Ask clarifying questions and set priorities
Turn a long or changing task list into an agreed order, owner, and definition of done.
How to Stand Out in Your First 90 Days at Work
From Emily Lago Anderson. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
During the course primer, listen for ideas that change how you approach “Ask clarifying questions and set priorities.” Pause once to capture a useful point, then apply it while producing a priority conversation script and a one-day task board with owners, deadlines, dependencies, and status.What this lesson is really solving.
Turn a long or changing task list into an agreed order, owner, and definition of done. This is lesson 3 because later decisions depend on a priority conversation script and a one-day task board with owners, deadlines, dependencies, and status. Priorities are a shared decision; silently guessing can create more risk than asking. Use your own numbers, files, environment, and constraints so the result survives outside the course.
Understand the idea before touching the steps.
Priorities are a shared decision; silently guessing can create more risk than asking.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
List the tasks, deadlines, dependencies, risks, and people affected by the current request.
- 2
Ask which outcome is most important, what can wait, and what quality or safety standard applies.
- 3
Repeat the agreed order in writing and flag the first point where capacity or information may run out.
See the standard in context.
DeShawn asks whether a customer callback or inventory count comes first, confirms the choice, and moves the other task with a new time. The learner saves a priority conversation script and a one-day task board with owners, deadlines, dependencies, and status and notes the evidence or assumption behind the choice so it can be reviewed and improved later.
Inspect before you move on.
- The finished work visibly includes a priority conversation script and a one-day task board with owners, deadlines, dependencies, and status.
- You tested the work against this common failure: Saying yes to every task, then hiding a conflict until the deadline makes the tradeoff unavoidable.
- Another person could verify this mastery standard: Another person can see the agreed priority order and the point at which you will communicate a change.
Your deliverable
A priority conversation script and a one-day task board with owners, deadlines, dependencies, and status.
Watch for this
Saying yes to every task, then hiding a conflict until the deadline makes the tradeoff unavoidable.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
Another person can see the agreed priority order and the point at which you will communicate a change.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check