Source: frameworks/kit-standard-interactive-narrative/04-article-quality.md

Thought Leadership Article — Quality Control

Pre-Build: Intake Validation

Before building starts, confirm a Concept Lock exists with all seven decisions made:

[ ] Brand locked (Advisory OS or Creating Your Plan)
[ ] Conversion goal locked (product purchase / diagnostic booking / subscribe)
[ ] Core concept articulated — insight, assumption it challenges, named mechanism
[ ] Interactive elements selected (2–3) with different cognitive work per interactive
[ ] Title locked — creates curiosity gap, works as distribution hook
[ ] Narrative arc defined — section flow with eyebrow labels and function descriptions
[ ] Reframe level set (light / medium / heavy)

If any of these are missing, run the intake before building.

[ ] Title creates a curiosity gap — reader must close it by reading
[ ] Hero has one specific number or scene in the first three seconds
[ ] Hero subtitle is one clean thought — not two or three beats compressed
[ ] At least one section opens with a third-person composite story with escalating specifics
[ ] A definition box names the core mechanism — tight enough to quote, names something the reader has felt but never articulated
[ ] Definition box is a mechanism name, not a description of a problem everyone already knows
[ ] At least one section makes an invisible cost visible (through prose, interactive, or both)
[ ] A Constraint section exists — explains why knowing isn't enough, ideally with time compression
[ ] CTA matches the conversion goal locked in intake

If diagnostic booking CTA:

[ ] Article builds pressure — reader finishes feeling urgency, not just informed
[ ] Solution is deliberately left incomplete — the diagnostic is where it gets resolved
[ ] CTA describes what happens in the diagnostic and lowers the barrier
[ ] Closing line: "Whether we work together after that is a separate conversation" or equivalent

If product purchase CTA:

[ ] Article teaches the system completely — reader understands how it works
[ ] At least one interactive lets the reader practice or use the system
[ ] CTA sells the deployed/automated version of what they just experienced
[ ] Price displayed. Single button with price: "Get the Toolkit · $27" or equivalent.

If subscribe CTA:

[ ] Article contains 2–3 embedded interactives
[ ] Each interactive does fundamentally different cognitive work (test: describe what each teaches in one sentence — if two teach the same lesson, one needs to change)
[ ] No standalone micro-tool types embedded in the article (no calculators, no full diagnostics)
[ ] Every interactive has the prose-interactive-prose sandwich (setup → interactive → interpretation)
[ ] Removing any interactive would weaken the argument (it's evidence, not decoration)
[ ] Interactive types differ from the previous week's article
[ ] All interactives function on mobile (tap targets, responsive layout)

[ ] Paragraphs are 2–4 sentences. None exceed 5.
[ ] Each paragraph does one thing — no paragraphs trying to make three points at once
[ ] Last sentence of each paragraph hits harder than the first
[ ] Specific numbers used instead of vague claims ("$120K" not "significant results")
[ ] Core mechanism is named, not described ("The Politeness Premium" not "the tendency to misjudge")
[ ] Constraint section uses time compression or emotional pressure, not just explanation
[ ] No "might," "could potentially," or hedge language where the pattern is clear
[ ] No academic phrasing ("furthermore," "it should be noted")
[ ] No breathless marketing language ("game-changing," "revolutionary")
[ ] Em dashes for emphasis, not parentheses
[ ] Non-breaking spaces ( ) before line-ending words to prevent orphans
[ ] HTML entities used for special characters (— ’ “ ”)

[ ] Every section has an eyebrow label (uppercase, tracked, gold or gold-on-cream)
[ ] Section headlines are statements, not questions
[ ] Definition box appears at least once — in the section that names the mechanism
[ ] Big quotes used as breathers between dense sections (1–2 per article)
[ ] Comparison table present in or near the Constraint section (strongly recommended)

[ ] Sections alternate dark/light — no two consecutive same-background sections
[ ] Exception: continuous dark sections use padding-bottom: 0 / padding-top: 48px technique
[ ] Hero is dark
[ ] CTA section is dark
[ ] At least one cream and one off-white section in the middle
[ ] Dark sections use charcoal gradient (135deg, #1a1a1a → #2a2a2a)

[ ] All colors hardcoded as hex values — no CSS variables (var()) in the output HTML
[ ] Scrollbar: thumb #b79d64, track #1a1a1a (both WebKit and Firefox syntaxes)
[ ] Gold-on-light text uses #6b5d3e (not #b79d64) when on cream/off-white backgrounds
[ ] No pure black (#000000) or pure white (#ffffff) anywhere
[ ] Gold (#b79d64) appears on maximum 2 elements per viewport

[ ] Google Fonts loaded: Cormorant Garamond (400, 500, 600, italic) + Inter (300, 400, 500, 600)
[ ] Headlines: Cormorant Garamond, weight 400
[ ] Body: Inter, weight 400
[ ] Labels/eyebrows: Inter, weight 500, uppercase
[ ] Label letter-spacing: 0.15–0.25em
[ ] Strong tags: weight 500 (not 700)

[ ] Content containers max-width 700px (prose) or 900px (wide elements like interactives)
[ ] Section padding: 100px vertical on desktop
[ ] Navigation fixed at top with gold bottom border (3px solid #b79d64)
[ ] Footer with gold top border (3px solid #b79d64)
[ ] Footer links: Contact, LinkedIn, Substack, Creating Your Plan
[ ] Footer legal line with copyright, privacy policy, terms, disclaimer

[ ] HTML renders as single self-contained file (no external dependencies except Google Fonts and CDN scripts)
[ ] React loaded from CDN if React interactives are used
[ ] All interactives render and function correctly
[ ] No broken class names or missing closing tags
[ ] No console errors
[ ] Responsive at 768px (mobile) breakpoint minimum
[ ] File named correctly: topic-slug.html (lowercase, hyphens)

After each revision cycle, note what was changed and what still needs work. Track the version:

v1 — First pass from Concept Lock. Expected to need structural and prose work.
v2 — Major structural revision (added sections, rebuilt interactives, reframed argument).
v2.x — Prose-level fixes (broke paragraphs, added breathing quotes, rewrote weak sections).
Ship — Passes all checks above.