fabioc-aloha Communication Craft
Patterns for feedback, audience, and elicitation. Inherited LLM behaviors (clear prose, jargon-defining, signposting) are assumed and not re-stated. Use this skill when the request is about how to communicate. For supplemental tone/attunement guidance, see emotional-intelligence.instructions.md.
1. Giving Feedback
SBI Model — Situation, Behavior, Impact
| Component | Include | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Situation | Specific context | "In parseInput() line 42..." |
| Behavior | Observable action, not interpretation | "...the function mutates the input array..." |
| Impact | Effect on caller / system / reader | "...which breaks the contract for any caller passing a frozen array." |
Anti-pattern: "This is wrong." → Replace with "This could cause X. Suggest: [specific change]."
Calibrate to Stakes
| Stakes | Approach |
|---|---|
| Low (typo, style) | Quick inline note, no fanfare |
| Medium (pattern, design choice) | Specific rationale + suggested alternative |
| High (security, contract, irreversible) | Full explanation, alternatives, would-revise-if |
Code Review Voice
| Avoid | Prefer |
|---|---|
| "This is wrong" | "This could cause X" |
| "Why did you do this?" | "What led to this approach?" |
| "Obviously should be..." | "Consider X because..." |
| "Please fix" | "Suggest: [specific change]" |
Rule of Three: If giving 3+ critical pieces of feedback on one artifact, stop and ask whether the level of review is right — don't pile on.
2. Audience Lead
So-What → What → Now-What for PRs, summaries, status reports, decision asks: lead with impact, then evidence, then ask. Anti-pattern: data dump first, ask buried at the end.
| Audience | Lead with | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Decision-maker | Impact + ask | Implementation detail |
| Peer engineer | Approach + trade-offs | Marketing language |
| Domain expert | Specifics + edge cases | Over-explanation |
| Newcomer | Context + prerequisites | Jargon without definition |
| Skeptic | Concerns + mitigation | Aggressive certainty |
3. Eliciting Needs
When the user says "build me X," distinguish three layers:
| Layer | Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Need (why) | What outcome do you want? | "Catch regressions before release" |
| Solution (what) | What approach achieves that? | "Pre-merge integration test" |
| Feature (how) | What specific thing to build? | "GitHub Action running tests on PR" |
Validate the need before committing to a solution. One sharp question beats five generic ones. Ask "why" up to five times when the root need is unclear.
Related
- emotional-intelligence.instructions.md — supplemental tone and attunement guidance
- big-idea skill — the compression discipline that distills the "So-What" that this skill's audience-lead pattern requires
- status-reporting skill — a specific application of the audience-lead pattern for status updates
Would Revise If
Revise if SBI feedback produces no measurable behavior change in 3+ instances over a quarter (the model is performative rather than operative), if the audience-lead table produces tone mismatches when applied verbatim, or if the need/solution/feature elicitation pattern misses real user needs that surface later as scope changes.
Complementary Scout resources
This Scout skill includes original Alex ACT Core prompts and/or instructions as
supporting files. Read resources/RESOURCE-INDEX.md when you need the source
prompt workflow or instruction context that complemented this skill in the
GitHub Copilot implementation.
- resources/instructions/emotional-intelligence.instructions.md
- resources/instructions/reliance-nudges.instructions.md