I write this note to remind myself: the eight-stage framework looks tidy on paper, but reality never reads it. Every time a deployment produces friction — a shifting schedule, a meaning changed mid-handoff — that is not the framework failing. That is the framework being corrected by its teacher.
The greatest temptation is to reverse the order: using the framework to justify what we already want to build. When that happens, the framework stops being an instrument of seeing and becomes an instrument of self-defense. The learning loop exists to prevent that reversal: research tests the framework, it does not serve it.
Seed note — may be deleted or replaced with a genuine research note once verified field observations exist.