After the day · Page 61
When it wobbles: the people
For you only
Every room wobbles somewhere. The craft is not preventing all of it; it is recognising which wobble you are looking at and applying the boring, tested fix instead of improvising a dramatic one.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Blank screen at 11:00 | It is almost always the prompt, not the people. Have them generate a fresh prompt in the thinking tool and paste it in unread |
| A team polishing colours for an hour | "Show me the click that proves it." Sharpen one path instead of decorating five |
| Two ideas, both half-built | Pick the one closer to the brief. The other goes on the wall for the next build day |
| A pair that has stopped talking | Split the job: one builds, one drafts the user test questions. Sometimes the finding of the day is how two people work together |
| "We are done" at 13:00 | They are not. Swap prototypes with another team for ten minutes and watch. The gaps will introduce themselves |
| One voice steamrolling a pair | Ninety-second note-and-vote (Chapter 19). Writing first makes the quiet person's idea compete fairly |
| The room relitigates the brief at 11:00 | Do not negotiate a new brief live. Restate the one on the wall in a single sentence, send them back to build, note it for next time |
| The cynic ("this is a toy") | Do not debate. Recruit them: "you might be right, and the users arrive at 15:30. Build the version that proves me wrong." A cynic with a prototype is a convert by 16:00, and if they are right, the test will say so, which is the day working |
The pattern under all eight: never answer energy with energy. Answer it with the brief, the clock, or the users. Those three own the day; you just speak for them.