I've been mentoring engineers for 15 years. I've read the books. I've done the frameworks. I've sat through sessions where we mapped career ladders and OKRs and growth plans. Most of it was noise.
What actually worked was three questions. That's it. No worksheets, no templates, no quarterly reviews. Just three questions that change the conversation from "How am I doing?" to "What am I building?"
The Three Questions
1. What are you building?
Not "What are you working on?" Building implies ownership. Intent. Stakes. The answer tells me whether they see their work as craft or as tasks. If they can't answer in terms of impact — "I'm building a payment flow that reduces checkout friction" — we need to zoom out before we zoom in on skills.
2. What's getting in your way?
Not "What are your blockers?" Blockers are Jira tickets. Obstacles are human: unclear authority, a broken relationship with PM, burnout they can't name yet. This question surfaces the real problems — usually interpersonal or structural — that no amount of skill-building will solve.
3. What do you want to be true in six months?
Not "Where do you see yourself in five years?" That's a fantasy exercise. Six months is close enough to be real and far enough to require change. The answer becomes the North Star for our next conversations. We don't make a plan. We just keep asking.
Why This Works
Most mentoring frameworks are built for HR. They're designed to produce documentation: growth plans, competency maps, 360 feedback. The three questions are built for humans. They're designed to produce clarity.
The magic isn't in the questions themselves. It's in the repetition. Ask them every two weeks for six months and watch what happens. The person starts hearing the questions in their own head. They start mentoring themselves.
That's the point. The best mentoring relationship is one that makes itself obsolete.