Q Sheet / Question List

What is it?

A Q sheet is the prepared list of questions for an interview — the host's roadmap through a conversation with a guest. It's ordered, but not rigid: a sequence of questions designed to take the guest (and the audience) somewhere, while leaving room to follow the conversation where it actually goes. It's the single most important prep document for any interview format.

Practical example

Before interviewing Dr. Rahimi, the host builds a Q sheet: open easy ("how did you get into economics?"), build to substance ("what does the new regulation actually change?"), hit the hard one once trust is established ("critics say this protects banks, not savers — what's your response?"), end memorable ("what should an ordinary person do this month?"). The ordering is craft: the warm-up earns the hard question, the hard question can't come first. During the interview, the host follows genuine threads the guest opens — but the Q sheet is the safety net ensuring the essential questions get asked and the conversation has shape, not just drift.

Key things to know (non-technical)

• The Q sheet provides structure without rigidity: it guarantees the must-ask questions happen and gives the conversation an arc, while the best moments usually come from abandoning it to follow a live thread (then returning).
• Question order is a real skill: ease in, build trust, place the tough question where it can be answered honestly, end on something resonant — the sequence shapes how open the guest becomes.
• It's the host's counterpart to the guest's talking points: the host designs questions partly to draw out what the guest wants to say, partly to ask what the audience wants to know — the tension between those is the interview.
• The pro move is the follow-up: the Q sheet lists primary questions, but the gold is in the unscripted follow-up to an interesting answer (its own entry).

In Tupic Live

The Q sheet lives in Tupic Live's episode brief and prompter: the prepared questions per guest, shown to the host as scrollable cues during the live interview, checkable as they're asked so none get forgotten — and combinable with the guest's talking points, so the platform helps a host run an interview that has both shape and the freedom to follow the conversation.