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How to ThinkIn the Age of AI
Principlev1PR-2122

Create boundary objects—artifacts designed to be meaningful…

Create boundary objects—artifacts designed to be meaningful to multiple groups while supporting different interpretations—as translation infrastructure between functional schemas.

Why This Is a Principle

Derives from Different functions develop different schemas as adaptive… (different functions have different schemas), Meaning as Receiver Construction (receivers construct meaning), and Schemas as Knowledge Organization Structures (schemas structure knowledge). This is a design principle for cross-functional artifacts. It's more specific than a pure axiom but still general enough to apply across contexts. Actionable (design multi-interpretation artifacts).

Source Lessons

Cross-functional schema translation

Different functions speak different cognitive languages — not just different jargon, but different schemas for what matters, what quality means, and how success is measured. Cross-functional collaboration requires translation between these schemas: the ability to understand another function's mental model well enough to express your concerns in their terms and to interpret their concerns in yours.

Connections

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