After a missed culvert-inspection milestone, the coach asks, "What would 'done' look like by Wednesday?" Why is that a powerful question?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Powerful questions are not required to sound like a TED talk. "What would done look like by Wednesday?" is a flashlight on the next usable culvert increment, not a poetry prompt. Concrete and forward beats another lap around last week's miss.
Full Explanation
“What would ‘done’ look like by Wednesday?” is powerful because it is concrete and future-focused. After a missed culvert-inspection milestone, that question helps the team define a usable next increment instead of only rehashing the miss—critical when stormwater infrastructure inspections protect communities from flooding risk. The Scrum Master/Team Coach uses it to restore clarity and forward motion without erasing accountability.
Treating the question as philosophy so nobody commits to a visible increment fails by concept: vagueness voids the question’s power and leaves culvert work undefined. Using it only so the coach can assign Wednesday owners without conversation fails by concept by turning a team question into covert tasking. Replacing the Product Owner’s acceptance criteria with a coach-owned deadline fails by concept because coaches do not seize Product Owner acceptance authority.
Exam caveat: Powerful questions are specific, forward-looking, and ownership-building; they complement—not override—Product Owner criteria on civic inspection work. The date in the question is a focusing device the team negotiates with the Product Owner, not a unilateral coach mandate.
Operational check: ask the future-focused done question in the recovery conversation, capture a thin Wednesday increment the team and Product Owner accept, visualize it on the board, and review whether that slice actually reaches Done by the agreed checkpoint.