Example
How to find a career mentor without turning one person into a life plan
Admiration is not yet a useful ask. Dev must decide whether public-sector growth, consulting, or first-promotion evidence is the question that could change his next move before drafting a 25-minute invitation.
Build a small circle of specific conversations that helps Dev test career directions without asking anyone to own his future
The promise and limits Dev is protecting
Hold the mission and boundary: build a small circle of specific conversations that helps Dev test career directions without asking anyone to own his future
Choices and actions Dev can move without pretending every fact or outside wait is owned work
Hold the live choice—whether to ask Priya about public-sector growth, Luis about consulting, or Maren about first-promotion patterns next—so Dev can decide from the evidence in this Room
Draft a 25-minute ask for the person whose experience best matches Dev's current decision
Draft the chosen invitation with a specific question, time boundary, and easy decline
Write how Dev would use a useful answer from Priya, Luis, or Maren before choosing whom to ask
Source facts, observations, and artifacts that can change “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next”
Keep Priya, Luis, Maren, Jo, and Eli attached to the one question each can answer
Hold one 25-minute question about advancing without leaving public work
Hold one 25-minute question about what changed after moving into consulting
Hold one 25-minute question about evidence that mattered for a first promotion
Keep a later technical-growth conversation distinct from the current ask
Keep a later leadership conversation distinct from the current ask
In You.one’s Superboard view, the Mentor circle Board separates Dev’s career question, five people’s distinct experience, invitation drafts, replies only after an ask is sent, and lessons he has actually captured.
Open Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next as the consequential Card Room. Start by writing what Dev would do differently after a useful answer from each person.
After an explicit request, Ava can compare only the visible experience notes and draft language Dev reviews. Ava cannot contact anyone, imply a relationship, or choose; Dev owns every invitation, and each person owns participation and disclosure.
Mentor circle has one live choice: Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next
The mission is specific: Build a small circle of specific conversations that helps Dev test career directions without asking anyone to own his future.
The consequential choice is not something a board or an AI should quietly make: Whether to ask Priya about public-sector growth, Luis about consulting, or Maren about first-promotion patterns next.
You.one can keep the work, evidence, and “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next” decision visible through its Superboard view. Authority does not move to the software: Dev chooses the next question and owns every invitation. Each person owns whether to participate and what to share.
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Mentor circle: the working map
The Mentor circle Board gives this mission one durable operating picture. Dev can use familiar language instead of translating the situation into project-management jargon. Its three Lists separate the kinds of attention this situation actually requires.
The Lists separate what Dev can move now, what is evidence, what is already waiting on a named person or event, and what still needs a decision.
Swipe or scroll sideways to see every column.
| List | What belongs here |
|---|---|
| Decision to clarify | The promise and limits Dev is protecting |
| Asks to make | Choices and actions Dev can move without pretending every fact or outside wait is owned work |
| People evidence | Source facts, observations, and artifacts that can change “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next” |
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Open one decision: Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next
Opening the Card gives the visible item durable depth. Stage can hold Conversation-purpose brief: Place only Priya's public-sector experience, Luis's consulting move, Maren's promotion path, and Dev's use-of-answer test together for the current decision. Live choice: Whether to ask Priya about public-sector growth, Luis about consulting, or Maren about first-promotion patterns next. Chat keeps the request and response beside that artifact instead of in a detached thread. Pulse can show “Open decision: Dev will decide whether to ask Priya about public-sector growth, Luis about consulting, or Maren about first-promotion patterns next.”
A Card Chat request can ask Ava to prepare the specific comparison or extraction in “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next” from the visible evidence. Ava can work from the context Dev deliberately brings into this Card, List, or Board; she cannot monitor the rest of life, contact anyone, or inherit the decision.
Dev's call remains explicit: Dev chooses the next question and owns every invitation. Each person owns whether to participate and what to share.
Swipe or scroll sideways to see every column.
| Surface | Job in this example |
|---|---|
| Stage | Conversation-purpose brief: Place only Priya's public-sector experience, Luis's consulting move, Maren's promotion path, and Dev's use-of-answer test together for the current decision. Live choice: Whether to ask Priya about public-sector growth, Luis about consulting, or Maren about first-promotion patterns next |
| Chat | Keep Dev's request and Ava's attributed response with the work |
| Pulse | Open decision: Dev will decide whether to ask Priya about public-sector growth, Luis about consulting, or Maren about first-promotion patterns next |
Useful Ava requests, with the boundary intact
These requests stay with the facts Dev has made visible around “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next.” Dev supplies the evidence, checks Ava's work, and decides what belongs in the Room.
Current Ava can prepare help after an explicit request. She cannot make the choice, represent Dev, watch other work on her own, or contact anyone.
Dev chooses the next question and owns every invitation. Each person owns whether to participate and what to share. Ava compares only evidence in the choice Card Room and does not contact anyone or decide.
Dev finishes “Write what Dev would do differently after a useful answer from Priya, Luis, or Maren,” keeps “Five people with five different questions” beside “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next,” and does not treat “Draft the chosen invitation” as completed or sent before doing the work.
- Request idea: using only this Card Room and the Conversation-purpose brief, compare asking Priya, Luis, or Maren next. Name missing evidence; do not contact anyone or choose.
- Request idea: use only the Conversation-purpose brief and notes the Owner has placed in this Card Room to separate facts, assumptions, and unanswered questions
- Request idea: in “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next,” show which visible fact could reverse the current choice
The limit of a list of admired people
A list of admired people can be enough while the situation stays simple: “Draft a 25-minute ask” and “Draft the chosen invitation” no longer change the “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next” choice.
It starts to break when “Five people with five different questions” and “Draft the chosen invitation” must inform the same choice.
The Mentor circle Board earns its place only when the familiar tool—a list of admired people—can no longer keep the reason, Conversation-purpose brief, conversation, current state, decision, and history connected.
A practical way to start the Mentor circle Board
Dev should rename every List or Card that feels artificial. This recipe succeeds when “Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next” becomes easier to decide and fewer open loops depend on memory—not when the Board looks tidy.
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| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1. Replace mentor with questions | Give each of the five people one question their experience can answer |
| 2. Write the use-of-answer test | Say what Dev would do differently after a useful answer |
| 3. Compare Priya, Luis, and Maren | Keep Jo and Eli as later conversations, not extra current options |
| 4. Draft a 25-minute ask | Name one question, a time boundary, and an easy decline |
| 5. Ask Priya, Luis, or Maren next | Invitations remain owned drafts until Dev sends one |
Where this example stops
- This is a fictional example, not a customer story.
- This fictional example is not employment, representation, relationship, or professional mentoring advice; each person chooses their participation and the career decision remains Dev's.
- It does not show Ava completing external actions or contacting anyone for Dev.
- It does not report a measured result, and this Board is a starting shape to adapt—not a universal prescription.