From Messy Reality to Clean SDD (The Transformation)
This section is where everything you’ve read so far comes together.
Up to now, we’ve talked about how to think at each stage. Here, we connect those modes of thinking into a single transformation.
This is the moment where Feedback Loops either works - or visibly breaks.
What You Start With (And Why It’s a Problem)
No team starts with Strategic Domain Design.
They start with:
- scattered documents
- conflicting stories
- partial data
- strong opinions
- unspoken assumptions
Individually, these inputs are reasonable. Together, they are unstable.
The danger is not that they are wrong. The danger is that they cannot be designed against.
What the System Is Actually Doing
Across Stages 1–3, Feedback Loops performs a very specific kind of work:
It converts unstructured experience into structured business truth.
Nothing is added. Nothing is optimised. Nothing is solved.
Only structure is introduced.
How the Pieces Fit Together
Each stage transforms the output of the previous one:
- Stage 1 turns noise into validated problems
- Stage 2 turns problems into intentional commitments
- Stage 3 turns commitments into explicit business structure
If any stage is weak, the transformation collapses.
The Extraction, Not Invention, Rule
Strategic Domain Design is not created by brainstorming.
It is extracted by asking:
- What work keeps repeating?
- Who performs it?
- What decisions change outcomes?
- What information must exist?
- What constraints cannot be violated?
If you feel like you are inventing answers, stop.
That is a signal to return to earlier stages.
How Ambiguity Is Resolved
Ambiguity is not resolved by debate.
It is resolved by:
- naming things
- separating concerns
- forcing ownership
- making decisions explicit
When two interpretations exist, Stage 3 does not merge them.
It forces a choice.
What Changes During the Transition
As messy reality becomes Strategic Domain Design:
- vague language becomes precise
- synonyms disappear
- assumptions are surfaced
- decisions are named
- rules are clarified
This often feels uncomfortable.
That discomfort is the cost of clarity.
What Does Not Change
Throughout this transformation:
- the original problems remain visible
- declared outcomes remain intact
- tradeoffs remain acknowledged
Strategic Domain Design does not erase context.
It organises it.
What a Clean SDD Feels Like
You will know Strategic Domain Design is clean when:
- it can be read without explanation
- business stakeholders recognise themselves in it
- disagreements are explicit, not hidden
- nothing feels "clever"
- multiple technical solutions still feel possible
If it feels impressive, be suspicious.
How This Enables Everything That Follows
Once Strategic Domain Design is stable:
- technical design becomes translation
- implementation decisions become constrained
- enforcement points become obvious
- disagreements shift from meaning to tradeoffs
This is the payoff.
The Failure Mode to Watch For
The most common failure here is pretending clarity exists when it does not.
Symptoms include:
- unresolved terminology debates
- missing decision ownership
- rules described as suggestions
- pressure to "just move on"
When this happens, the correct move is backward.
That is not failure.
It is discipline.
A Final Synthesis
Feedback Loops does not create insight.
It creates the conditions where insight must be made explicit.
Strategic Domain Design is the visible result of that work.
Next, we will look at What Happens After Strategic Domain Design - and why Feedback Loops deliberately stops where it does.