Facilitator guide: Build the Brief Before the Work

Preparation

Print the worksheet or provide cards for context items. Prepare at least one fictional or safely redacted use case with a current source, supporting note, stale item, conflict, and unnecessary sensitive detail. This is an applied activity; the output can be useful, but it is never a reason to use a real client or consequential decision in class.

Facilitation Priorities

• Let learners sort on paper before using a chatbot.
• Name the Context Cleanup moves being reused: source of truth, cleanup decision, unresolved uncertainty, and safe exclusion.
• Treat exclusion as an active design choice, not a failure to provide enough.
• Ask what makes the named source authoritative.
• Preserve uncertainty when no source of truth exists.
• Compare the two outputs by goal and criteria, not polish alone.
• Remind learners that the chatbot’s context summary is a practical checkpoint, not a complete disclosure of hidden processing.

Common Difficulties

• Everything is marked Required: ask what could be removed without materially changing the task.
• Nothing is marked Verify: introduce one outdated or informal claim.
• The chatbot blends conflicting sources: require a conflict list before drafting.
• The learner uses sensitive material: switch to a fictional equivalent or redact unnecessary details.
• The changed variable has no visible effect: choose a more consequential audience, constraint, or source.

Evidence of Learning

Look for intentional selection, a defensible source hierarchy, explicit uncertainty, safe exclusion, and the ability to explain why one context variable changed the result.

Provisional timing for facilitator planning

These inherited estimates are starting points for facilitation, not completion targets for learners. Refine them after observing setup, access needs, discussion, and actual participation.

• Lab: 30–40 minutes (short: 20; extended: 60)

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Source: labs/build-the-brief-before-the-work/facilitator-guide.md