An artifact does not need to be complete on day one, but it needs boundaries on day one. Copy this card into a private project directory and keep the independent, revised, reviewed, and delivered versions. Do not include passwords, client data, unauthorised third-party information, or unnecessary personal details.
# Artifact Brief — YYYY-MM-DD
Artifact name:
Real situation:
Audience/user:
One problem to solve:
Inputs and sources:
My current baseline:
Key assumptions:
Smallest deliverable:
Format, time, and other constraints:
Acceptance criteria:
What this will not include:
First-version deadline:
Who will give feedback:
Evidence to preserve:
How to shrink, pause, or roll back:
Next review date:
| Version | Completion condition | What to keep |
|---|---|---|
| Independent | Complete the smallest action without an answer key or AI writing it | Original file, time, bottlenecks |
| Structure | Audience can find the problem, conclusion, and next step | Structural diff, fact/guess marks |
| Review | A real reader, user, peer, or defined AI reviewer completes a review | Feedback, error categories, accept/reject reasons |
| Delivery | Another person can begin without your oral explanation | Version, limits, sources, known issues, handover record |
| Gate | Check | Evidence location | Owner/date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | Does the audience know the problem and next action? | ||
| Accurate | Do facts, citations, code, and numbers return to a source or test? | ||
| Usable | Can the main action work under real constraints? | ||
| Maintainable | Are version, dependencies, limits, and owner visible? | ||
| Responsible | Are privacy, copyright, permissions, and error consequences handled? |
Write “unverified” when there is no evidence for a pass. Speed, word count, and feature count are proxy measures, not quality gates.
AI/tool and date:
Work it was allowed to do:
Human judgments I kept:
Three highest-impact issues it raised:
What I accepted/rejected, and why:
Main point restated by a real reader/user:
Most important repair:
Save your version first, then use AI to diagnose, simulate an audience, or generate a parallel task. A person confirms critical facts, permissions, privacy, cost, and final authorship.
Delivery audience and permission scope:
Delivery date and version:
Instructions:
Known limits:
Support owner/contact:
Cost and retention period:
Pause/degrade/rollback trigger:
Who must be notified after a problem:
Next review date:
Delivery is not the end. After 3–7 days, run a parallel test and record whether another person can start independently, what still needs explanation, and the one change for the next version.
| Related chapters: Artifacts: Turn Learning into Something Made | 90-Day Cycle Map |