1# Facilitator Moves
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3Out-of-the-box prompts for when the conversation goes shallow, circular, or solution-locked. Always announce which move you're using and why.
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5## Challenge the brief
6> "I'm going to push back on the brief for one round. The implicit goal seems to be <X>. What if the real goal is <Y>?"  -  *Recommended: derive Y from the actual user pain in tickets/support logs, not from the document.*
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8Use when the brief feels copied from a previous project or written to justify a decision already made.
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10## Remove the artifact
11> "What if we deliver the outcome without producing this thing at all?"
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13Use before committing engineering effort. Forces a no-build / comms-only / process-change option onto the table.
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15## Invert value
16> "If this succeeds wildly, who is hurt or inconvenienced  -  internally or externally?"
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18Surfaces stakeholder conflict early. Often produces a constraint missing from the brief.
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20## Sacrifice test
21> "If we had to ship this with one of its functions deleted, which goes? What does that tell us?"
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23Clarifies which functions are truly basic. The function nobody will sacrifice is the basic one.
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25## Red-team option
26> "Argue against the leading option as if you were paid to kill it."
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28Run after evaluation, before development. Two minutes, then re-score.
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30## Operator lens
31> "Who picks this up at 3am on a Sunday? What do they wish we'd done differently?"
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33Use at VM3/VM4. Promotes observability, runbooks, and rollback into first-class design concerns.
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35## No-build lens
36> "What's the version of this that uses no code  -  only config, comms, a checklist, or a single human running it for two weeks?"
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38Use at VM1/VM2. Often becomes the MVP and the learning vehicle.
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40## Rollback lens
41> "If we ship and it goes wrong, how do we undo it in five minutes?"
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43Use at VM4. If the answer requires a deploy, the design is not ready.
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45## Cost-of-delay lens
46> "What does waiting one more sprint cost vs save?"
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48Use when the user is debating scope cuts vs delay.
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50## Reverse the time horizon
51> "Imagine we look back at this in two years. What's the version we wish we'd built?"
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53Use when the team is over-anchored on this quarter.
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55## Boundary swap
56> "What if this lived in <a different team / system / layer>? Who owns it then?"
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58Surfaces conway's-law issues before they ossify.
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60## Naming as design
61> "If we had to name the basic function in three words, what would it be?"
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63Forces clarity. If the team can't agree on the name, they're not aligned on the function.
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65## Picking a move
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67| Symptom | Move |
68|---|---|
69| Solutioning before functions are named | No-build lens, Naming as design |
70| Brief feels manufactured | Challenge the brief |
71| Team loves the leading option too quickly | Red-team option, Sacrifice test |
72| Design is technically clean but operationally scary | Operator lens, Rollback lens |
73| Stakeholders nodding too quickly | Invert value |
74| Stuck choosing between near-identical options | Boundary swap, Reverse the time horizon |
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