The Brief · 001

A real problem.
Your move.

The part of the job that never comes with a template: working out what is actually happening before you decide what to build. One realistic request per cycle. No answer key.

1,200 managersThree weeksNo baseline
Spark, the Lab’s experiment engineer

Brief 001 · Training request

“We need manager feedback training.”

Engagement scores say people are not getting useful feedback from their managers. Leadership wants a mandatory 30-minute course for all 1,200 people managers. They want it live in three weeks.

What you know

The request arrived with the solution already attached.

Survey results show a feedback problem. They do not tell you why the behavior is not happening, whether managers lack skill, or whether a course would change anything.

Constraints
1,200 managers, multiple business units Three-week launch expectation Leadership expects a course No baseline behavioral measure

Your move

Before you open a build tool, book the SME, or write a single objective: what do you need to know?

Questions worth asking first
01What does “useful feedback” look like as observable behavior?
02How do we know managers are not already doing it?
03What gets in the way when they try?
04Where and when does the behavior actually need to happen?
05What evidence would tell us the situation improved?

Learning Rewired lens: the point is not to prove training is unnecessary. It is to earn the right to recommend it.

Get the next Brief before anyone asks you for a course.

One realistic problem per cycle, straight to your inbox. No answer key, no upsell.