01
Fix your baseline and decision target
You gather the request and current project record, then define what is fixed, what can move, and what decision the client actually needs to make.
Made for Architects
Build Three Design Options With Honest Tradeoffs
Also useful for: people in Creative
55 min
Advanced
Creative
Architect
Communicate Better
Career outcome:
Avoid Professional Risk
Build a minimum-change option, a balanced option, and a full-response option from the same client request. Give each path clear boundaries, evidence-based impact ranges, and decision triggers.
We'll use them to write your prompt.
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Make Your Play
Give us the situation. We’ll build the prompt.
Avoid presenting a single design response as inevitable.
Your answers save as you type.
What you'll do
This is the plan inside your prompt. Add your details first. Then follow these steps with ChatGPT or Claude.
02
Set your honest comparison rules
You choose a shared basis for judging design value, code risk, coordination, schedule, fees, and construction cost before generating options.
03
Build your three distinct responses
You use the compiled prompt to produce minimum-change, balanced, and full-response options with clear inclusions, exclusions, consequences, and decision points.
04
Verify your claims before presentation
You test the draft against project records and route uncertain claims to the right source before treating the comparison as decision-ready.
Make Your Play
Build Three Design Options With Honest Tradeoffs
Tell us what the prompt needs to know
Start with the questions below. Each answer personalizes the playbook and builds the prompt you’ll use at the end.
Your situation
Provide the request in the client's words, the reason behind it, and any stated deadline or budget expectation.
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Describe what is currently approved, documented, priced, or issued, including decisions that must remain fixed.
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Select the phase that determines how much rework and coordination the request may trigger.
Rank what matters most, such as design quality, opening date, first cost, long-term value, or approval certainty.
0/10000
List the site, program, code, accessibility, structural, procurement, budget, and approval limits already known.
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Identify affected consultants, reviewing authorities, client approvers, and any input already received.
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Provide current milestones, available float, fee terms, hourly rates, allowances, and any known amendment rules.
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Provide the latest estimate, unit rates, allowances, comparable pricing, or the reason no reliable cost basis exists.
0/10000
This playbook was updated. Review your inputs before copying.
What you'll do
Check a step when you finish it.
01
Fix your baseline and decision target
You gather the request and current project record, then define what is fixed, what can move, and what decision the client actually needs to make.
02
Set your honest comparison rules
You choose a shared basis for judging design value, code risk, coordination, schedule, fees, and construction cost before generating options.
03
Build your three distinct responses
You use the compiled prompt to produce minimum-change, balanced, and full-response options with clear inclusions, exclusions, consequences, and decision points.
04
Verify your claims before presentation
You test the draft against project records and route uncertain claims to the right source before treating the comparison as decision-ready.
Fill in the fields above to generate your prompt preview.
Assembled prompt
Beginner instructions
You can start with rough information, but label every gap instead of filling it with a guess. You should describe the approved design baseline before comparing options, because a weak baseline makes every impact claim unreliable. You can use directional ratings such as low, medium, and high when no defensible number exists.
Advanced instructions
You should challenge whether each option is truly distinct in scope, not merely in presentation. Test schedule, fee, and cost impacts against the same assumptions, identify the last responsible decision point, and separate reversible design moves from changes that trigger broad consultant or documentation rework. You should also align each recommendation with the agreement, approval path, and current issue status before sending it.
Use this when
You need to respond to a client request that could be handled at different levels of design intervention. Use this before you authorize redesign, promise a schedule, quote added fees, or direct consultants to proceed.
You'll need
- Your client request
- Your current design baseline
- Your project phase
- Your client priorities
- Your known constraints
- Your coordination and approval context
- Your schedule and fee basis
- Your construction cost basis
You'll get
- Three materially different options tied to one fixed baseline
- Design value, code risk, consultant impact, schedule, fees, and construction cost compared using stated evidence and confidence levels
- No unsupported precise figures
- The recommended path, the conditions that could change it, the open verification items, and the approval needed before work proceeds identified.
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- Three materially different options tied to one fixed baseline
- Design value, code risk, consultant impact, schedule, fees, and construction cost compared using stated evidence and confidence levels
- No unsupported precise figures
- The recommended path, the conditions that could change it, the open verification items, and the approval needed before work proceeds identified.
Examples
Progress 1 of 4