To war-game a media interview, put the outlet and format, the reason for the interview, your key messages, the questions you expect, the answers you plan to give, and the numbers you have already shared with your board into one request. Then instruct Pingpong to act as a well-prepared reporter: find the hardest questions you have not prepared for, flag any answer that conflicts with something your board, investors, or customers have already been told, and mark any line that would read badly as a standalone quote. Do it a few days before the interview, so you have time to check facts and brief the people who will read the coverage.
This page is for chief executives and founders preparing for a press, podcast, broadcast, or trade interview that directors and investors are likely to read. It covers spoken answers to someone else's questions. For a written update you send investors yourself, see war-game an investor update before you send it. Executive starting points live under Pingpong for executives.
Where interviews go wrong
- A spoken number differs from the number in the board deck or a public filing.
- A forward-looking promise the board has not approved, such as a profitability date.
- A pending legal matter answered with improvised wording.
- Customers or employees learning important news from the article first.
- An off-the-cuff comment about a competitor, a former employee, or a regulator.
- Assuming a remark will not be quoted without agreeing to that with the reporter first.
A worked example
This example is illustrative and does not describe a customer. The chief executive of a 400-person business payments company has agreed to a 30-minute interview with a national business reporter. The company announced a 12% reduction in staff two weeks ago and has pushed back the launch of its lending product. Two investor directors have said they will read the piece.
The chief executive pastes the reporter's recent articles about the sector, three key messages, fifteen expected questions with draft answers, and the runway and headcount figures from the last board deck.
A useful pass finds that all three key messages are positive and none addresses the staff reduction directly, so the reporter will likely open with it. The draft answer on headcount says "about 10%," which does not match the announced figure. On funding, the draft answer says the company is "well funded for the foreseeable future," while the board deck shows 16 months of runway that depend on the cuts holding. One draft answer predicts profitability by the third quarter of next year, a target the board has discussed but not approved.
The pass also lists questions with no prepared answer: whether the company will need to raise again, how the delay affects customers already in the lending pilot, and the patent dispute a competitor filed last month. It notes that "no comment" on the dispute is likely to appear as a quote of its own, and suggests asking counsel for one approved sentence instead.
The chief executive adjusts the plan before the interview. The headcount answer uses the announced figure. The funding answer describes runway in the same terms as the board deck. The profitability date comes out. Counsel approves a single sentence on the dispute. The pilot customers get a call from their account leads about the new timeline before the interview takes place. The board chair receives a short note with the key messages and the three hardest answers, and the chief executive treats everything said during the call as quotable.
A request you can copy
Below are the outlet and format for an interview I am giving, why it is happening, my key messages, the questions I expect with my draft answers, and the figures our board and investors have already seen. Act as a well-prepared reporter. List the hardest questions I have not prepared for. Flag every answer that conflicts with the figures or with anything already public. Mark lines that would read badly quoted alone. Note who should hear any news before the article runs.
How Pingpong runs the war-game
The web review app sends your request through several models in order. Each later model receives the original request and every earlier answer, with instructions to assess the work so far. Check each flagged figure against its source before you change an answer. For the steps inside the app, see running your first review.
What a model can't war-game
A model does not know how this reporter conducts interviews, what sources they have already spoken to, or how your answers will sound out loud. Rehearse the hard answers aloud with your communications lead. Disclosure questions, especially for a public company or during a financing, belong with your general counsel.
If the coverage could prompt a board conversation, see war-game a decision before the board meeting. More guides live under work decisions before you commit.