Field · Playbook

Named moves. Carry them into the weekend.

Fifteen heuristics. When, the move, the failure mode. If you cannot name the move you are using, you are probably using the intern's.

1. 01

   Read the grain

   When

   Any designed object: API, rubric, institution, room.

   Move

   Ask who built it, what they optimised, what they never imagined. Cut with that, not with the brochure.

   Failure

   Arguing with the system as if the documentation were the terrain.

2. 02

   The unstated prize

   When

   Sponsors, prize categories, hiring judges.

   Move

   Name what the person with power actually wants to look like on Monday. Make them the hero of a true story.

   Failure

   Optimising for the printed category list.

3. 03

   What 80 teams will ship

   When

   The first twenty minutes of a brief.

   Move

   Print the obvious field. Ask a model for ten. Strike the overlap. Step one constraint off.

   Failure

   Building the weather report.

4. 04

   Demo is the product

   When

   Any timed room.

   Move

   Write the script first. Highlight claims. Those highlights are the only tickets.

   Failure

   Architecture as a substitute for a running turn.

5. 05

   The building is not on your team

   When

   Venue Wi‑Fi, projectors, accounts, power.

   Move

   Offline happy path plus a filmed backup. Live only on a network you control.

   Failure

   A spinner on stage.

6. 06

   The fifteen-second window

   When

   Tired panels, Sunday afternoon.

   Move

   Design the opening as if it is the whole product. Corridor-repeatable by minute one.

   Failure

   Context, team intros, and architecture before the turn.

7. 07

   Three chairs

   When

   Scope fights, hour 4, hour 20.

   Move

   Seat turn, proof, residue. Everything else is Monday. Say it out loud.

   Failure

   'It's small, we'll just add it.'

8. 08

   Write how you lose

   When

   Before ideation.

   Move

   Five loss conditions. Invert each into a requirement. Then ideate.

   Failure

   A fog of win conditions with no refusals.

9. 09

   And then what

   When

   After any clever move.

   Move

   Ask what happens next from the view of a tired person with power.

   Failure

   Stopping at first order — intern thinking.

10. 10

    The hostile question is a gift

    When

    'This already exists.'

    Move

    Agree. Name the existing thing. Then the minute it fails. That failure is the product.

    Failure

    A feature list as defence.

11. 11

    Mean briefs for the intern

    When

    Any model, at idea-time or at code-time.

    Move

    Constraint, judge, kill zone, chair you will not give up. Then dispose of what comes back.

    Failure

    'Help me brainstorm' — a vacuum that fills with consensus.

12. 12

    The slop signature

    When

    Taglines, decks, READMEs, architectures.

    Move

    Strike hollow verbs and any sentence without a person, a minute, or a price.

    Failure

    Shipping consensus with your name on the door.

13. 13

    Generate, then kill

    When

    The first ten minutes, and whenever you feel original without evidence.

    Move

    Map the twelve products. Write obituaries. Keep a survivor with a body in it.

    Failure

    Ignoring the model, or obeying it.

14. 14

    One still frame

    When

    Saturday morning and Sunday freeze.

    Move

    A stranger should guess the sentence from the image. Twelve words of caption or fewer.

    Failure

    Six charts, a team photo, an architecture poster.

15. 15

    The human remainder

    When

    After the intern has drafted.

    Move

    Strike every line a model could write without leaving a desk. Go get one observation that survives.

    Failure

    A well-prompted intern with your name on it.