Roundtable Strategies

Roundtable Strategies

Purpose

This skill provides facilitation strategies for s2s Roundtable sessions. Each strategy defines how participants interact, what phases the discussion follows, and how consensus is reached.

When to Use This Skill

• Starting a /s2s:roundtable session
• Running /s2s:specs requirements gathering
• Running /s2s:design architecture design
• Custom brainstorming or decision-making sessions

Strategy Auto-Detection

When no strategy is specified, analyze the topic for keywords to recommend appropriate strategy:

Keywords in Topic	Recommended Strategy	Reason
creative, innovation, new, brainstorm, ideation	disney	Creative ideation benefits from Dreamer→Realist→Critic flow
vs, compare, evaluate, choose, decide, between	debate	Comparing options needs Pro/Con analysis
urgent, fast, quick, asap, time-sensitive	consensus-driven	Speed-focused, converging quickly
comprehensive, thorough, all angles, deep, complete	six-hats	Complete analysis from all perspectives
(no match)	standard	Balanced default for most discussions

Auto-Detection Example

Topic: "Creative approach for new authentication feature"
        ^^^^^^^^         ^^^
        creative         new

→ Recommended: disney strategy

Available Strategies

Strategy	Best For	Phases	Participation
standard	General discussions, balanced input	Single phase, multiple rounds	parallel
disney	Creative problem-solving, innovation	3 phases: Dreamer, Realist, Critic	sequential (phases)
debate	Evaluating controversial options	2 sides: Pro vs Con	parallel (per side)
consensus-driven	Fast decision-making	Converging rounds	parallel
six-hats	Comprehensive analysis	6 thinking modes	sequential

---

Strategy resolution hierarchy

Added in v1.3.0 (TECH-002 Phase 4). Full worked examples + D3 hierarchy decision rationale: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/roundtable-execution/references/strategy-resolution.md + ADR-0011 Phase 4 addendum.

commands/roundtable.md Phase 1 resolves the active strategy in this fixed order. First source that yields a value wins; subsequent sources are NOT consulted.

CLI --strategy <value>                                 (highest priority)
  ├─ if set → use it
  └─ else → .s2s/config.yaml.roundtable.strategy.by_workflow_type[{workflow_type}]
            ├─ if set → use it
            └─ else → profiles/{workflow_type}.yaml.default_strategy
                      ├─ if set → use it
                      └─ else → error "no strategy resolvable"   (defensive; should not trigger in normal use)

Forced override (wins over all): profiles/{workflow_type}.yaml.strategy_constraints.forced == true. Only brainstorm.yaml sets forced: true (forces disney regardless of CLI/config).

D3 source roles:

• .s2s/config.yaml: user canonical (runtime authoritative, project-level overrides)
• profiles/{workflow}.yaml: plugin fallback (consulted only when config.yaml lacks the key)
• this SKILL.md (table below): human-facing documentation only, NOT consumed at runtime

---

Workflow-Specific Defaults

Authoritative source: profile YAMLs in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/roundtable-execution/profiles/{workflow}.yaml (fields default_strategy, participants.default, strategy_constraints). The table below is a human-readable summary; if it drifts, the YAML is correct.

Each workflow has a recommended default strategy and participant set:

Workflow	Default Strategy	Default Participants	Rationale
specs	consensus-driven	PM, UX-Researcher, BA, QA	Requirements need broad agreement, not debate
design	debate	Architect, Security, TechLead, DevOps	Architecture trade-offs benefit from Pro/Con analysis
brainstorm	disney (forced)	Variable (--participants)	Creative exploration requires Dreamer→Realist→Critic
roundtable	standard	Architect, TechLead (configurable)	Generic discussion, single topic, no opinionated default

Artifact Types by Workflow

Authoritative source: profile YAMLs artifact_types[] (fields prefix, session_key, is_primary). In-session artifacts are listed here. ADR-* (design) is a Phase 3 output artifact written to .s2s/decisions/, not an in-session entry in session.yaml.artifacts.

Workflow	Primary Artifacts (in-session)	Secondary Artifacts (in-session)	Phase 3 output artifacts
specs	REQ-, BR-, NFR-*	OQ-, CONF-, EX-*	(none beyond session summary)
design	ARCH-, COMP-, INT-*	OQ-, CONF-	ADR-* (written to .s2s/decisions/)
brainstorm	IDEA-, RISK-, MIT-*	OQ-, CONF-	(none beyond session summary; ideas promoted to .s2s/ideas.md)

Strategy-Workflow Compatibility

Strategy	specs	design	brainstorm
standard	✓	✓	-
consensus-driven	✓ (default)	✓	-
debate	✓	✓ (default)	-
disney	-	-	✓ (forced)
six-hats	✓	✓	-

Note: Brainstorm workflow ALWAYS uses disney strategy regardless of --strategy flag.

Strategy Selection Guide

Use standard when:

• You need balanced perspectives from all participants
• The topic doesn't require specialized phases
• Time is limited and you want direct input

Use disney when:

• Exploring creative solutions
• Building new features or products
• You need to separate ideation from criticism

Use debate when:

• Evaluating trade-offs between options
• The decision is controversial or polarizing
• You want to stress-test a proposal

Use consensus-driven when:

• Speed is important
• The group needs to converge quickly
• Previous rounds have narrowed options

Use six-hats when:

• Comprehensive analysis is needed
• You want to avoid groupthink
• The topic has emotional and logical dimensions

Configuration Integration

Strategies are loaded via config.yaml:

roundtable:
  strategy: "disney"  # Loads skills/roundtable-strategies/disney.md

  # Optional overrides (warning if conflicts with strategy)
  overrides:
    participation: "sequential"

Strategy File Structure

Each strategy file (standard.md, disney.md, etc.) defines:

defaults:
  participation: "parallel"  # How participants interact
  phases:
    - name: "phase-name"
      prompt_suffix: "Additional instructions for this phase"
      participants: "all"  # or specific list
  consensus:
    policy: "weighted_majority"
    threshold: 0.6
validation:
  requires_sequential_phases: false
  min_participants: 2

Reference Files

• references/standard.md - Standard round-robin details
• references/disney.md - Disney Creative Strategy details
• references/debate.md - Structured debate details
• references/consensus-driven.md - Fast convergence details
• references/six-hats.md - De Bono's Six Hats details

Quick Reference

Participation Modes

Mode	Behavior	Mitigates
parallel	All respond simultaneously	Sycophancy, echo chambers
sequential	One at a time, sees previous	Enables building on ideas
targeted	Facilitator picks who speaks	Focused expertise

Consensus Policies

Policy	Description
simple_majority	>50% agreement
weighted_majority	Confidence-weighted votes
unanimous	All must agree

Escalation

When consensus fails after max_attempts, escalate to user with:

• All positions clearly presented
• Trade-offs explained
• Facilitator recommendation (if configured)