The hardest part of data work isn't DAX — it's the meeting before the DAX. Stakeholders ask for "a dashboard with everything", deadlines are "yesterday", and the real requirement hides three questions deep.

Drawing on years of consulting across IT, healthcare, education and pharma, this session is a practical toolkit: the five questions that turn any vague request into a concrete deliverable, how to demo early and ugly on purpose, how to say "not yet" without saying "no", how to scope-creep-proof your projects with a simple decision log, and how to present numbers stakeholders don't want to see.

Includes real (anonymized) war stories — the failures included — and templates you can steal.

Key takeaways:
1) The 5-question requirements script for any data request.
2) A one-page decision log template that prevents scope creep.
3) Tactics for delivering unwelcome numbers diplomatically.

Level: All levels. Soft skills / consulting & career. Duration: 45-60 min, adaptable to 20-30 min. Can be delivered in English, Spanish or Portuguese. Story-driven with reusable templates shared with attendees.