> "Our standards live in the senior engineer's head. When she goes on leave, the team improvises — and when she eventually leaves, the standards leave with her." ^pain A collective articulation pain. Operating norms, design conventions, the *why* behind recurring choices — these exist as judgement in specific people, never written down because nobody felt the urgency until the holder became unavailable. The pain is structurally invisible: the gap is never named, because nobody outside the holder's head knows what the standards are. ## Discovery questions - "Who on your team would be most painful to lose for a month — and why?" - "If your most experienced engineer went on parental leave tomorrow, what would they take with them that doesn't live in any document?" - "When someone new asks 'how do we do X here?' — who do they end up walking over to?" ^discovery-questions ## Examples - Joint Commission hospital accreditation: medication reconciliation procedures informally varied by unit because standards were not consistently documented, leading to compliance findings.[^1] - OCC semi-annual risk perspective: regional bank AML/KYC standards applied via oral tradition and shadow spreadsheets, drawing regulatory criticism.[^2] [^1]: https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/patient-safety-topics/sentinel-event/medication-reconciliation [^2]: https://www.occ.treas.gov/publications-and-resources/publications/semiannual-risk-perspective/files/pub-semiannual-risk-perspective-spring-2019.pdf