Assumption First‑Aid: Rapid Triage to Stop Hidden Beliefs from Bleeding Work

Hidden assumptions quietly trigger rollbacks, late nights, and weekend incidents. This episode reframes the practice as 'Assumption First‑Aid'—a fast triage to stabilize plans before they bleed. Mirko opens with a 20–30 second dramatized weekend outage vignette traced to a buried belief, then explains why a short ritual wins where checklists fail. Listeners get a copy‑paste Assumption Card example to read aloud: Assumption: 'Search API returns <100ms at 1k QPS'; Owner: Dana (PM); Signal: p95 latency >120ms; Quick test: 30‑min synthetic load to 1k QPS; Window: 7 days. The episode gives a 5‑minute drill script, a 7‑day pilot plan (validate five assumptions, run one quick test), and three concrete metrics to track in a single ticket column: assumptions validated %, mean time to validation, and surprises avoided per sprint. We point to a one‑page GitHub gist template and a 30‑second submission form in the episode notes so listeners can adopt, share results, and build momentum. CTA: run a drill this week, paste the card into a ticket, log the three metrics, submit one result via the form, and leave a review if it reduced surprises.

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