after we build · part six

The Model Update

The step most teams skip. Writing the learning somewhere permanent so the next cycle starts with better understanding — not by repeating the same discovery.

Events in this phase

Model update writing happens immediately after the retrospective — the same hour. Artifacts are updated in place; nothing new is created. The next cycle's discovery inherits the updated state.

This is where meaning compounds. The retrospective produced learning. That learning now needs to survive the conversation.

If the model is not updated, the learning did not happen. The retrospective ends, positive reactions fill the Slack thread, and three weeks later the next cycle begins with the same misunderstandings — because nobody wrote down what changed. A team that skips this step is not learning. It is remembering temporarily. The memory evaporates. The artifacts don't.

And the test is simple: if the next brief does not change because of what this cycle revealed, the update did not happen.

What gets updated and where

Initiative Brief — What we have NOT yet witnessed

Close addressed items. Add new ones the signal check revealed — user types not observed, edge cases from production.

Before:  "We have not observed someone with no Hebrew reading ability."

After:   "Closed — May 2026.
          New: user switching languages mid-session, seen in usage data."

Feature Brief — Signal reading section

Append the signal reading. The brief is now complete: problem, solution, whether the solution worked.

Discovery questions — Initiative Brief · next cycle

Sharpen. A broad "watch how they use it" becomes "time the hesitation at mode switches in familiar vs unfamiliar passages."

Amigos template — Operations · team template

If the retrospective found a class of question consistently missed, add a prompt. One prompt prevents an entire class of scenario-gap bugs. Smallest change, largest structural effect.

The work is small. Each update takes minutes. Together, over cycles, they are why a year-old team writes briefs a six-month-old team couldn't — because every cycle's learning is alive in the artifacts the next cycle starts from.

Resolution gate — model written down

Enough to know learning survived.

Assumptions in the brief are closed or annotated. New assumptions are recorded. Signal reading is linked from the brief. Open questions are sharpened. At least one template, checklist, or glossary file changed.

Part 7 — The Ongoing Relationship →