A good conversation can leave you with more questions than you arrived with. That doesn't bother me nearly as much as leaving with a calendar invitation nobody can explain. There may be genuine interest on both sides, but interest alone doesn't tell the person preparing the next meeting what to bring.
I would rather agree on one thing worth checking. It might be an assumption about the data, a workflow that needs a closer look, or a task someone wants to try in a proof of concept (POC). A first meeting does not need to settle an entire project. It does need to leave enough clarity that following up isn't an exercise in remembering what everyone probably meant.
By smaller, I don't mean asking for a tiny commitment just to make it easier to get a yes. I mean reducing the amount of uncertainty we are asking people to carry into the next conversation. If the open question is whether a proposed workflow fits the job, a walkthrough with someone who does that job may be more useful than a broader presentation.
Something someone can prepare for
It helps to describe the next step in ordinary language. What are we going to look at? Who can help us understand it? What would we do differently depending on the answer? I don't need those questions turned into a formal exercise. I want the person accepting the invitation to know why their time is needed and whether they are the right person to help.
Preparation is real work too. Asking someone to bring data, explain a process, or involve a colleague takes time outside the meeting. If I can't say what I need and why, I am handing them the job of figuring out my request. A narrower question gives them a chance to say what is available, what will take longer, or what they cannot share.
Sometimes the sensible next step is to slow down. A compelling POC doesn't mean the underlying data has been validated. An estimate may depend on an unanswered delivery question. I'd rather name that gap than let enthusiasm turn it into an agreement nobody intended to make.
And sometimes another meeting isn't needed yet. Someone may need to check a definition or answer a question with a colleague first. We can agree who will come back with that information without filling an hour in everyone's calendar. When we do meet again, I want to be able to open with the thing we came to examine, rather than spend the first part rediscovering why we are there.