The ADA does not require employers to make good guesses about what employees need. It requires a conversation — the interactive process — and the overwhelming majority of accommodation cases are lost by employers who never had one. This article explains what the process actually is: who triggers it, what the employer may and may not ask, how essential functions are identified before any accommodation is evaluated, how the burdens of production and persuasion shift, and what undue hardship really requires. It works through the accommodation categories that generate the most litigation: leave beyond FMLA exhaustion, telework and the attendance-as-essential-function question after the pandemic, schedule modification, reassignment and the circuit split over whether it is mandatory or competitive, and accommodation of mental health conditions. It also covers the medical inquiry and confidentiality rules that trip employers before any accommodation is even requested, the direct threat defense and its individualized-assessment requirement, and the interaction with the FMLA, workers' compensation, and the PWFA. A worked example follows a fictional employer through a request that starts badly and is repaired.