Before design reviews, write what you assume is already…
Before entering any design conversation or architecture review, write one sentence answering 'What am I assuming is already settled here?' to surface expertise-hidden assumptions that should be re-examined.
When This Fires
- Before design reviews, architecture discussions, or technical planning meetings
- Before revisiting a system you designed or scoped originally
- When you notice a design conversation is "stuck" — often stuck means constrained by an unexamined assumption
- Any technical discussion where the scope feels surprisingly narrow
Common Failure Mode
Answering the question with truly immovable constraints ("we're assuming we'll use the existing production infrastructure") rather than with assumptions that feel settled but might not be ("we're assuming the API needs to be synchronous"). The valuable assumptions are the ones that feel so obvious you almost didn't write them down — those are the ones most likely to be cached decisions rather than current constraints.
The Protocol
Before entering a design conversation: write one sentence completing "I am assuming _ is already settled." Pick the assumption that feels most "obvious" — that's the one most likely to be hiding an unexplored option. During the conversation, notice when solutions are rejected because they violate this assumption. Ask: "Is that actually a constraint, or a decision we could revisit?"