product-methodology

Product Methodology

This skill begins where discovery ends. When you have validated evidence from stakeholder conversations, competitive research, or usage data, it guides you through prioritization, decision-making, specification, and communication.

Pipeline

VALIDATED EVIDENCE → [PRIORITIZE] → [DECIDE] → [SPECIFY] → [COMMUNICATE]
                         |              |           |              |
                    RICE + MoSCoW   Decision log   Spec        Stakeholder
                                     template    template       briefs

Reference Guide

Load only the reference relevant to the task:

Reference	Load when
RICE scoring	You need to compare unrelated feature proposals by Reach × Impact × Confidence / Effort
MoSCoW prioritization	Scope is tight for a time-boxed release and you need crisp Must/Should/Could/Won't boundaries
Opportunity solution trees	The problem space is messy and you need to connect customer needs to build decisions without jumping to solutions
Decision log	You've made a decision with tradeoffs that will be questioned later — log the context and expected outcome
Spec template	You need a requirements document that engineers, designers, and stakeholders can all work from
Stakeholder communication	You're preparing a message for execs, engineers, designers, or customers — each audience needs a different format
Source index	Reviewing provenance, porting scope, and authoritative source links

Templates

Template	Load when
Decision log template	You need a fillable decision log entry with frontmatter
Spec template	You need a fillable spec document with the sections provided by this methodology

Trigger Conditions

Load this skill when:

• Prioritizing a backlog of feature proposals or initiatives
• Making a product decision that needs a documented rationale
• Writing a specification for a feature or integration
• Communicating a product decision to different audiences (executives, engineers, designers, customers)
• Mapping customer opportunities to potential solutions
• Scoping a time-boxed release with clear boundaries
• A stakeholder asks "why did we decide this?" and there's no record

When Not to Use

• Stakeholder discovery and interviews — load product-discovery first. This skill starts from validated evidence, not raw stakeholder conversations.
• Shaping an unbounded idea into a bet (appetite, pitch, circuit breaker) — load product-shaping before prioritization frameworks apply; this skill consumes a won bet, it does not create one.
• Interaction design, task flows, state/recovery models, or usability-study planning — use product-design-and-ux after this skill has chosen scope. This skill decides what to build and why; design-and-ux defines user-facing behavior.

Working Method

1. Confirm you have validated evidence (interview notes, usage data, competitive analysis). If not, route to product-discovery. If the validated problem has no appetite or bounded solution yet, shape it via product-shaping first — do not pre-shred a pitch into tasks before its bet is placed.
2. Prioritize with RICE when comparing unrelated proposals; use MoSCoW when scoping a time-boxed delivery.
3. Log decisions as structured records with context, options, rationale, and expected outcomes.
4. Write specs that define the problem, success metrics, scope boundaries, open questions, and edge cases.
5. Communicate decisions in the format each audience needs — recommendation-first for executives, context-first for engineers, listening-first for customers.

Routing Boundary

Use product-strategy for CPO-level vision, positioning, market strategy, and portfolio direction. Route tactical prioritization, specifications, decision logs, and backlog sequencing back here once strategic direction and validated evidence are available; do not make portfolio strategy decisions in this skill.

Portability

This skill is intentionally host-neutral. It requires no profile system, output format, scripts, or external services. Load references directly by path — use the host agent's normal file-loading mechanism.

Provenance

Framework	Origin	Source
RICE	Intercom (Sean McBride, 2016)	intercom.com/blog/rice-simple-prioritization-for-product-managers
MoSCoW	Dai Clegg, Oracle UK (1994); later adopted by DSDM	Agile Business Consortium: MoSCoW prioritisation
Opportunity Solution Trees	Teresa Torres (Product Talk)	producttalk.org/opportunity-solution-tree
Decision log	Synthesized from ADR practice and product management conventions	—
Spec template	Synthesized from common PRD practice	—
Stakeholder communication	Synthesized from product management communication practice	—

This skill was ported from magnus919/hermes-profiles at commit 867a555. See references/source-index.md for the portability boundary.