The Failure Garden

AI transformation red-team simulator · Northstar Mutual (fictional, 4,800 people, regulated financial services)

Startup self-check pending…
Structured thought experiment — not a forecast. Every probability, coefficient and dollar figure here is an authored assumption in a transparent toy model. Use it to argue about mechanisms and tradeoffs, not to predict Northstar's future. Ranges reflect model randomness, not real-world uncertainty.

Current failure thesis

1 · Compose the scenario

The plan looks reasonable on paper. Stack stressors to see how they interact: combined damage is compared with the sum of each shock run alone. Choose at least three to see compound effects.

Seed organization (observed facts about Northstar)
Model assumptions you can challenge

2 · Simulation results

3 · Causal failure map and failure-path replay

Left: the causal graph. Right: the most representative failure path from the simulation. Stepping the replay lights up the mechanisms that have fired and the causal links that carried them.

4 · Mitigation portfolio

5 · Adversary lenses

6 · Metric corruption lab

7 · Pre-mortem and dissent

8 · Decision package

Exports a local JSON file (no network): scenario, assumptions, mitigations, budget and capacity use, outcome ranges, the representative path, dissent, metric choice and remaining unknowns.

Preview package