Check 3-5 yes/no gate criteria at each pipeline stage transition — any "no" keeps the output in its current stage until addressed

Why This Is a Rule

Without gate criteria, stage transitions are subjective: "I feel like this draft is done enough to review." Subjective transitions produce inconsistent quality — sometimes the draft is genuinely ready, sometimes it advances prematurely because you're eager to feel progress, and sometimes it stays too long because perfectionism prevents advancement. Gate criteria make transitions binary and consistent: either the checklist passes or it doesn't.

The 3-5 yes/no question format borrows from Limit checklists to 5-9 items targeting frequent + consequential errors, ordered catastrophic-first for partial execution under time pressure's checklist design: enough items to catch meaningful deficiencies, few enough to complete in under 2 minutes. Draft → Review gate example: "All sections present? Word count within ±20% of target? Key argument stated explicitly? Supporting evidence cited for each claim?" If all yes → advance. If any no → stay in Draft and address the deficiency.

Gate criteria also prevent the opposite problem: outputs that skip stages entirely. Without gates, you might jump from a rough draft directly to delivery under time pressure, skipping review and polish entirely. The gate criteria make it structurally impossible to advance without the minimum quality threshold for each stage being met.

When This Fires

• At every stage boundary in your production pipeline (Move outputs forward through pipeline stages (Draft → Review → Polish → Deliver) — no skipping, no backward oscillation without explicit regression decisions)
• When outputs advance to later stages with quality problems that should have been caught earlier
• When subjective "gut feel" is the only criterion for advancing outputs through stages
• Complements Move outputs forward through pipeline stages (Draft → Review → Polish → Deliver) — no skipping, no backward oscillation without explicit regression decisions (forward-only pipeline) with the specific transition mechanism

Common Failure Mode

Rushing the gate: checking the criteria while wanting to advance, which biases toward "yes" answers. The gate only works if you're genuinely willing to keep the output at its current stage when criteria aren't met. Treat "no" as diagnostic information, not as a failure to overcome.

The Protocol

(1) For each stage transition in your pipeline, define 3-5 binary yes/no gate criteria specific to that transition. (2) Draft → Review gate: All sections complete? Key argument present? Evidence cited? Within scope? (3) Review → Polish gate: Structure logical? Arguments clear? Feedback incorporated? No major gaps? (4) Polish → Deliver gate: Error-free? Formatting correct? Distribution plan ready? Meets output-type quality standard? (5) At each transition, check every gate criterion. All yes → advance. Any no → stay in current stage, address the deficiency, then re-check. The gate is pass/fail with no partial credit.