Hidden assumptions quietly trigger rollbacks, late nights, and weekend incidents. This episode reframes the practice as 'Assumption First‑Aid'—a fast triage to stabilize plans before they bleed. Mirko opens with a 20–30 second dramatized weekend outage vignette traced to a buried belief, then explains why a short ritual wins where checklists fail. Listeners get a copy‑paste Assumption Card example to read aloud: Assumption: 'Search API returns <100ms at 1k QPS'; Owner: Dana (PM); Signal: p95 latency >120ms; Quick test: 30‑min synthetic load to 1k QPS; Window: 7 days. The episode gives a 5‑minute drill script, a 7‑day pilot plan (validate five assumptions, run one quick test), and three concrete metrics to track in a single ticket column: assumptions validated %, mean time to validation, and surprises avoided per sprint. We point to a one‑page GitHub gist template and a 30‑second submission form in the episode notes so listeners can adopt, share results, and build momentum. CTA: run a drill this week, paste the card into a ticket, log the three metrics, submit one result via the form, and leave a review if it reduced surprises.

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