliberately asking a project owner successive, specific questions before implementation begins. The questions surface goals, users, edge cases, constraints, trade-offs, and the meaning of done, then turn the answers into a spec or brief. It should feel like rigorous collaborative discovery rather than hostile interrogation, and it cannot resolve a decision that the responsible person is unwilling or unable to make.
Reviewed