# quality-bar.md

> Source: <https://gist.github.com/Owl-Listener/38b62567a5bb2806b72fec9a6f0d76b6>
> Published: 2026-06-14 17:05:55+00:00

| # quality-bar.md | |
| A template for encoding your quality criteria before building with AI. | |
| Fill this in as a team before the first prompt is written. | |
| The conversation it forces is the work. | |
| Update it as your understanding evolves. Version it. | |
| This is a living document, not a one-time exercise. | |
| --- | |
| ## 1. Purpose | |
| **What problem does this solve?** | |
| One sentence. The real problem, not the feature description. | |
| **Who experiences this problem, and when?** | |
| Be specific. Not "users" — a real person in a real moment. | |
| **What would they say if this worked perfectly?** | |
| Write the sentence they would say to a colleague the next day. | |
| **What would they say if it failed?** | |
| Write the complaint. Be honest about what failure looks like from their side. | |
| --- | |
| ## 2. The user in the moment | |
| **What state is the user in when they encounter this?** | |
| Rushed, confused, expert, anxious, curious? The emotional and cognitive state matters. | |
| **What do they know that the system doesn't?** | |
| What context, history, or preference exists in their head that AI cannot see? | |
| **What do they assume the system can do that it can't?** | |
| Where is the gap between user expectation and actual system capability? | |
| --- | |
| ## 3. Behavioral specification | |
| **In normal conditions, the AI should:** | |
| **When it doesn't know, the AI should:** | |
| **When it is uncertain, the AI should:** | |
| **When the user is wrong, the AI should:** | |
| **When it makes a mistake, the AI should:** | |
| --- | |
| ## 4. What good looks like | |
| **Describe a perfect interaction, step by step.** | |
| **What does the output look, sound, and feel like when it's right?** | |
| **What would a senior designer say about it in critique?** | |
| What specific quality markers would they call out? | |
| --- | |
| ## 5. What wrong looks like | |
| **Describe an output that looks right but is subtly wrong.** | |
| The failure mode that passes a visual check but fails the intent check. | |
| **Describe an output that is confidently wrong.** | |
| The hallucination or overreach case specific to your product. | |
| **Describe an output that is technically correct but unhelpful.** | |
| The case where the AI answered the question but missed the point entirely. | |
| --- | |
| ## 6. Voice and tone | |
| **How does this AI speak?** | |
| Three adjectives that describe the voice. Three it explicitly avoids. | |
| Sounds like: | |
| Never sounds like: | |
| **What does on-brand output look like versus off-brand?** | |
| A specific example of each for this product. | |
| **What does the AI never say, even if prompted?** | |
| --- | |
| ## 7. The not-doing list | |
| **This product refuses to:** | |
| **This product will never do, even if asked:** | |
| **We have considered and deliberately declined:** | |
| List the things that would technically work but that you are choosing not to do, and why. | |
| --- | |
| ## 8. Ethical boundaries | |
| **What user autonomy must this always preserve?** | |
| **What data does this handle, and what does it never do with it?** | |
| **Where might this cause harm, and how have we addressed it?** | |
| **Who could be disadvantaged by this, and what have we done about it?** | |
| --- | |
| ## 9. Criteria for AI-generated output | |
| **Every output must:** | |
| **An output fails the bar if it:** | |
| **Who reviews output, and what are they specifically looking for?** | |
| **At what stage does review happen? Who has authority to reject and send back?** | |
| --- | |
| ## 10. How we know | |
| **What user signal tells us the bar is being met?** | |
| **What signal tells us quality has slipped?** | |
| **How often do we review these criteria, and who owns that review?** | |
| --- | |
| ## Metadata | |
| Last updated: | |
| Updated by: | |
| Version: | |
| Approved by: | |
| --- | |
| Embed this file in your tooling so it travels with the work. | |
| This document should live where the work lives, not in a folder nobody opens. | |
| MIT Licensed — Owl-Listener (MC Dean) |