SecondPen.aiTemplates · Engineering & architecture
Google design doc template
Origin: Google engineering culture; the canonical pre-implementation review doc.
Sections
- Context & scope
- Goals & non-goals
- Design (overview, APIs, data, diagrams)
- Alternatives considered
- Cross-cutting concerns (security, privacy, observability)
How a tough reader scores it
When you score a draft against this format, the Critic evaluates this design doc. The weights add up to 100; the fixes for the weakest criteria arrive as cards in the editor.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Context lets an outsider understand the problem | 10 |
| Goals and non-goals are sharp | 10 |
| Design is concrete enough to implement and review | 20 |
| Trade-offs are explicit throughout | 20 |
| Alternatives are real and fairly assessed | 15 |
| Security, privacy, reliability, and observability addressed | 15 |
| Rollout and migration plan is safe | 10 |
How it works in SecondPen.ai
Open the template and the editor writes the blank once, with a line of guidance under each heading that you delete as you fill it in. Write your abstract and the editor names the format it reads like. Ask for a document with a slash command and it offers to start from the matching format. When the draft is ready, the Critic scores it against the criteria above, the way this format's toughest reader would, and the three highest-leverage fixes become Editor cards.
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