Product discovery

Product Discovery — Stakeholder Map

Pre-discovery work begins before any conversation. Load this reference first when planning discovery:

Reference	Load when	File
Stakeholder Mapping & Sequencing	You need to decide who to interview and in what order	references/stakeholder-mapping.md
Interview Protocol Design	You're designing a question stack for a specific stakeholder type	references/question-patterns.md
Gap Detection Techniques	You're preparing to recognize what stakeholders don't say	references/gap-detection.md

Pipeline: Phase 0 — Discovery

RAW NEED → [MAP] → [INTERVIEW] → [SYNTHESIZE] → [DISTILL] → [VALIDATE] → SPEC.md
              |           |              |            |            |
         Who to       What to        Resolve      Convert to   Stakeholder
         talk to      ask            conflicts    structured   review

Load the reference for the phase you're entering.

Core principles

• Closed questions confirm what you already think; open questions discover what you didn't know to ask. If the answer can be "yes" or "no," you're validating, not discovering.
• Knowledge holders come first; authority holders validate — they don't originate. The person who knows the problem is not the same person who approves the budget.
• Conflicts are almost never about what they appear to be. Surface disagreements are proxies for unstated differences in assumptions, risk tolerance, or incentives.
• Every weasel word represents a gap. "Probably," "ideally," "eventually" — each is a known issue the stakeholder hasn't committed to addressing.

Quick Start — Where to Enter

You have this	Start here
A vague idea or problem space	Load references/stakeholder-mapping.md — identify who to interview
An interview scheduled with no protocol	Load references/question-patterns.md and references/gap-detection.md — design your question stack
Raw interview notes from one or more sessions	Load references/transcript-to-spec.md — distill into structured spec components
A draft spec that needs stakeholder verification	Load references/transcript-to-spec.md (Interpretation Audit Trail section) — run the validation loop
Stakeholders who disagree on requirements	Load references/conflict-resolution.md — classify and resolve before spec
Limited time with a stakeholder	Load references/time-constrained-discovery.md — maximize signal in minimal time
An AI agent conducting interviews	Load references/ai-conducted-discovery.md — account for sycophancy and trust dynamics

Done with discovery? Use product-methodology to choose scope, then product-design-and-ux to define user-facing behavior. Jump to the Is Discovery Complete? checklist at the bottom.

Trigger Conditions

Load this skill when:

• You're starting product discovery for a new feature or project
• You have a vague idea that needs to become a structured specification
• You need to interview stakeholders but don't have a protocol
• You have raw interview notes that need to become a SPEC.md
• You're about to enter Phase 1 (SPECIFY) of SDD and need upstream input
• You're evaluating whether you've done enough discovery work

Loading Guide

Phase	Load When	File
MAP	You need to identify who to interview, in what order, and how to find the right stakeholders	references/stakeholder-mapping.md
INTERVIEW	You're about to conduct stakeholder interviews and need question patterns, gap detection, and conflict handling	references/question-patterns.md + references/gap-detection.md + references/conflict-resolution.md
SYNTHESIZE	You have raw interview notes and need to identify conflicts, risks, and gaps before distillation	references/conflict-resolution.md
DISTILL	You need to transform interview notes into structured SPEC.md with ACs, edge cases, and NFRs	references/transcript-to-spec.md
VALIDATE	You have a draft spec and need to verify interpretations with stakeholders	references/transcript-to-spec.md (Interpretation Audit Trail section)

Cross-Cutting Concerns

These dimensions apply across all phases. Load when relevant:

Concern	Load when	File
AI-conducted discovery	An AI agent is conducting discovery interviews	references/ai-conducted-discovery.md
Power dynamics	Stakeholders span multiple organizational levels; hierarchy may distort responses	references/power-dynamics.md
Time constraints	Stakeholder time is limited; need maximum signal extraction	references/time-constrained-discovery.md

Templates

Template	Pipeline Phase	Load when	File
Discovery Plan	MAP	You need to structure the full discovery effort — stakeholder map, interview schedule, timeline	templates/discovery-plan.md
Interview Guide	INTERVIEW	You need a structured question stack for an interview session	templates/interview-guide.md
Distillation Worksheet	DISTILL	You're transforming raw notes into structured spec components	templates/distillation-worksheet.md
Gap Register	SYNTHESIZE	You need to track unresolved gaps, deferred decisions, and open questions across interviews	templates/gap-register.md
Interpretation Log	DISTILL → VALIDATE	You need to track every translation from stakeholder language to spec language	templates/interpretation-log.md

Quick Reference: Is Discovery Complete?

Before handing off to SDD Phase 1 (SPECIFY), check:

• All stakeholder types interviewed (knowledge holders, authority holders, affected parties, implementation knowers)?
• At least 3 independent sources for every requirement?
• Abstract nouns decomposed into measurable thresholds?
• Conflicts resolved or documented with decision-maker identified?
• Edge cases extracted from stakeholder anecdotes?
• Every AC classified: SAID / IMPLIED / INTERPRETED / INFERRED?
• HIGH-risk interpretations identified and flagged for validation?
• Gaps, deferred decisions, and avoided topics documented?
• Stakeholder validation loop completed?
• Interpretation audit trail preserved for handoff?