After the day · Page 62
When it wobbles: the machinery
For you only
| What breaks | What to do |
|---|---|
| The build tool is down or builds keep failing | Switch tools and paste the same prompt. They are interchangeable, which is exactly why the tool argument was never worth ten minutes |
| The office wifi blocks or throttles the tools | Your phone hotspot (charged, per the morning checklist). One hotspot carries a room of eight for an afternoon |
| Free credits run out mid-build | The payment method you readied at T minus 7. Two minutes, not a crisis. If it must be free, the team switches tools and re-pastes |
| A test user cancels at 15:00 | Run with four; the round still works. Below four, grab proxies: people from another floor who have never seen the product are fresh eyes within two minutes' walk |
| All the users fall through | Do not fake it with the build room. Run the pitches on assumptions, mark every user-signal score "untested", and book the test round within three days. Say out loud that the day is honest but unfinished |
| The demo dies mid-pitch | The team talks through the one click that proves it, on a screenshot. You coached this in Chapter 23; now hold the time so they get their full ten minutes |
| The sponsor cancels the morning of | Do not cancel the day. Run everything, record the pitches on a phone, photograph the scorecards, and get the sponsor's call within 24 hours while the signal is fresh. It is weaker than the room version. It is far stronger than no day |
| The sponsor tries to skip the decision ("interesting, let's discuss next week") | Shrink it: "what would you need to see to decide today?" Then point at whichever screen has it |
| Judges tie and deliberation stalls | Silent tie-break from Chapter 25: each judge writes a pick and one sentence, reveal together, sponsor calls it |
| You are running twenty minutes late at 16:00 | Take it from deliberation and the ceremony, never from pitches or the decision. Every team gets its ten minutes; the applause can be efficient |
One meta-rule. When something breaks, narrate it lightly and keep moving: "tool is down, we switch, same prompt." The room takes its cue about how bad things are entirely from your face.