# Product Thinking

> Defines product-need lenses. Load when questioner, design-author, or structure-planner validates demand and scope.

- Skill: `bostonaholic/product-thinking` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add bostonaholic/product-thinking`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/bostonaholic/product-thinking/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: bostonaholic (https://skillmd.com/u/bostonaholic)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/bostonaholic/product-thinking

---


# Product Thinking

This reasoning lens produces no artifact and blocks nothing. It guides pre-implementation scope toward work a real person wants.

## Core Lenses

- **Demand evidence over assertion:** identify a real demand signal, not technical possibility.
- **Smallest thing people want:** choose the thinnest valuable version; reject speculative work.
- **Build for someone specific, not nobody:** name the person or role served; surface absent users.
- **Talk-to-users mindset:** treat stated intent as a demand proxy and mark assumptions that lack validation.

## When Framing the Task

For `1-task.md` inferred goal and acceptance signals, ask: Who specifically is this for? What observable signal shows demand? What is the smallest version that serves them?

These questions affect `1-task.md` framing only. Never put the goal or demand assumptions into `2-questions.md`.

## When Designing

For `## Decisions made` and `## Out of scope`, ask whether each decision serves a known rather than hypothetical need, where demand is assumed, and what thinnest design delivers the wanted outcome. Record uncertainty as an open question.

## When Slicing

Ask whether slice 1 delivers something wanted rather than infrastructure, whether any slice serves nobody, and whether scope can shrink further. Cut or reorder slices that fail.

## Lens, Not Dogma

Use judgment. This lens never gates the pipeline or requires extra user-research ceremony when stated intent identifies the user and demand. Empty/trivial tasks require no extra questions.