Hermes Bot
4.2 KiB
THE FATWA (HUKM)
HUKM: We will adopt a weekly, 90-minute Continuous Discovery habit using the Evidence Quadrant as our primary tool for all product decisions, with explicit guardrails to protect engineering resources and user trust.
DALEEL:
PRODUCT_LEAD: Our quantitative data shows 35% of features shipped last quarter had <20% adoption. Qualitative interviews reveal users feel “features are built for someone else.” Behavioral logs confirm low repeat usage. Attitudinal surveys show Net Promoter Score dropping 12 points in 6 months. This quadrant reveals a systemic failure to validate before building.
MUJTAHID: The daleel is mixed but sufficient to establish a hukm. The quantitative data is qat‘i al-thubut (certain in transmission) but zanni al-dalala (speculative in interpretation). Qualitative evidence is zanni but corroborated. Istidlal via qiyas: the Prophet ﷺ said, “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer” (Muslim). Strength here implies disciplined use of resources. Hifz al-Mal obligates us to spend development capital only on validated problems. The maslaha (public benefit) of a discovery habit is overwhelming.
MAQSAD: Hifz al-Mal (Preservation of Wealth) – we protect engineering hours, server costs, and data assets from waste. Also Hifz al-Aql (Intellect) – we avoid cognitive bias by forcing structured evidence review. Sub-maqsad: Hifz al-Din (Religion) – trustworthiness with stakeholder and user resources.
SHURUT:
- Each session must review evidence from all four quadrants. No session is valid if one quadrant is empty (e.g., “we have no behavioral data yet” triggers an action item, not a pass).
- At least one user must be interviewed or observed every two weeks. Recordings or notes become part of the evidence repository.
- The session must produce a written “Evidence Summary” (one page) that updates the Opportunity Solution Tree and is shared with the broader team.
- Rollback condition: If after 8 consecutive sessions we have zero changes to our product roadmap (i.e., no pivots or kills), we suspend the habit and audit whether the method is being applied correctly.
MUNKATHIRAT:
- Making a major product decision (feature go/no-go, resource allocation >1 sprint) without referencing the Evidence Quadrant.
- Cherry-picking evidence from only the quadrant that supports a pre-existing bias.
- Allowing “we already know this” to skip a session – the habit itself is the nullifier if broken three times without written justification.
THE PROTOCOL
STEP 1: This week – Build your quadrant board.
Create a shared Miro or whiteboard with four labeled boxes: Quantitative (metrics, analytics), Qualitative (user interview quotes, verbatims), Behavioral (session recordings, heatmaps, funnel drop-offs), Attitudinal (surveys, NPS, satisfaction scores). Populate with every piece of evidence you currently have. Identify the emptiest quadrant – that is your first discovery task.
STEP 2: This sprint – Run your first discovery session.
Block 90 minutes on Tuesday. Invite PM, designer, lead engineer, and one rotating team member. Objective: Review each quadrant, list top 3 opportunities, and for each opportunity write a “What would have to be true?” statement. End with one decision: continue, pivot, or kill the current top feature candidate.
STEP 3: Next 30 days – Build the habit and measure.
After 4 sessions, conduct a mini-muhasaba: How many decisions changed because of evidence? What quadrant gave us the most leverage? If no decisions changed, escalate to the rollback condition. If decisions improved, codify the session as a team ritual.
MUHASABA (RETROSPECTIVE)
What evidence are we most afraid to collect, and what does that fear tell us about our willingness to protect our users’ and company’s wealth?
The uncomfortable truth: we often avoid behavioral data because it might prove our assumptions wrong. Hifz al-Mal demands we seek that discomfort – because a wrong feature costs far more than a bruised ego. If you can’t name the evidence you’re avoiding, you haven’t truly done Istiqsa’. Go back to Discovery.