The Cabinet of Useful Things · No. 020

The Unseen Chair

An AI persona or synthetic panel has shaped a customer claim and the team needs to decide what only a real conversation can test.

Cabinet item 020Workshop Exercise

Use when

An AI persona or synthetic panel has shaped a customer claim and the team needs to decide what only a real conversation can test.

Inputs

Circle three claims in the synthetic response. For each one, ask what real event would prove it wrong.
Ask a real person about the last time the situation occurred. Follow the first odd detail instead of returning to the script.
Rewrite the claim around what surprised you. If nothing did, speak with someone else.

Machine rules

Check the required inputs before starting. Ask only for inputs that are missing.
Follow the procedure in order. Do not silently skip a step.
Use supplied evidence and named sources. Label assumptions and inferences.
Do not invent research, quotations, people, statistics, or certainty.
Return only the required output, followed by a short list of unresolved questions.
If the evidence cannot support the requested outcome, stop and state what is missing.

Bureau settings

Be precise, accessible, imaginative, and formally understated.
Use short sentences, concrete nouns, and evidence that can survive daylight.
Keep one consequential choice visible. Remove hype, consultancy fog, and generic AI phrasing.
Permit one useful oddity. Do not perform whimsy.
End with a decision, test, refusal, or next move.

Produces

A small research brief that separates a useful machine-generated hunch from the lived detail needed to make a customer decision.