Discovery playbook

Discovery Playbook

Repository: idea-discovery-playbook — npx skills add eltntawy/idea-discovery-playbook -g -y

Start here for full idea validation. Invoke one child skill per stage; do not skip gates without user consent.

Validation phases

Phase	Question	Exit gate
0 — Frame	What are we testing?	Topic folder + assumption-map with top assumptions; regulatory-risk-scan if regulated
1 — Idea	Is the problem real?	problem-discovery passed (kill criteria not met); or pivot segment
2 — Market	Is there a wedge and room?	market-research + competitor-landscape; economics sketch OK
3 — Economics	Can it pay?	market-sizing, revenue-model, positioning-wedge
4 — Feasibility	Can we ship and win?	feasibility-gate — not Reject
5 — Demand test	Will they act/pay?	validation-experiments — fail threshold not hit
6 — Decision	Build, wait, or kill?	idea-scorecard — Strong or Conditional go only for build
7 — Synthesis	One pack for stakeholders	discovery-synthesis

Product validation (after prototype): pmf-sean-ellis — not part of pre-build gates.

Skill router

User need	Skill
Riskiest assumptions, test queue	assumption-map
Mom Test interviews	problem-discovery
Why buyers switch / JTBD	jtbd-interviews
Live market + gap memo	market-research
Full competitor memo	competitor-landscape
TAM / SAM / SOM	market-sizing
Category and positioning	positioning-wedge
Pricing and LTV:CAC	revenue-model
Build / wait / reject feasibility	feasibility-gate
Smoke test, fake door, concierge	validation-experiments
End-to-end behavior memo	behavior-led-validation
Weighted go/no-go	idea-scorecard
Single researcher report	discovery-synthesis
Regulated domain	regulatory-risk-scan

First run (workspace bootstrap)

If discovery/ is missing:

1. Create discovery/INDEX.md listing active topic slugs, status, opened date, and last decision (see example below).
2. Create discovery/<topic-slug>/ with TOPIC.md from problem-discovery → TOPIC-TEMPLATE.md.
3. Create subfolders: briefs/, research/, experiments/, scorecards/.

INDEX.md example:

# Discovery index

## Active

| Slug | Status | Opened | Last decision |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <slug> | active | YYYY-MM-DD | In progress |

## Archived

(none)

Artifact filenames (per topic)

Kind	Path pattern
Topic index	discovery/<slug>/TOPIC.md
Brief / interviews	briefs/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-brief.md
Market memo	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-market.md
Market sizing	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-market-sizing.md (or section in -market.md)
Competitors	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-competitors.md
Revenue	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-revenue.md
Positioning	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-positioning.md
Feasibility	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-feasibility.md
Assumptions	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-assumptions.md
Experiments	experiments/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-experiment.md
JTBD	briefs/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-jtbd.md
Regulatory	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-regulatory.md
Scorecard	scorecards/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-scorecard.md
Synthesis	YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-synthesis.md (topic root or research/)
PMF (post-build)	research/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>-pmf.md

Default memo sections

Facts, Assumptions, Evidence, Analysis, Decision, Next experiment.

Build gate

No production implementation until idea-scorecard = Strong go or Conditional go with named gaps.

Related skills (external)

Optional complements — install separately:

• npx skills add ferdinandobons/startup-skill — full strategy, pitch
• npx skills add brandonsgitstub/jtbd-skill — JTBD docx workflow
• npx skills add EmersonBraun/skills --skill brainstorm — divergent ideation