# Prompt: ten questions for a recorded session

> Good questions are the difference between a usable hour and an hour of pleasant conversation.

- Type: prompt
- Category: creation
- Labels: andie, video, interviews, prompts
- Author: Redação Swonkie, Equipa editorial
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Canonical: https://swonkie.com/en/hub/ten-questions-for-a-recording/

## Prompt

```
I am recording an hour-long session with someone from this company. I will give you their role and
what the company does.

Write ten questions under these conditions:
- each answerable in two to three minutes
- each answer has to make sense on its own, outside the rest of the conversation
- at least three must ask for a concrete case, with numbers or a before and after
- at least two must touch something that went wrong
- none can be answered yes or no
- none about the company's history

Order them from easiest to most demanding, so the person warms up.
```

---
An hour-long session yields six to ten short pieces, but only if the answers work in isolation. Which
is why the preparation is not about the subject: it is about the shape of the questions.

Two conditions do the work. **Two-to-three-minute answers** produce usable cuts; an eight-minute
answer has to be edited, and editing is where all the time goes. **Two questions about what went
wrong** produce the moments people share, and are always the ones nobody thinks to ask.

## How to use it

Send the questions to the person in advance, but not a script of the answers. Someone prepared
answers better; someone with memorised answers sounds like they are reading.

## After the recording

Move on to [pulling out the moments](/en/hub/one-session-into-five-pieces/).