Speak Facts, Not Questions
State a reasoned position instead of hiding an opinion inside a question.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
When you already hold an opinion, communicate it as a factual claim or explicit position rather than smuggling it into a leading question. Doing so forces you to understand the work, gather context, explain your reasoning, and accept accountability for the recommendation. State what you believe should happen, why the available evidence supports it, and which assumptions remain uncertain. Colleagues can then test the reasoning or offer a competing position. Genuine questions remain valuable when they seek missing information, but a document filled with rhetorical questions allows participants to appear engaged without doing enough work to make a decision.
Origin
Kieran Flanagan learned the rule from Zapier CEO Wade Foster and shared it on Marketing Against The Grain.
Core principles
- 01A direct claim makes the speaker accountable for understanding the work.
- 02Reasoning should accompany every asserted position.
- 03Questions should uncover information rather than camouflage opinions.
- 04Clear positions make disagreement and decisions more productive.
How to run it
- 1
Detect the hidden opinion
Notice when a question is actually an indirect way of expressing what you think should happen.
Pro tip Ask yourself whether you would be surprised by any answer other than the one you expect.
Watch out Do not convert genuine curiosity into false certainty.
- 2
Do the work
Gather enough operational context and evidence to support a clear position.
Pro tip Review the underlying artifact, customer evidence, and constraints.
Watch out Directness without evidence is merely unsupported assertion.
- 3
State the position
Write or say the conclusion plainly, followed by the reasoning and relevant assumptions.
Pro tip Use a structure of claim, evidence, reasoning, and uncertainty.
Watch out Avoid presenting opinion as incontrovertible fact.
- 4
Invite a counter-position
Ask others to challenge the reasoning or provide missing evidence after the position is clear.
Pro tip Focus debate on assumptions and evidence rather than tone.
Watch out Do not use directness to suppress discussion.
In the wild
Instead of writing, “Do we think paid search is really the best launch channel?”, a leader states that paid search should not lead the launch because awareness is below the threshold needed for efficient capture, then cites the awareness data.
→ The team can evaluate a concrete recommendation and its logic.
Common mistakes
Question-shaped advocacy
Leading questions conceal a decision preference while avoiding responsibility for its reasoning.
Fact without context
A blunt conclusion is not useful unless the speaker has done the work and can explain why it is sound.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders reviewing strategy, plans, and decision documents where they already have an informed opinion.
Not ideal for
Exploratory conversations where the participant genuinely lacks enough information to form a position.
From the transcript
“You should speak facts, not questions, right?”
“Because if you say a fact, you actually have to know the work.”
“you have to stake reasoning behind that fact, and you have to stake like why that's your opinion, right?”
From the episode
Brian Balfour Reveals How To Build An A+ Marketing Team From Scratch (#183)
Brian Balfour