Integration: Plan → Pronoia → DAE
A panelist experiences one study — its rounds, its feedback, its Home view. The facilitator runs something larger. Their process spans three stages — design, collection and analysis — and reaches across two connected ecosystems. Pronoia is the bridge between them.
Planning (DPE) → Planning Handoff Package → Facilitation (Pronoia) → Export contract → Analysis (DAE)
Upstream sits the Delphi Planning Ecosystem (DPE), where the study is designed. Downstream sits the Delphi Analysis Ecosystem (DAE), where the collected material is interpreted. Pronoia is the data-collection layer in the middle: it receives a finished design, runs the study, validates the result, and hands a clean dataset on to analysis.
Why this matters for the facilitator. The quality of the analysis is decided long before analysis begins — in how the study is designed and how cleanly it is collected. Owning the whole arc, and the two handoffs that join it, is the facilitator's core responsibility.
Integration is the top of the capability arc
Assembling a single study by hand is operating. When the handoffs carry the design from stage to stage without rebuilding, the whole chain becomes a system — infrastructure the work runs on. The through-line of this guide is exactly that shift: you stop re-assembling the study in every tool, and let the handoffs flow.
Stage 1 — Design (DPE)
Before Pronoia collects anything, the facilitator designs the study in the Planning ecosystem. Each step is a deliberate methodological choice that shapes everything downstream.
| Planning step | What the facilitator decides | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation | The study's logic (N / S / R / E / D / D+) | Expert vs observer panel; dialectical vs abductive theses |
| Pre-analysis | Futures Wheel (impacts), Relevance Tree (goals–means) | A scoped, structured view of the phenomenon |
| Phenomenon | What is actually being studied | The boundary of the inquiry |
| Panel design | The matrix, the perspective layer, the health score (PHS) | A designed epistemic space |
| Question architecture | The theses and their structure | The collection instrument |
| Simulation (optional) | Synthetic argumentation when no real panel exists | A test / seed argument set |
| Learning loop | Lessons carried from earlier studies | Better, evidence-based design choices |
Planning ends at a quality gate: only a coherent design — orientation, phenomenon, panel and theses aligned — is packaged for collection.
Handoff in — the Planning Handoff Package
The design crosses into Pronoia as a structured Planning Handoff Package: the orientation, the panel matrix and its type, the theses, and the perspective/PHS context. This seeds Round 0 — so the facilitator does not rebuild the study in Pronoia, but continues it.
Stage 2 — Collection (Pronoia)
This is the facilitator's operational core. In brief, the facilitator opens Round 0 as an AI-assisted intake (motivating participants and mapping the phenomenon, optionally with key informants), then runs each round through its phases — response → dialogue → revision → close — setting the iteration stance with policy presets (classic / RTD / open, with Barometer arriving), protecting anonymity and identity, and reading the panel through the pulse, the group comparison and the process metrics.
What distinguishes the facilitator is an active role: collection is not a passive wait for answers but a continuous effort to spur the panel along — and the levers work at three levels.
| Level | How the facilitator spurs movement | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| The whole panel | Pace the phase advance; open the result graph and pulse at the right moment; broadcast reminders and messages; choose the visibility stance; supplement the panel between rounds | Sustains momentum and collective movement |
| Groups | Surface the group comparison across the matrix axes; highlight that one group has moved while another has not; add perspective theses where a viewpoint is thin; recruit roles to cover blind spots | Drives differential movement and cross-position dialogue |
| Individuals | The live Home view with its "since your last visit" digest; direct nudges and personal messages; recognition of contributions; per-panelist reminders | Pulls each panelist back to revise and learn |
Spurring is targeted, not generic. The most effective prompt is specific: show one group the gap between its position and another's, or show an individual how far the panel has moved since they last looked. Real-time data is what makes that precision possible.
The validation gate — earning the handoff
Collection does not flow into analysis automatically. Before any handoff, Pronoia validates the result, and a failing check blocks the export until it is fixed:
- Panel-composition gates — the orientation-specific minimums (matrix size, stakeholder groups or observation distances, domains or outside roles, decision-maker rules).
- Epistemic coverage — the argument space read as a coverage map; thin coverage is a prompt to supplement the panel before closing.
This gate is the facilitator's quality promise to the analysis stage: what crosses over is complete and well-formed, not raw.
Handoff out — the export contract
On a clean validation, Pronoia emits a structured payload for the DAE ecosystem. At the facilitator's level it carries:
- the orientation and panel matrix type;
- the argument space — theses × panel members and their arguments;
- the epistemic coverage — how much of the argument map is filled;
- the perspective summary — health score, dominant perspectives and named blind spots;
- the validation status — confirming the dataset passed its gates.
Downstream consumers verify this contract before they begin, so a malformed dataset cannot silently enter analysis.
Stage 3 — Analysis (DAE)
In the DAE ecosystem the collected material is interpreted through a gated pipeline. The facilitator commissions and oversees it rather than running every method by hand.
Foundation → Content → System → Futures → Synthesis → Report
| DAE phase | What it does |
|---|---|
| Foundation | Validates the panel and builds the quantitative base |
| Content | Analyses arguments, dialogue and discourse, including the epistemic coding |
| System | Reads depth, dynamics and purpose (causal layers, transitions, soft systems) |
| Futures | Surfaces weak signals and maps structural tensions |
| Synthesis | Integrates every lens into a grand synthesis, with perspective depth |
| Report | Builds scenarios and audience-specific stakeholder reports |
Quality gates and human judgement sit throughout: where automated confidence is not enough, the analyst is brought into the loop — and the facilitator decides how far interpretation should reach.
Closing the loop — learning across studies
The arc is not a straight line but a cycle. Both ecosystems keep a memory: the planning side records each design and its lessons, the analysis side keeps a case library of completed runs. The facilitator feeds these lessons back into the next study's design — so each Delphi run makes the next one better.
The facilitator's through-line. Design well, collect cleanly, analyse rigorously, and learn from the result. Pronoia is where that arc is held together — the point where a designed study becomes trustworthy data, ready for interpretation.
The facilitator's end-to-end playbook
- Design with the end in mind. Choose orientation, scope the phenomenon (pre-analysis), design the panel and write the theses — knowing they define the whole argument space.
- Cross the first handoff intact. Carry the Planning Handoff Package into Pronoia and continue the study rather than rebuilding it.
- Run collection deliberately. Open the intake, set the iteration stance, advance the phases, protect anonymity, and watch the pulse and metrics.
- Earn the second handoff. Clear the validation gate — panel composition and epistemic coverage — before closing; supplement a thin panel if needed.
- Commission analysis. Export the validated dataset, oversee the DAE pipeline, and decide how far interpretation and reporting should go.
- Close the loop. Capture the lessons and carry them into the next study's design.
Source: Pronoia — The Facilitator's Process (Metodix, June 2026). This block reframes the same arc along the capability arc.