Use when comparing solution candidates or prototypes to reduce uncertainty before locking requirements or design; use UX-specification after the chosen interaction direction is approved.
Use when comparing solution candidates or prototypes to reduce uncertainty before locking requirements or design; use UX-specification after the chosen interaction direction is approved.
comparing solution candidates or prototypes to reduce uncertainty before locking requirements or design; use UX-specification after the chosen interaction direction is approved.
Use this procedure when the required source artefacts are available and Prototype plan, evaluation evidence, and decision record is the next lifecycle deliverable.
Do Not Use When
Use ux-specification when that neighbouring route owns the decision or deliverable.
Do not invent missing project evidence, standards clauses, thresholds, or stakeholder decisions.
Required Inputs
Artefact
Source or provider
Required?
Behaviour when missing
Discovery question, candidate options, constraints, users, risks, and success criteria
Product owner, users, architecture, and research evidence
Yes
Stop the affected step, name the missing source, and return only a qualified gap record.
Workflow
Inspect the required inputs and log the exact sources, versions, and unresolved assumptions.
Apply this skill's existing domain workflow and decision rules to produce .
Prototype plan, evaluation evidence, and decision record
Stop when a required source, accountable decision owner, or deterministic test oracle is absent.
Recover by preserving valid work, marking the blocked scope, and returning the narrowest qualified artefact plus the next evidence needed.
Outputs
Artefact
Consumer
Acceptance condition
Prototype plan, evaluation evidence, and decision record
Requirements, product, design, and architecture owners
Required sections are populated, source links resolve, and every material requirement or decision has an observable review or test oracle.
Evidence Produced
Evidence
Reviewer
Acceptance condition
Source, decision, trace, and validation record for Prototype plan, evaluation evidence, and decision record
Requirements quality reviewer
Inputs used, decisions made, checks run, failures, and unassessed items are explicit.
Capability and permission boundaries
Read and search are required. Editing is allowed only when the request authorises creation or repair of the named requirements artefact. Publishing, production mutation, destructive action, spending, and certification require explicit authority.
Degraded mode
Fallback: if a required file, reviewer, standard source, network check, renderer, or execution capability is unavailable, return the narrowest useful qualified result and mark the affected check not assessed; never convert an unassessed check into a pass.
Decision Rules
Choice or condition
Action
Failure or risk avoided
A prototype has no falsifiable question or decision threshold
Rewrite the experiment before building it.
Prototype theatre with no decision value.
Required inputs and test oracles are complete
Continue through the existing workflow and record evidence.
A deliverable whose acceptance cannot be reproduced.
A mandatory source or owner is missing
Stop the affected branch and issue a qualified gap record.
Fabricated context or unauthorised decisions.
Quality Standards
Preserve stable identifiers and bidirectional traceability from project evidence to Prototype plan, evaluation evidence, and decision record and its acceptance checks.
Apply ISO/IEEE measures only with a named metric, method, threshold, evidence source, and responsible reviewer; run the anti-slop gate before release.
Anti-Patterns
Producing Prototype plan, evaluation evidence, and decision record from assumed context. Fix: cite the project source or mark the scope blocked.
Accepting a material requirement without a deterministic oracle. Fix: add a measurable result, boundary, and verification method.
Crossing into ux-specification without routing the decision. Fix: hand off the named input and preserve trace links.
Treating an unavailable check as passed. Fix: mark it not assessed and state the release consequence.
Claiming standards, statutory, or stakeholder approval without evidence. Fix: cite the source and reviewer or qualify the claim.
Choose the cheapest prototype that can answer the uncertainty, but escalate
evidence with risk: problem/market and alternative review, user research or
observation, concept/landing test, click-through flow, workflow/concierge
simulation, technical spike, and (where justified) a pilot or real commitment.
For each stage record the hypothesis, target users, observable behaviour,
threshold, guardrail, time box, decision, and remaining unknowns. A prototype,
portfolio example, or stakeholder enthusiasm is not evidence of approval or
product-market fit.
If AI assists research, synthesis, requirements, or prototyping, preserve the
source context, ask it to surface questions/options before generating, verify
summaries and competitor claims against originals, keep a decision log, and
review scoped deltas rather than accepting broad regeneration. Human owners
retain product, requirements, accessibility, and release judgement.
This skill creates structured candidate solutions and prototype-driven learning before the project commits to a detailed design. It supports sacrificial prototypes, ready-made solution evaluation, comparison matrices, and explicit learning loops so the engine reduces requirement and design risk early.
When to Use
When the solution space is still open or disputed
When user workflows are hard to understand without concrete examples
When ready-made products or platform choices must be compared
When high-risk assumptions need to be tested before baselining requirements