| name | structure-consulting-storyline |
| description | Sequence a central-case-lead-approved answer into a consulting storyline or operating artifact. Use for a governing thought, answer pyramid, deck- and section-level belief journey, title spine, compact page briefs, playbook architecture, and narrative QA after research and adjudication are complete. Consume the existing Audience/Onboarding Contract and approved message contracts; preserve hypothesis results and evidence limits. Do not decompose the problem, research, adjudicate the answer, or design slides. |
Structure Consulting Storyline
Turn an approved answer into a sequence that changes what the reader understands, believes, or can do. The central case lead retains approval.
Confirm the handoff
Require the management question/use, approved answer v1 or message spine, hypothesis results, approved content-spine payloads with grain/entitlement/qualifiers, communication job and real ask, Audience/Onboarding Contract locator, and storyline_entry: ready.
Return upstream if a material claim is unresolved, a user-obtainable gap remains unoffered in the decision window, or a narrative step needs new evidence. Preserve an approved bounded answer and continuation gate rather than implying certainty.
Build one belief journey
- Write the qualified governing thought.
- Build an answer pyramid or another architecture suited to the answer—not a template.
- Define the reader's starting belief, the new belief each section earns, the turning point, and the landing: understanding, warning, learning, instruction, escalation, or decision.
- Make each section's landing the next section's premise.
- Read titles alone; each must answer the prior implicit question or create the next one, and together they must form one argument.
Use because / therefore / but at section boundaries only as a diagnostic. If no honest bridge exists without inventing a claim, reorder, merge, or return the gap; never add the bridge as a page field. Use story-archetypes.md only when pattern choice is genuinely uncertain.
Pass the canonical page brief
For every page provide exactly:
page job | message/title | proof | source locator
page job is the page's distinct cognitive function: orient, correct, compare, pressure-test, sequence, or land. In a short storyline, reuse a job label only when the repeated function is intentional and advances different proof; never use an output-class label as a page job. If briefs are tabular, render four real columns; otherwise use one explicit four-field line.message/title matches approved claim state; functional titles are valid for operating, appendix, reference, definition, and divider pages.proof is the eligible content shown: exact fact, number, worked example, observed mechanism, bounded comparison, or explicit gap. An exhibit name such as capability matrix, risk framework, RACI, or control map is not proof.source locator recovers the content-spine row, evidence chain, or analysis note.
Add a short exception only for a material transition/context dependency, audience action, or first-use term. Keep deck/section reasoning at journey level rather than expanding every page contract. A real decision request follows the option, criterion, or evidence that earns it.
Remove repeated conclusions without new proof; company detours that close no gap; background that changes no belief; generic taxonomies/frameworks; unearned landscape, mechanism, risk, or operating-model pages; premature decisions; and any core argument that restarts after the close.
Preserve upstream contracts
Consume—not duplicate—the Audience/Onboarding Contract, first-use/new-noun rules, claim-state grammar, and approved pilot/weekly-update objects. Audience variants may change only centrally approved reader deltas, never the invariant fact base.
Review and hand off
Verify each section earns a new belief/capability; every page job is necessary; title and proof match; decision-core explanatory pages have entitlement: explain; uncertainty remains visible; unfamiliar entities are locally understandable; the opening passes the 60-second repeat-back; and noun-swapping breaks the sequence unless transferability is the point. A category-level evidence base must not become an expert-looking long deck.
Return the governing thought, architecture, belief journey, numbered title spine, canonical page briefs, unresolved narrative risks/loopbacks, and request for central approval. Do not choose layouts or visual systems; after approval hand the briefs to $design-consulting-slides.
Load detail only when needed
- Read ba-operating-loop.md for a long or broken belief journey, not every storyline.
- Read workflow-and-qa.md for a complex multi-section deck, operating artifact, or failed cold read.
- Read quality-bar.md for consequential handoff or failed review.
- Authorized pattern distillation requires separate permission-cleared sources; never use live-case evidence or protected content as a bundled method library.
- Use storyboard.template.md only when a durable page brief helps.
