Cut no-op justification and template the questionnaire structure

Drop the sentence explaining why interrogating the subject fails — the
model already obeys it, so it was paying load to say nothing.

Replace the bulleted document structure with an XML-tagged
<questionnaire-template>, mirroring to-spec's <spec-template>: headings
with prose fill-in guidance and a nested <question-example>.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Matt Pocock
2026-07-14 19:31:22 +01:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.8
parent bbce2f91d6
commit 7f68c06dcb
+35 -10
View File
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ disable-model-invocation: true
Turn something the user can't answer alone into a **questionnaire** — a Markdown document they hand to one person to fill in async, or fill out together over a meeting. The recipient holds knowledge the user lacks; the questionnaire pulls it out of them.
**Grill the send, not the subject.** The user is offloading this precisely because they don't hold the answers, so interrogating them about the subject just yields "I don't know, I don't know" — the failure this skill exists to avoid. Interview the user only about the _send_, which they can always answer: who it goes to, and what they need back. The questions in the document then target the **gap** between what the recipient knows and what the user needs.
**Grill the send, not the subject.** Interview the user only about the _send_, which they can always answer: who it goes to, and what they need back. The questions in the document then target the **gap** between what the recipient knows and what the user needs.
1. **Who is it going to?** Ask, in one exchange, the recipient's role, expertise, and relationship to the user. This fixes the questionnaire's tone and how much context it must carry. Done when you know who the recipient is and what they know that the user doesn't.
@@ -16,13 +16,38 @@ Turn something the user can't answer alone into a **questionnaire** — a Markdo
## Document structure
Frame the whole document as a **discovery questionnaire**: the user lacks context, the recipient holds it. Top to bottom:
Frame the document as a **discovery questionnaire**: the user lacks context, the recipient holds it. Order questions most-important-first — async means you may only get one pass — and group them under `##` headings by theme once there are more than a handful. Write it using the template below.
- **Metadata header** — purpose, who's asking, who's answering, and how the answers will be used. Naming the downstream decision gets sharper answers.
- **Context** — one paragraph orienting a recipient who wasn't in the user's head. Not a page.
- **How to answer** — one line: the deadline and rough effort, and explicit permission to give partial answers or flag unknowns.
- **Questions** — grouped under `##` headings by theme once there are more than a handful, ordered most-important-first (async means you may only get one pass). Each question carries:
- one idea only — no compound questions;
- a one-line _why this matters_ only where the question could be misread or invite a throwaway answer, never on a self-evident one;
- an answer stub (`> `) directly beneath, so there is an obvious place to type.
- **Catch-all** — a closing "anything we didn't ask that we should know?"
<questionnaire-template>
# <Questionnaire title>
**Purpose:** why this questionnaire exists and the decision riding on it.
**From:** <the user> — **To:** <the recipient> — **How your answers will be used:** <where they go>
## Context
One paragraph orienting a recipient who wasn't in the user's head. Enough to answer well, not a page.
## How to answer
Deadline and rough effort. Partial answers and "I don't know" are useful — flag anything you're unsure of rather than skipping it.
## <Theme heading>
One `##` section per theme. Under each, its questions, most-important-first. Every question is one idea — never compound — with an answer stub directly beneath, and a one-line _why this matters_ only where the question could be misread or invite a throwaway answer.
<question-example>
### What load is the system expected to handle at launch?
_Why this matters: it decides whether we provision for burst traffic now or defer it._
>
</question-example>
## Anything else?
A closing catch-all: anything we didn't ask that we should know?
</questionnaire-template>