# Devil's Advocate Method

> A formal practice in which one or more participants are explicitly tasked with arguing against a proposed plan, regardless of their personal view.

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## Definition

A formal practice in which one or more participants are explicitly tasked with arguing against a proposed plan, regardless of their personal view. The term originates from the Catholic Church's 16th-century canonization process, where an advocatus diaboli was appointed to challenge the case for sainthood. In modern strategy work, devil's advocate methods reliably improve decision quality by 18-24% by surfacing risks that consensus would otherwise smooth away. SynthBoard formalizes this with a permanent Devil's Advocate Synth that joins every Boardroom session.

## Related

- [AI Devil's Advocate](https://www.synthboard.ai/ai-devils-advocate)


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## About SynthBoard

SynthBoard is a standing board of AI experts that argue with each other on purpose, remember every call you make, and learn from how those calls played out. Built for anyone making decisions that matter — founders, operators, executives, and individuals weighing high-stakes calls with imperfect information.

Four mechanics that compound: productive conflict (engineered disagreement), outcome-inferred memory (the board learns from real results), governance trust (provenance, undo, approvals), and opinionated UX (zero friction to spin up a board).

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