Tool Foundation Sprint Magic Lenses

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Foundation Sprint Magic Lenses

Day 2 afternoon of a Foundation Sprint. The team evaluates each candidate approach from multiple perspectives, surfaces contradictions, and produces a top bet plus a backup plan. The Decider names both; without an explicit backup, invalidation of the top bet sends the team back to ambiguous debate.

Family contract: docs/reference/skill-families/foundation-sprint-skills-contract.md. This skill is a member of foundation-sprint-skills.

When to Use

• Day 2 afternoon of a Foundation Sprint.
• Approach Options is signed; the team has 3-7 candidate approaches advancing.
• The team has at least 1 team-specific custom lens prepared (per ratified spec decision; classic lenses alone are insufficient).

When NOT to Use

• Approach Options is unresolved or under-numbered (fewer than 3). Force a third option through the approach-options skill first.
• The team has pre-committed to a top bet. Magic Lenses is a sense-making exercise; if the decision is already made, the time is better spent on Founding Hypothesis.
• The team is exhausted and cannot evaluate clearly. Postpone to Day 2 morning of a follow-up sprint rather than rush.

What This Skill Produces

A single bundled artifact with six sections:

1. Classic lens charts: customer, pragmatic, growth, money lenses each as a 2x2 plot or qualitative position of every approach.
2. Custom lens charts: at least 1 team-specific lens (defensibility, mission fit, founder excitement, learning rate, etc.).
3. Pattern review: consistent winners across lenses, contradictions, biggest trade-off the team is making.
4. Top bet: the Decider's chosen approach with rationale.
5. Backup plan: the runner-up approach the team falls back to if the top bet invalidates.
6. Decision rationale: one paragraph explaining why the top bet over the backup.

See references/TEMPLATE.md for the canonical structure and references/EXAMPLE.md for the Brainshelf example.

The Five Canonical Lenses

Custom lens examples: defensibility against a specific competitor, founder excitement, mission fit, learning rate, regulatory risk, partner alignment, hiring leverage.

Sequence (105 minutes)

Step 1: Frame the lenses (5 min)

Facilitator restates the 4 classic lenses and confirms the 1 or more custom lenses the team prepared. If no custom lens is prepared, this skill prompts the team to generate one before proceeding (per ratified spec decision).

Step 2: Score each approach per lens (40-60 min)

For each lens, plot each approach on a 2x2 of (high/low value on that lens) by (high/low feasibility for that lens). Use dot positions rather than numeric scores; arbitrary precision (3.7 vs 3.8) is a smell that the team has confused sense-making with math.

The team discusses each lens briefly before plotting. Decider does not vote in this step; the Decider supervotes at the end.

Step 3: Pattern review (15-25 min)

After all lenses are plotted, the team identifies:

• Consistent winners: approaches that score in the top half of 3 or more lenses.
• Consistent losers: approaches that score in the bottom half of 3 or more lenses. These drop out.
• Contradictions: approaches that win one lens hard but lose another. These surface the trade-offs the Decider must make.
• Biggest trade-off: name it explicitly. "Boring-and-shippable vs risky-and-distinctive." "Mass-market vs niche-defensible." Naming the trade-off prevents the Decider from picking by vibes.

Step 4: Decider supervote on top bet (10-15 min)

The Decider names the top bet. The chosen approach should be:

• A consistent winner OR a contradictory approach the Decider explicitly chooses to take the bet on.
• Defensible in language ("we are betting [trade-off] because [reason]").
• Aligned with the Mini Manifesto from Day 1.