01 / CONDITION
Listen before naming the solution.
PRODUCESFRAME · OUTCOME · CONSTRAINTS · QUESTIONS
05 / WORKING METHOD
How the work moves.
An operating sequence for turning an idea, business condition, or workflow problem into a system that can be understood, tested, and continued.
01 / OPERATING MAP
A sequence with gates, loops, and permission to stop.
Each stage produces an artifact or decision that makes the next movement safer. Evidence may send the work backward, narrow it, or end it.
FRAME · OUTCOME · CONSTRAINTS · QUESTIONS
02 / RESEARCH
Find what the initial explanation cannot contain.
PRODUCESRISKS · PRECEDENTS · ASSUMPTIONS TO TEST
03 / SYSTEM MAP
Make relationships visible.
PRODUCESACTORS · FLOWS · DEPENDENCIES · HANDOFFS
04 / ENVIRONMENT
Create a shared working reality.
PRODUCESQDI · DOC SETS · TOOLS · AUTHORITY
05 / DESIGN
Resolve structure before decoration.
PRODUCESROUTES · WIREFRAMES · TOKENS · BEHAVIOR
06 / BUILD
Create the smallest complete movement.
PRODUCESWORKING SLICE · STATUS · BOUNDARY
07 / VALIDATE
Test the claim—and why it may be wrong.
PRODUCESRECEIPTS · RISKS · NEXT DECISION
08 / CONTINUITY
Leave the system legible.
PRODUCESCURRENT DOCS · HANDOFF · NEXT ROUTE
↳ EVIDENCE MAY RETURN THE WORK TO ANY EARLIER STAGEREVISE · NARROW · PIVOT · PAUSE · ARCHIVE · PROCEED
02 / QDI OPERATING LOOP
Questions → Documentation → Implementation
Questions expose missing context. Documentation stabilizes agreement. Implementation creates inspectable behavior—and new evidence.
↺ RESULT → EVIDENCE → BETTER QUESTIONS
03 / RESPONSIBILITY MODEL
AI participates. Responsibility does not disappear.
Authority expands only when the operating environment is clear and the work remains aligned. It contracts when an agent guesses, drifts, loops, crosses a boundary, or produces output that cannot be verified.
HUMAN
FINAL AUTHORITYIntent · judgment · responsibility
approval · consequence
SHARED
WORKING PARTNERSHIPResearch · questions · alternatives
mapping · critique · verification
AGENT
BOUNDED EXECUTIONAnalysis and implementation inside
approved context, tools, and status
04 / DECISION GATES
Forward is one valid direction—not the default.
The sequence can stop, return, narrow, or change direction whenever the operating evidence becomes stronger than the desire to continue.
Do we understand the condition well enough to choose a lane?
RESEARCH / FRAME / STOPWill the change solve the problem without moving debt elsewhere?
REDESIGN / NARROW / PROCEEDIs the intended behavior legible before implementation?
PROTOTYPE / REVISE / APPROVEDoes the completed slice prove the claim being made?
TEST / CORRECT / VERIFYWhat should happen now?
SHIP / REVISE / PIVOT / PAUSE / ARCHIVE05 / ADAPTATION
The core remains consistent. The surrounding system is tailored.
A small design-led site may need a light documentation layer. A multi-actor product with agents, databases, permissions, and irreversible actions may require several connected Doc Sets and stricter evidence gates. The method does not make every project identical. It makes the reasoning reviewable.