How to NOT Botch Your Q&A

BOLDAPPROVED Newsletter Issue 4:

How to NOT Botch Your Q&A

Your ability to answer questions can make or break your chances of persuading your audience. The pressure is highest in a live Q&A when you might be surprised by an unanticipated question or challenge.

The unfortunate reality is that a single weak response can unravel the credibility and engagement your presentation might have achieved. A rambling response with too many details and no clear conclusion can make you look unprepared and flustered or even untrustworthy in the eyes of your audience. An off-target response can lead to audience frustration and a barrage of follow-up questions.

The worst response is one that neither answers the question nor addresses the underlying issue behind the question. It generates more concern, doubt, and confusion, instead of advancing your objective.

On the other hand, the best response leads with your conclusion and addresses the underlying issue to reassure the audience and bolster your credibility.

In this issue of BOLDAPPROVED, learn techniques to avoid botching your Q&A by being prepared to deliver great responses credibly and confidently.

At BOLDAPPROVALS, we have worked with hundreds of individuals and teams preparing for live Q&A sessions at high-stakes events, including FDA Advisory Committee meetings, board meetings, brand meetings, conferences, dinner meetings, advisory boards, and sales pitches. Here are some of our proven best practices for preparing and delivering effective responses.

Anticipate questions through audience and issue analysis

By analyzing your audience, you can identify the concerns of greatest interest to them and what factors may influence how they perceive your data. The more rigorous your audience analysis, the more precise you can anticipate their questions.

Your audience may include a small group of individuals you know and may have even worked with previously. You can draw on your past interactions with them, and/or analyze their public statements and prior work to anticipate their questions. Or, you may be presenting at a large conference where you do not know your audience at an individual level. In these cases, you can define the concerns of specific audience subgroups and anticipate questions from each subgroup’s perspective.

Developing effective responses to questions flows from the stepwise process of aligning on your communication strategy, developing messages, and identifying your issues. Once you understand the issues that are likely to be of highest concern to your audience, you can strengthen your messages by proactively addressing the issues that are likely to lead to questions. Each underlying issue within your messages (even if you have addressed it) could potentially lead to any number of questions.

Divide questions by expertise and priority

Developing effective responses to questions is often a team activity, and categorizing your issues and questions by subject matter is a useful tactic to divide the work across your team. Individuals with relevant subject matter expertise are best positioned to develop responses and can help refine the wording of the questions to better reflect the specific terminology that someone in your audience with similar expertise may use.

Next, prioritize your question lists into tiers. It is likely that the time allocated for your Q&A session will be limited and you may only have time to answer a handful of questions. You should devote most of your time and energy to the highest tier questions which are likely of high concern to your audience and pose the biggest threat to the success of your communication strategy. What are the killer questions that keep you up at night? Are there questions that could send the Q&A into a death spiral? Add these questions to your top-tier list.

The next tier are questions that are likely to be asked but are easy to answer and are less critical to your strategy. The lowest tier questions are improbable and unlikely to have an effect on your goals.

Tie questions back to your communication strategy

Each question provides an opportunity to gain new insights to better understand the interests and concerns of your audience. Each question that you address can help mitigate a concern increase the persuasive power of your messages.

You may decide to proactively address some questions within the content of your presentation, rather than waiting for it to come up during Q&A, especially for top-tier questions. For example, if a response to a question is complex and could lead to confusion, it may be better to address the underlying issue in the presentation so the audience is primed to understand the response if a question arises. Or, if there is a negative issue that the question could expose, it may be important to alert the audience to it in the presentation, so it doesn’t seem as though you were hiding something when it comes up as a question. Last, it is possible that the question brings out something positive that you would like to highlight in the presentation, especially if you’re concerned that it may not come out in the Q&A.

Keep in mind that even if you have addressed an issue in your presentation, it does not mean that you will not get questions on that issue, so you should still prepare to respond.

Structure responses to first make a point, then prove it

There are three major steps to developing effective responses:

1.???? Put the conclusion of the response up front. This first sentence is crucial for answering questions efficiently and building your credibility as you make clear that you are not avoiding the question but facing it head-on. Ideally, the conclusion will not only answer the question but address the underlying concern or issue behind the question.

2.???? After stating your conclusion, support it with the minimum amount of proof and subpoints. Prioritize your strongest piece of supporting data and, only if necessary, show a slide with the data or details to prove it. Sometimes, the slide will be one that is already in the presentation, but other times you may need to develop a new slide just for that response (usually referred to as “backup” slides).

Be sure to craft backup slides that are narrowly targeted to the question. We advise clients against backup slides that have a lot of material intended to address a wide range of questions. Broad slides risk generating more questions and confusion. Instead, create slides that provide just the right information, evidence, or data to support the response without distracting the audience with extraneous material.

3.???? Finally, briefly return to your conclusion to reiterate your most important point, especially if the response was complex or had multiple subpoints. This last sentence of your response can also be used to redirect the audience’s attention back to your messages.

Practice early and often to pressure test your responses

Once you have some responses prepared, start practicing.

While your response development often begins “on paper”, delivering effective verbal responses is highly dependent on live rehearsal to build your agility and confidence under pressure.

Identify colleagues who can play the role of your audience and provide objective feedback. They should listen carefully to your response and ask realistic follow-up questions that your response might elicit. As you practice, ask colleagues to vary the wording of the questions to gain experience with the multiple ways that a question may come from the audience on the day.

In addition to trusted colleagues, you should seek out independent advisors who are familiar with your topic but are not embedded in the day-to-day preparations. These individuals can ask questions from an outside perspective and provide feedback to further refine and improve your responses.

We find that people tend to put off practicing Q&A until they have perfected all of their content. This common mistake leads to much stress and anxiety during late-stage rehearsals, and suboptimal performance on the day.

By pressure testing your responses early in the process you can identify and correct responses that miss the mark, optimize your delivery of complicated supporting details, and be prepared for difficult follow-up questions.

Conclusion

By anticipating and prioritizing questions, you can focus your preparations on the ones that matter most. These simple steps can protect you from a painful botched Q&A session, empower you to deliver confident responses to the most important and challenging questions, and build trust with your audience, no matter what questions they throw at you.

About the Authors

Angela W. Corona, PhD, is a Senior Scientific Director with BOLDAPPROVALS where she supports teams approaching new drug or biologics approvals. With 10 years of broad medical and regulatory communications experience across a range of therapeutic areas, including neurology/neurodegenerative disease, oncology, and immunology, she has played a key role in preparing teams for AdComms, strategic submission messaging, and other complex regulatory communication challenges. Her PhD training was in neuroscience at The Ohio State University, and she performed post-doctoral research in Alzheimer’s disease at Case Western Reserve University.

Steven C. Cohen is the Managing Director of BOLDAPPROVALS, the division of BOLDSCIENCE that prepares clients for AdComms, regulatory submissions for the approval of new therapeutics (NDAs/BLAs), FDA meetings, and label development. Steven has 33 years of leadership in communication consulting, strategy, and delivery coaching, including 117 AdComm preparations. He has supported numerous health authority interactions at key milestones and led submission messaging workshops. He has trained and coached over 1000 scientists, clinicians, and other leaders across disciplines. Steven earned a bachelor’s degree in French Literature from Wesleyan University. He studied medical science at NY Medical College and marketing, communication, and the Internet at Columbia University.

About BOLDAPPROVALS

BOLDAPPROVALS blends science, communication, and technology to support product approvals. We deliver comprehensive support for FDA Advisory Committee meetings (AdComms), submission messaging, labeling strategy, and health authority interactions.

Our proven methodology integrates in-house scientific expertise with communication consulting to develop compelling, data-driven arguments for persuasive presentations, responses to questions, and briefing materials.

Our highly experienced team has supported over 250 AdComm preparations and aligned teams on messages for regulatory submissions and interactions with health authorities. Our team can address the unique needs of your people, products, and circumstances.

To learn more about how BOLDAPPROVALS can help your team identify and overcome issues, please visit boldapprovals.com, email [email protected], or call Steven Cohen at +1 (646) 930-0453.