Free · interactive · about 3 minutes

A fictional office at night with empty desks. — The Last Hire · fictional story. The office empties; a desk is cleared. Two questions make room for a shared decision.

A fictional office desk with chairs and windows. — The Last Hire · fictional story. The office empties; a desk is cleared. Two questions make room for a shared decision.

A one-page brief by 16:00: a branching scenario

A partner asks for a revised one-page brief by 16:00, and two short windows are all you have. Choose what to say, ask for the missing half, and see where each path ends. Three ways in, eight endings.

Fictional practice case: the one-page brief. The reviewer is a fictional role, the partner and the owner of the 16:00 deadline are only mentioned, and Otto is a fictional AI planning assistant. Your choices stay on this page and are not saved or sent anywhere. After an ending where you asked something, “Try again with what you now know” keeps the answers you asked for in a list at the top, labeled as learned earlier, and starts a fresh run.

Numbers and quotes come from the free one-page brief case: requested at 13:00 for 16:00, a 60-minute rewrite, a 30-minute factual review, a 45-minute focus block (13:15-14:00), a 20-minute reviewer handoff (14:00-14:20) and a second role from 14:30. Each ending can skip ahead to 16:00, the delivery time the request names (the case gives a time of day but no day); that part uses only the case's arithmetic, its own listed plausible consequences and what was said on your path, and says what the case does not give. A change to the scope or the date stays a proposal until the owner of the 16:00 deadline confirms it.

About this practice

Teaches: Send what fits, name the section, and put the scope or a later time to the owner of the 16:00 deadline.
Does not claim: A fictional case, and Otto is a fictional AI. One run is not a verdict, and no outcome is measured.
For: Anyone asked for a brief by a set time when two short windows are all there is.

More scenarios

Choose from all eight branching scenarios →

Where to go next

Next case: A short overlap for an eight-file package. Again there is too little time for everything, but now the work is being handed to someone else.
Guide: How to prioritize work when capacity is limited. A short read on putting competing requests in one visible queue and asking the person who owns the priorities to choose.
Tool: Two-Question Prep Card. A one-page card to print: what you know, what you are missing, the one fact to share and two questions to ask.

Ask the questions yourself.
Play the same case as a solo game: ask the reviewer or Otto, reveal the missing facts and write your next-step card.

Play the free one-page brief case ↗

Site last updated: 2026-10-17