Sutherland Alchemy

---
name: sutherland-alchemy
description: "Find overlooked psychological sources of value and turn them into testable decision briefs. Use for marketing, pricing, product experiences, service design, or behavior change when conventional optimization misses what people value."
---
# Sutherland Alchemy

Based on Rory Sutherland's public method. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Rory Sutherland.

## When to use

Use this skill when a problem involves human choice and the default proposal is a discount, a stronger incentive, another feature, faster delivery, or a larger budget. Look for a gap between objective performance and experienced value: a service may be technically excellent yet feel uncertain, embarrassing, hard to coordinate, or poorly suited to the occasion. Sutherland's perspective expands the explanations and interventions worth considering. [S2] [S5]

The deliverable is a decision brief with competing explanations, concrete interventions, and a bounded first test. It can accompany campaign copy, a booking flow, a pricing presentation, or a service prototype. Preserve the user's requested format and constraints; the brief supports their decision rather than silently replacing their assignment.

This package synthesizes public interviews into an agent workflow. It is not an official checklist, a reproduction of the book, or a guarantee of behavioral effects. The original LinkedIn source supplies event context only. Attribute methodological claims to the interviews, and distinguish evidence from hypotheses and invented illustrations. [S1] [S3]

Use physical improvements when basic performance is failing. Once essentials work, investigate psychological alternatives alongside engineering and economic options. A more appealing explanation cannot rescue an unusable service. Read the relevant sections of [references/method.md](references/method.md), then use the template and checklist as needed. [S3]

## Procedure

1. **Capture the decision.** Record the user's objective, requested deliverable, proposed solution, constraints, and available evidence. Identify the behavior that would make the work successful. Use the brief fields in [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md); mark missing facts explicitly.

2. **Reframe the problem.** Write the organizational brief and the customer's desired experience separately. Replace a proposed means, such as reducing journey time, with the outcome it is meant to create. Apply the reframing rules in [references/method.md](references/method.md). [S5]

3. **Check the essentials and the whole journey.** Find broken requirements, then map discovery through completion. Identify the worst moment before improving an already pleasant one. Use the essentials and journey sections in [references/method.md](references/method.md). [S3] [S5]

4. **Challenge the default explanation.** Keep the economic explanation and add plausible alternatives involving uncertainty, coordination, embarrassment, comparison, or regret. For each, name an observation that would distinguish it. Follow the hypothesis rules in [references/method.md](references/method.md). [S2] [S4]

5. **Specify the occasion.** Describe the audience, alternatives, expectations, consequences of failure, and purchase context. Identify when reliability or an escape route matters more than average performance. Consult the context section in [references/method.md](references/method.md). [S7]

6. **Search neglected value.** Compare what competitors emphasize with what customers struggle to do. Inspect overlooked details, credible signals, and opportunities to make waiting predictable. Use the reverse benchmarking and signaling rules in [references/method.md](references/method.md). [S2] [S5] [S6]

7. **Build a diverse shortlist.** Include a conventional option, a psychological alternative, and a contextual opposite. Make each intervention tangible enough to prototype. Consult [examples/worked-examples.md](examples/worked-examples.md) for the difference between an attractive slogan and a usable proposal. [S3] [S7]

8. **Explain and challenge each mechanism.** State what changes, what inference it invites, why that inference is credible, and where the effect might reverse. Compare cost and delivery feasibility. Apply the decision rules in [references/method.md](references/method.md); reject unsupported promises. [S2] [S3]

9. **Select the first test.** Favor useful information at bounded cost. Specify comparison, exposure, primary outcome, completion measures, downside checks, and a decision threshold before observing results. Use [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md). These planning fields are package conventions implementing the expert's experimental stance. [S3] [S6]

10. **Write the decision brief.** Recommend one first action conditionally, retain the conventional alternative, and explain what evidence would change the recommendation. Fill [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md), adapting its length to the user's task.

11. **Review and revise.** Apply [checklists/review-checklist.md](checklists/review-checklist.md). Resolve failed items, expose remaining unknowns, and distinguish a proposal from an executed experiment. After a test, revisit the mechanism or context instead of inventing reasons to defend the original story. [S6]

## Files in this skill

- [SKILL.md](SKILL.md): Entry point, activation guidance, and the agent's main loop.
- [references/method.md](references/method.md): Principles, decision rules, explicit warnings, and contextual edge cases.
- [references/sources.md](references/sources.md): Numbered, fetched public sources and their contributions.
- [examples/worked-examples.md](examples/worked-examples.md): Invented illustrations with weak drafts, improved briefs, and rule annotations.
- [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md): Fill-in decision brief with field guidance and test planning.
- [checklists/review-checklist.md](checklists/review-checklist.md): Pass/fail review criteria, recurring failures, and specific repairs.