The ten questions
What the test asks, why six of them cannot be traded away, and how weighting works.
By the end of this lesson
- Work through the ten questions on a real design
- Explain why some questions block regardless of total score
- Use 'unsure' honestly instead of guessing
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The lesson
The test runs before anything ships. It is deliberately short, it is answered yes, no, or unsure, and it takes a few minutes — the intent is that it actually gets used rather than admired.
Six of the ten carry double weight and block. Blocking means what it sounds like: failing one of them produces the most serious verdict no matter how well the rest scored. This is the structural point of the whole instrument. Without it the test would be a points total, and a points total lets a strong design in most respects compensate for a serious problem in one — which is exactly the trade nobody should be able to make quietly.
The remaining four carry single weight and shape the verdict without vetoing it. They are the ones where a considered no is defensible if you have said why.
Two of the questions are phrased so that no is the healthy answer, which catches people out when skimming. Read each one properly rather than answering down the column.
Unsure is a real option and it behaves like a failure on a blocking question, on purpose. If you do not know whether vulnerable people could be harmed, you are not in a position to proceed, and recording that honestly is more useful than a guess that will read as a considered yes when you look back in three months.
Straight from the framework
The Beacon Test — 10 questions
- 1Does this strengthen human dignity? (yes, blocking)
- 2Does this increase agency rather than dependence? (yes)
- 3Could vulnerable people be harmed by it? (no, blocking)
- 4Are the important claims verified? (yes)
- 5Is a named human accountable for consequential decisions? (yes, blocking)
- 6Could it amplify bias, humiliation, conflict, surveillance, or exclusion? (no, blocking)
- 7Are privacy and consent respected? (yes, blocking)
- 8Can ordinary people understand how the system is used? (yes)
- 9Is there no simpler way to get the same benefit? (yes)
- 10Would you explain this publicly to the people it affects? (yes, blocking)
Do this in the app
Put the lesson down somewhere real
Open your beacon and work through the ten questions, answering honestly rather than favourably.
Done when — You have a score out of one hundred and a verdict.
/dashboard
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