Management Q&A Builder for Equity Research Meetings
Identify and synthesize the burning questions to ask management in company meetings, ranked by materiality and topic
Last updated: 10 November 2025 (v1)
Objective:
To identify and prioritize the most material strategic, financial, and competitive issues influencing a company’s near-term performance, and to translate those insights into a focused, evidence-based set of up to 15 questions for management.
This enables the investor to test key assumptions underlying the market’s expectations, refine their investment thesis, and extract decision-relevant information during a management meeting.
Explanation:
You have a 45 minute 1-on-1 meeting with the CEO of a company. What do you ask to get the most out of the meeting and make good investment decisions? How do you ask the questions to elicit direct and informative answers?
This prompt functions as a structured analytical workflow for equity analysts or investors preparing to meet company management to first identify the key, current issues, rank them by priority and then structure them into questions.
By guiding the model to synthesize insights from recent earnings reports, transcripts, analyst notes, and market developments, it distills the core strategic, financial, risk and competitive issues that are most relevant to the stock’s near-term performance. It enforces a disciplined approach: identifying the range of potential issues then prioritizing them by materiality to share price and recency. The result is a set of questions that are not generic or conversational, but instead grounded in data, valuation levers, and decision-critical uncertainties.
For investors, this prompt serves as a maximum efficiency preparation tool that replaces intuition with structured inference grounded in research. It enables the investor to identify the issues that are likely to truly drive the next phase of performance and to interrogate management on those points directly. The generated questions drive to what assumptions underpin the market’s consensus, where sentiment or risk perception may shift, and what quantitative triggers to monitor in coming quarters. Used consistently, it transforms meetings from soft narratives into focused data-gathering sessions that test the integrity of one’s investment thesis and improve both conviction and timing.
As always, be aware that models can make mistakes. At each step, examine the response and challenge information or conclusions that appear erroneous before proceeding to any subsequent steps. If in doubt use a second model with the same prompt to verify the information and generate challenge questions and answers (CoVe process) to correct interpretations of data.
Link to blog post explanation:
N/A
Preferred Model(s):
Gemini 2.5+ and ChatGPT-5+
Important Execution Notes:
The best results are achieved by attaching recent transcripts and presentations. It is often good to attached them for the last 2 quarters to bring additional context from the last 3 months into consideration
Where indicated in the Inputs section, simply put company name, ticker and exchange and Yes/No as to whether reports are attached to be used in preference to web retrieval (greater risk of hallucinations)
Sample Output:
Copy/Paste Prompt Set:
Important note: Subscribers can use this prompt set for their own analysis. However, the prompt is copyrighted by The Inferential Investor, paywalled, and must not be shared without permission.
Prompt: Management Q&A Builder for an Equity Research Analyst
ROLE: You are a senior equity research analyst preparing for a face-to-face meeting with management. Your task is to analyze the company and generate a focused, prioritized list of up to 15 incisive questions grouped by topic. You must ground your output in primary sources and very recent secondary materials.
0) User Inputs
Fill these before running:
* Company name, Ticker, Exchange: <COMPANY_NAME, TICKER, EXCHANGE>
* Documents uploaded? <YES/NO>
* If YES, identify the type of information in files provided
* If NO, retrieve documents as required in “Source Rules.”
1) Source Rules (Use in this strict order)
1. Uploaded documents take precedence. If current and complete, use them; retrieve only missing items.
2. Primary filings & company materials: Latest two quarterly earnings releases and two call transcripts; recent press releases and IR presentations within the last six weeks.
3. Secondary corroboration (last six weeks): Major analyst reports, reputable news, CEO/CFO interviews, and credible stock write-ups.
4. Citation discipline:** Attribute key facts to source and date. Prefer quotes or numeric data from primary sources; summarize brokers/news with attribution.
5. De-duplication: If multiple sources repeat the same fact, keep the primary or most authoritative.
6. Recency filter: Heavily weight developments within T-6 weeks. Flag anything older as “background”.
> If browsing/tools are available: prioritize company IR site, SEC/official exchange filings, SEDAR/EDGAR equivalents, major wire services, and top-tier broker notes.
2) Tasks & Analytical Scope
A) Identify current, material issues (evidence-based) across:
* Strategy & products/roadmap
* Growth drivers & demand signals
* Competition** (narrow definition; see Section B)
* Financial trends: revenue/units/ASP, GM/OM, FCF, capex, working capital, cash taxes
* Price & volume drivers (stock-specific flows, catalysts)
* Margin drivers: mix, utilization, pricing, input costs, FX, learning curves, operating leverage
* Balance sheet: debt stack, covenants, maturities, interest burden, refinancing risk
* Risks: operational, financial, regulatory, legal, geopolitical, supply chain
* Seasonality: patterns and near-term setup into next quarter
* Management bench & turnover: departures/appointments, incentives alignment
* Regulatory/legal: investigations, approvals, rule changes, litigation milestones
B) Map key competitors (narrow definition)
* Define “narrow competition” as firms with:
1. overlapping end-customer/job-to-be-done,
2. similar price band and distribution, and
3. substitutable offering in customers’ buying process.
* List 3–6 most relevant competitors with their current key issues from the last six weeks (e.g., guide changes, product launches, outages, regulatory actions) and state why each matters for the subject company (share shift, pricing umbrella, input bottlenecks, etc.).
C) Prioritize issues by stock price materiality
* Score each issue on a 1–5 scale for:
* Impact (valuation sensitivity: revenue/GM/FCF delta or multiple effect)
* Likelihood (probability within 6 months)
* Timeframe (near-dated catalysts within next quarter = higher)
* Compute Priority Score = Impact × Likelihood × Timeframe. Rank descending.
* Note explicit catalysts (earnings date, product launch, regulatory ruling, contract renewal, capacity ramp, M&A close, lock-up).
D) Frame bull vs bear (1–2 paragraphs total)
* Bull case: core thesis, 2–3 pivotal assumptions, and what must be true.
* Bear case: opposing thesis, 2–3 pivotal assumptions, and what breaks.
* Tie both to the specific issues above and to analyst Q&A focal points** seen in the last two calls.
E) Generate management questions (up to 15)
* Group by headings aligned to the highest-priority topics.
* Questions must be:
* Non-leading, falsifiable, and specific (aim for numbers, mechanisms, or decision rules).
* Tied to a decision or model lever (unit growth, price/mix, utilization, COGS line item, opex cadence, capex phasing, churn, retention, LTV/CAC, cohort behavior).
* Time-boxed (next quarter/half), with follow-up if management gives vague answers.
* For each question, include a one-line “What we’re testing” (the hypothesis) and “Signals to listen for” (KPIs, ranges, commitments).
3) Output Format (Markdown)
A. Company Snapshot (3–6 bullets)
* What the company does, monetization model, and the single most important earning driver for the next 1–2 quarters.
B. Issues Inventory & Priority Table
| # | Topic | Issue (one line) | Impact (1–5) | Likelihood (1–5) | Timeframe (1–5) | **Priority** | Catalyst(s) | Key Source(s) |
| - | ----- | ---------------- | ------------ | ---------------- | --------------- | -----------: | ----------- | ------------- |
| 1 | … | … | … | … | … | **…** | … | … |
C. Competitor Lens (Narrow Definition)
* Competitor A — current issue(s) in last 6 weeks; **Why it matters** → share/price/cost/mix.
* Competitor B — …
* Competitor C — …
D. Bull vs Bear (≤2 paragraphs)
* Integrate analysts’ live concerns and management guidance inflections.
E. Management Meeting Questions (max 15, grouped)
1) Margins & Cost Structure
1. *Question:* …
* What we’re testing: …
* Signals to listen for: ranges, unit economics, cost bridges, hedges, learning curves.
2. *Question:* …
2) Demand, Mix & Pipeline
3. Question: …
* What we’re testing: …
* Signals to listen for: bookings→billings conversion, cohort retention, deal cycle days.
3) Competitive Dynamics & Pricing
…(continue until ≤15 total)
> After the last group, include a short **“Parking Lot (if time)” list of 2–3 bonus questions.
F. Appendix: Source Notes
* Bullet list with **source, date, and 1-line relevance. Quote sparingly.
4) Quality & Guardrails
* No speculation. Every claim links to a cited source or is labeled as an explicit hypothesis.
* Numbers first. Prefer quantified questions and answer targets to narrative.
* Clarity over volume. If trade-offs arise, reduce count, increase sharpness.
* Avoid “tell us about the strategy” questions. Ask how decisions are made and what thresholds trigger different actions.
* Keep total questions ≤15.
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(Optional) Quick Starter Examples (replace with your content to include a specific question in the report)
* High-impact margin question:
*“On gross margin into next quarter, what are the quantified bridges by price/mix, utilization, and input costs, and what variability bands should we use if volumes are ±5% vs plan?”*
Testing: sensitivity of GM to volume/mix; Signals: bridge %, guardrails, contingency levers.
* Competitive intensity question:
“Where has realized win-rate diverged most vs last quarter’s plan and what specific pricing or feature moves did you take in those segments?”
Testing: real share shift; *Signals:* measured win-rates, take-rate changes, concrete actions.
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Run Instructions (to the model)
1. Confirm inputs. If uploads exist, list them and state whether they cover the “latest two” requirement; retrieve only missing or more recent items (≤6 weeks).
2. Build Issues Inventory, then Priority Table.
3. Draft Bull vs Bear in ≤2 paragraphs tied to priority items.
4. Produce ≤15 grouped questions with What we’re testing and Signals to listen for.
5. Deliver the output strictly in the Output Format above.