interview

Skill: interview

Pressure-tests an idea before it becomes a spec. The user shares a raw idea; across 3 phases you surface hidden assumptions, name tradeoffs, expose imprecisions, and propose fresh angles — then hand the survivor to specify. This is the optional pre-backbone step: it makes specify cheaper by killing or reshaping a weak idea before any spec gets written.

Scope: any idea. Product, content, business, architecture, refactor approach — all in scope. The boundary: this is an interview about the idea, not codebase archaeology. Ask the user to articulate the idea in words first. Consult files only if the user explicitly invites it; default is interview-first, no unprompted grep/find/read.

Language. Respond in the user's language; the instructions here are English for clarity.

The depth dial and the Socratic posture are SDD-wide: → ../_shared/interview-depth.md · ../_shared/ask-style.md

Depth dial — set this first

One AskUserQuestion, then commit (default medium). Depth governs question volume and how much you decide for the user:

Depth	Questions	Posture
easy	3-4	Decide-for-you. One pass on intent, one sharp tradeoff, one angle.
medium (default)	6-10	Balanced. Full three phases.
hard	10-15	Interrogate-me. Drill every assumption, run more probing frames.

The adversarial triggers (grill / rip apart / розʼєби / погрилити) imply hard unless the user says otherwise. State the depth in one line, then start.

Hard rules

1. Every question goes through AskUserQuestion, not free text — 2-4 concrete options, the first marked (Recommended), each option's description spelling out what follows from it. Free text slips into "I don't know" and loses signal.
2. One question at a time. The user answers with full context on the previous answer, and you adapt the next question to it.
3. Recommendation is mandatory. Always carry a position inside the Recommended option — a neutral interviewer surfaces less than one with a take the user can argue against.
4. Don't skip phases. No alternatives before intent is clear; no grilling tradeoffs before the idea is understood.

Phases

Use 1-3 questions per phase, targeting the count from the depth dial. Move on from a phase when answers repeat, the user says "next" / "хватить", or the latest answer added nothing.

Phase 1 — Understand the idea

If the idea isn't stated in one sentence yet, ask for it in plain text (no AskUserQuestion). Then unpack: who suffers without this · what success concretely looks like · whether it's new or a refinement. Don't ask what's already obvious.

Phase 2 — Stress-test tradeoffs and imprecisions

The core. Hunt hidden assumptions ("this assumes X — what if X is false?"), tradeoffs (time vs quality, scope vs depth, reach vs focus), imprecisions (vague terms, ambiguous metrics), attention competition, and cost of failure. Every question offers positions, not yes/no.

Probing frames — internal lenses (premortem · second-order · naive listener · inversion · cost of waiting · the other person). Pick what fits, mix them, don't name the frame to the user. Worked before/after examples per lens → references/probing-frames.md.

Intensity dial. Default tone is Socratic; the adversarial triggers escalate phrasing ("Why do you think X is even true?"). The user dials back with "ease up" / "помʼякши".

Drill vs move on. Drill the same dimension when an answer surfaced a new assumption; move on once the position is clear and the tradeoff named.

Phase 3 — Propose new angles

Now actively propose via AskUserQuestion: 2-3 alternative shapes (different audience, format, scale) or a twist (inversion, constraint, simplification). The Recommended option is your strongest bet, with reasoning in description.

Final summary (plain text, not AskUserQuestion)

≤4 questions → mini; ≥5 → full.

Mini: Revised idea (one sentence) · Weakest spot (one sentence) · Next action (one verb).

Full:

## Revised idea
{one paragraph — the idea after the interview}

## What surfaced
- **Hidden assumptions**: …
- **Main tradeoff**: …
- **Weakest spot**: …

## Alternative angles
1. {strongest} 2. {second} 3. {the one they wouldn't have reached alone}

## Next step
{one concrete verb — usually "/sdd:specify <slug>" once the idea survives}

A full annotated medium-depth pass → references/annotated-pass.md.

Hand off

interview writes no files — it sharpens the idea in the user's head. After the summary, emit the stage-handoff block per ../_shared/handoff.md (utility variant — /clear optional): What I did (the revised idea + its weakest spot) + Review (nothing on disk — the summary above is the artifact) + Run next: when the idea is a feature you intend to build, /sdd:specify <slug> turns the survivor into a spec; otherwise resume whatever you were doing. Never end on a bare «Next: …».

Anti-patterns

• Asking "what exactly do you mean by X?" instead of offering 3 interpretations to pick between.
• Generic advice ("think about the user") instead of a specific take.
• Ending without a recommendation, or without naming the next step.
• Dragging past the depth-dial ceiling — at medium the target is 6-10, not a marathon.
• Reaching into the repo / running grep unprompted — the idea is articulated in words first.

Edge cases

• Idea already mature — skip most of Phase 1, sometimes to 1 question.
• User aborts with "ok summary" — go straight to the final block with what's gathered.
• Idea turned out weak mid-interview — say so plainly, then propose the reframe.
• Idea is for someone else — re-route: "what would they say to question X?"

Stuck protocol

If the user picks Other twice in a row OR writes "I don't know" / "не знаю", switch to a single open text question ("In your own words — what's bugging you most about this right now?"). Once they answer, resume AskUserQuestion with a new angle.

References

• references/probing-frames.md — the 6 lenses with worked before/after questions.
• references/annotated-pass.md — a full annotated medium-depth interview.
• ../_shared/interview-depth.md — the SDD-wide easy/medium/hard dial.
• ../_shared/ask-style.md — the AskUserQuestion option-writing contract.
• ../_shared/handoff.md — the stage-handoff block format.