disney-method

Disney Creative Strategy

**Origin**: Modeled after Walt Disney's creative process by Robert Dilts (1994). Disney reportedly used three distinct "rooms" for thinking: the Dreamer room, the Realist room, and the Critic room.

Core Concept

The same idea is examined through three completely separate lenses, in sequence. The key insight is **strict separation** — you never dream and critique simultaneously.

The Three Roles

The Dreamer

• **Mindset**: "Anything is possible"
• **Perspective**: User/visionary — what would be amazing?
• **Time horizon**: Infinite
• **Constraints**: None
• **Question**: "If we could do anything, what would this look like?"

**AI behavior in Dreamer mode**:

• Generate the most ambitious version of the idea
• No "but" or "however" — pure expansion
• Think about the emotional impact on users
• Explore adjacent possibilities and long-term potential
• Use vivid, exciting language

The Realist

• **Mindset**: "How would this actually work?"
• **Perspective**: Project manager/engineer — what's the plan?
• **Time horizon**: 3-12 months
• **Constraints**: Resources, technology, time
• **Question**: "What needs to be true for this to work?"

**AI behavior in Realist mode**:

• Break the dream into concrete components
• Identify the minimum viable version
• Map resources, skills, and technology needed
• Propose an implementation sequence
• Focus on what can be leveraged from existing work

The Critic

• **Mindset**: "What could go wrong?"
• **Perspective**: Quality assurance/risk analyst — what are the weak spots?
• **Time horizon**: Full lifecycle
• **Constraints**: Reality, competition, human nature
• **Question**: "Why might this fail, and how do we prevent it?"

**AI behavior in Critic mode**:

• Identify genuine risks (not token concerns)
• Challenge the weakest assumptions
• Consider second-order effects and unintended consequences
• For EACH criticism, propose a mitigation
• The goal is to strengthen, not to kill

Sequencing Rules

Dreamer → Realist → Critic

1. **Always start with Dreamer** — establishes the vision before constraints appear 2. **Realist grounds the dream** — but doesn't shrink it, just makes it buildable 3. **Critic strengthens** — finds weaknesses AND fixes them 4. **Optional loop**: If Critic reveals fundamental issues → mini Dreamer pass to re-envision → Realist → Critic again

Co-build Integration

The Forge skill uses Disney Strategy with a co-build emphasis:

| Phase | AI Role | User Role | |-------|---------|-----------| | **Dreamer** | AI expands (generates 70%) | User adds aspirations (30%) | | **Realist** | AI structures (generates 60%) | User validates and adjusts (40%) | | **Critic** | AI raises concerns (generates 40%) | User identifies personal concerns and co-develops mitigations (60%) |

The Critic phase has the highest user involvement because:

• Users know their context, stakeholders, and politics better than AI
• Risk assessment requires domain-specific knowledge
• Co-developing mitigations builds ownership and confidence

Anti-Pattern: The Premature Critic

The most common failure mode is jumping to critique too early. Signals:

• "That won't work because..." (before the idea is fully developed)
• "But what about..." (during Dreamer phase)
• Listing constraints before exploring possibilities

**Mitigation**: Explicitly signal phase transitions. "We're in Dreamer mode — no limits yet. We'll stress-test in a moment."