Artifact: Trade-off Memo — Aurora Checkout Redesign

Aurora Checkout Redesign -- trade-off memo -- exercises co-01.

Request: add Stripe, PayPal, and Apple Pay provider adapters to scope, six weeks before launch, with no discussion of budget.

• Fixed: launch date (November 15, contractual, tied to the holiday shopping season); original core scope (checkout-flow redesign).
• Absorbs the change: cost. Two contractor engineers added for six weeks (~$54,000) to build the Stripe, PayPal, and Apple Pay provider adapters in parallel with the core redesign, without moving the date or cutting any already-committed scope.
• Alternative considered and rejected: dropping one of the three providers to stay within the existing headcount. Rejected because Finance's own data ranks all three as top-five revenue drivers for the holiday quarter -- dropping any one of them defeats the purpose of the request.

Sign-off: Aurora PM, Finance liaison, Engineering director.