Tell us who you need answers from and what you're missing

To questionnaire

by mattpocock · MIT license · ★ 267,278 on GitHub · updated Sep 18

Tell us who you need answers from and what you're missing; get back a clean form you send them to fill in.

---
name: to-questionnaire
description: Turn a decision you can't fully answer into a questionnaire for someone else to fill in.
disable-model-invocation: true
---

Turn something the user can't answer alone into a **questionnaire**: a Markdown document they hand to one person to fill in async, or fill out together over a meeting. The recipient holds knowledge the user lacks; the questionnaire pulls it out of them.

**Grill the send, not the subject.** Interview the user only about the _send_, which they can always answer: who it goes to, and what they need back. The questions in the document then target the **gap** between what the recipient knows and what the user needs.

1. **Who is it going to?** Ask, in one exchange, the recipient's role, expertise, and relationship to the user. This fixes the questionnaire's tone and how much context it must carry. Done when you know who the recipient is and what they know that the user doesn't.

2. **What do you need back?** Ask, in one exchange, the specific decisions or facts the user can't resolve alone and needs from this person. Done when you have a concrete list of what the user must walk away able to do or decide.

3. **Write the questionnaire.** Draft questions aimed at the gap from steps 1–2, following the Document structure below. Write it to `to-questionnaire-<slug>.md` in the current directory (slug from the topic) and report the path. Done when the file exists and every item the user named in step 2 is covered by a question.

## Document structure

Overview

Turn something the user can't answer alone into a questionnaire: a Markdown document they hand to one person to fill in async, or fill out together over a meeting. The recipient holds knowledge the user lacks; the questionnaire pulls it out of them.

Manual install (npx, ZIP)

Claude Codenpx skills add mattpocock/skills --skill to-questionnaire -g -a claude-code

Claude Code (manual)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && curl -sL https://codeload.github.com/mattpocock/skills/tar.gz/3cca18b368ae \
  | tar -xz -C ~/.claude/skills --strip-components=3 skills-3cca18b368ae/skills/productivity/to-questionnaire

Windows (PowerShell)

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null; Invoke-WebRequest "https://m.agentalley.io/zip/77464ff2918231573cb0/to-questionnaire.zip" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\to-questionnaire.zip"; Expand-Archive "$env:TEMP\to-questionnaire.zip" -DestinationPath "$HOME\.claude\skills" -Force

Claude.ai / desktopDownload the ZIP and upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Codex, Cursor, other agentsPoint them at SKILL.md. The other files are plain text.

Connects with Agent Alley MCP · agentalley.io/mcp

Files included

SKILL.md2.8 KB
agents/1 file · 166 B

Read the files here

mattpocock/3cca18b2 files

SKILL.md2.8 KB

SKILL.md

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to-questionnaire/SKILL.md55 lines · 2.8 KB · 3cca18b

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Outline

RawView on GitHub

Turn something the user can't answer alone into a questionnaire: a Markdown document they hand to one person to fill in async, or fill out together over a meeting. The recipient holds knowledge the user lacks; the questionnaire pulls it out of them.

Grill the send, not the subject. Interview the user only about the send, which they can always answer: who it goes to, and what they need back. The questions in the document then target the gap between what the recipient knows and what the user needs.

Who is it going to? Ask, in one exchange, the recipient's role, expertise, and relationship to the user. This fixes the questionnaire's tone and how much context it must carry. Done when you know who the recipient is and what they know that the user doesn't.
What do you need back? Ask, in one exchange, the specific decisions or facts the user can't resolve alone and needs from this person. Done when you have a concrete list of what the user must walk away able to do or decide.
Write the questionnaire. Draft questions aimed at the gap from steps 1–2, following the Document structure below. Write it to to-questionnaire-<slug>.md in the current directory (slug from the topic) and report the path. Done when the file exists and every item the user named in step 2 is covered by a question.

Document structure

Frame the document as a discovery questionnaire: the user lacks context, the recipient holds it. Order questions most-important-first, since async means you may only get one pass, and group them under ## headings by theme once there are more than a handful. Write it using the template below.

<questionnaire-template>

<Questionnaire title>

Purpose: why this questionnaire exists and the decision riding on it.

From: <the user>, To: <the recipient>, How your answers will be used: <where they go>

Context

One paragraph orienting a recipient who wasn't in the user's head. Enough to answer well, not a page.

How to answer

Deadline and rough effort. Partial answers and "I don't know" are useful: flag anything you're unsure of rather than skipping it.

<Theme heading>

One ## section per theme. Under each, its questions, most-important-first. Every question is one idea, never compound, with an answer stub directly beneath, and a one-line why this matters only where the question could be misread or invite a throwaway answer.

<question-example> ### What load is the system expected to handle at launch?

Why this matters: it decides whether we provision for burst traffic now or defer it.

</question-example>

Anything else?

A closing catch-all: anything we didn't ask that we should know?

</questionnaire-template>

1	---
2	name: to-questionnaire
3	description: Turn a decision you can't fully answer into a questionnaire for someone else to fill in.
4	disable-model-invocation: true
5	---
6
7	Turn something the user can't answer alone into a questionnaire: a Markdown document they hand to one person to fill in async, or fill out together over a meeting. The recipient holds knowledge the user lacks; the questionnaire pulls it out of them.
8
9	Grill the send, not the subject. Interview the user only about the _send_, which they can always answer: who it goes to, and what they need back. The questions in the document then target the gap between what the recipient knows and what the user needs.
10
11
12	1. Who is it going to? Ask, in one exchange, the recipient's role, expertise, and relationship to the user. This fixes the questionnaire's tone and how much context it must carry. Done when you know who the recipient is and what they know that the user doesn't.
13
14	2. What do you need back? Ask, in one exchange, the specific decisions or facts the user can't resolve alone and needs from this person. Done when you have a concrete list of what the user must walk away able to do or decide.
15
16	3. Write the questionnaire. Draft questions aimed at the gap from steps 1–2, following the Document structure below. Write it to `to-questionnaire-<slug>.md` in the current directory (slug from the topic) and report the path. Done when the file exists and every item the user named in step 2 is covered by a question.
17
18	## Document structure
19
20	Frame the document as a discovery questionnaire: the user lacks context, the recipient holds it. Order questions most-important-first, since async means you may only get one pass, and group them under `##` headings by theme once there are more than a handful. Write it using the template below.
21
22	<questionnaire-template>
23
24	# <Questionnaire title>
25
26	Purpose: why this questionnaire exists and the decision riding on it.
27
28	From: <the user>, To: <the recipient>, How your answers will be used: <where they go>
29
30	## Context
31
32	One paragraph orienting a recipient who wasn't in the user's head. Enough to answer well, not a page.
33
34	## How to answer
35
36	Deadline and rough effort. Partial answers and "I don't know" are useful: flag anything you're unsure of rather than skipping it.
37
38	## <Theme heading>
39
40	One `##` section per theme. Under each, its questions, most-important-first. Every question is one idea, never compound, with an answer stub directly beneath, and a one-line _why this matters_ only where the question could be misread or invite a throwaway answer.
41
42	<question-example>
43	### What load is the system expected to handle at launch?
44
45	_Why this matters: it decides whether we provision for burst traffic now or defer it._
46
47	>
48	</question-example>
49
50	## Anything else?
51
52	A closing catch-all: anything we didn't ask that we should know?
53
54	</questionnaire-template>
55