Ethical Thinking

Ethics is about conflicts between legitimate goods. End with transparent tradeoffs, not false certainty.

When to use

• A product, policy or data decision that could affect people: privacy, fairness, consent, manipulation, safety.
• "Should we?" questions that go beyond "can we" or "is it legal".
• AI and data ethics reviews, stakeholder harm scans, moral review of a plan.

Skip: legal advice as such, neutral fact-finding with no values review requested, implementation-only work.

Before you start

1. State in one block: Focal action (what is being considered) and Pass (Stakeholders, Values, Harms and Benefits, Justice and Power, Options, Recommendation).
2. Gather first. Read the design doc, data fields, policy text or code to learn who and what is actually affected before assuming. Ask up to 3 questions only for affected parties or red lines that tools cannot answer.
3. Light path. Small ask: 2-3 lines per lens, 2 options. For a pure harm scan you may compress Values, but still cover Justice and Power before Options.

Lenses