wyattowalsh/panel-debate-skill
Overview
This skill hosts interactive expert panel discussions on any topic by generating diverse master-level personas, running structured multi-round debates, and producing an actionable synthesis. It frames discussions with Hegelian thesis–antithesis–synthesis patterns and delivers a final report with consensus points, trade-offs, and concrete recommendations. Designed for complex decisions, architectural choices, and strategic exploration.
How this skill works
The skill scores topic complexity across stakeholders, trade-offs, time horizon, reversibility, and domain breadth to choose panel size and depth. It generates required archetypes (Contrarian, Synthesizer, Specialist) plus complementary personas, enforces diversity thresholds, then conducts opening statements, cross-examination rounds, and iterative syntheses. Outputs include structured round syntheses and a final report with labeled conclusions and prioritized actions.
When to use it
- Evaluating high-stakes architectural or product decisions with multiple trade-offs
- Exploring strategic questions that span several domains or stakeholder groups
- Generating diverse expert viewpoints for research ideation or policy analysis
- Clarifying tensions and converging on actionable next steps
- Preparing for stakeholder briefings where dissenting views must be surfaced
Best practices
- Provide a clear, concise topic and any constraints (budget, timeline, scope) up front
- Choose depth according to desired thoroughness: quick (1 round) to deep (4+ rounds)
- Include explicit stakeholders or perspectives you want represented
- Use Follow-up or Redirect commands to probe unresolved tensions
- Require the panel to replace vague 'it depends' answers with decision criteria
Example use cases
- Selecting a microservices vs. monolith architecture with trade-offs on team size and reliability
- Debating product-market fit strategies for an emerging feature across three customer segments
- Assessing AI governance options with legal, technical, and ethical perspectives
- Comparing cloud vendor lock-in risks and multi-cloud mitigation paths
- Synthesizing research agendas for a cross-disciplinary academic initiative
FAQ
Experts are algorithmically generated to include required archetypes and diversity dimensions; the panel is validated against a numeric diversity score and regenerated until it meets threshold.
What if the topic scores low on complexity?
If complexity is 5–7 the skill warns it may not benefit from a panel and offers to proceed or provide a direct concise answer instead.
2 skills
This skill facilitates diverse expert panel debates on any topic, generating personas, guiding multi-round discourse, and synthesizing actionable consensus.
This skill hosts expert panel discussions with diverse personas, facilitates structured debate, and synthesizes actionable recommendations for complex topics.
