Toolkit — Cheat Sheet¶

Purpose Prevent accidental system design and framework cargo-culting by forcing decision clarity, constraint, and inspectable artifacts.

0. ENTRY CONDITION (Do Not Proceed Without This)¶

Observable Failure (Required)

What is visibly going wrong right now if no system exists?

☐ Strategy confusion
☐ Discovery churn
☐ Delivery bottleneck
☐ Coordination breakdown
☐ Evolution / scaling failure

Rule: If you cannot point to a concrete failure, stop.

1. SYSTEM IDENTITY¶

System Name (Optional but stabilizing)

What people will call this when they misuse it.

2. DECISION THE SYSTEM OPTIMIZES (NON-NEGOTIABLE)¶

Primary Decision Type (Choose one):

☐ Priority
☐ Scope
☐ Ownership
☐ Sequencing
☐ Investment
☐ Diagnosis
☐ Repair

Test:

Which decision becomes safer, faster, or harder to avoid?

If none → this is not a system.

3. PRIMARY OBJECT OF CONTROL¶

What the system directly manipulates (choose 1–2 max):

☐ Goals
☐ Work items
☐ Interfaces
☐ Domains
☐ Constraints
☐ Incentives
☐ Information flow

Rule: Systems do not control outcomes — only objects.

4. UNIT OF ANALYSIS¶

Smallest unit the system is valid for:

☐ Individual
☐ Team
☐ Multi-team
☐ Organization
☐ Ecosystem / Market

Warning: Scaling beyond this without redesign guarantees failure.

5. CAUSALITY MODEL (MATCH OR FAIL)¶

Dominant causality assumption:

☐ Linear planning
☐ Feedback loops
☐ Constraints & flow
☐ Evolution / selection
☐ Socio-technical dynamics

Mismatch here invalidates the system.

6. ARTIFACTS (INSPECTABILITY RULE)¶

Concrete outputs the system MUST produce:

☐ Map
☐ Table
☐ Score
☐ Vocabulary
☐ Contract
☐ Canvas
☐ Rule set

Rule: If nothing can be inspected, challenged, or revised → no system exists.

7. VOCABULARY & BOUNDARY RULES¶

Terms that MUST be defined precisely:

(List 3–5 max)

Vague thinking explicitly disallowed:

(e.g., “alignment”, “value”, “impact” without qualifiers)

8. NON-NEGOTIABLE CONSTRAINT (POWER SOURCE)¶

What the system forbids or forces:

☐ Timebox
☐ Scope limit
☐ Participation rule
☐ Sequence rule
☐ Authority boundary

Rule: A system that allows everything enforces nothing.

9. FAILURE & MISUSE MODEL (REQUIRED)¶

How this system breaks when misapplied:

☐ Used as justification
☐ Turned into ritual
☐ Scaled incorrectly
☐ Vocabulary without enforcement
☐ Tool-first adoption

If misuse cannot be named, it will dominate usage.

10. ADOPTION PATH (REALISTIC)¶

Who can use this first, successfully:

☐ Solo
☐ Facilitated team
☐ Leadership only
☐ Org-wide mandate

Time to first value:

☐ < 1 hour
☐ 1–2 days
☐ 1–2 weeks
☐ Structural change required

EXIT TEST (MANDATORY)¶

Answer YES to all:

☐ Failure is observable
☐ Decision optimized is explicit
☐ Object of control is narrow
☐ Artifact is inspectable
☐ Constraint is enforced
☐ Misuse is predictable

If any box is unchecked → do not deploy.

Core Law (Memorize This)¶

Every system is a decision machine with a failure model. If you can’t name both, you’re designing folklore.