PM framework selector
This skill helps a PM (or someone helping a PM) pick the right framework for the decision in front of them. The repo's frameworks are organized by lifecycle phase, so framework selection starts by identifying what kind of decision is being made.
How to apply
Diagnose the question, not the symptom. The user's surface question ("how do I prioritize these features?") may not be the real question ("we don't know what problem we're solving"). Ask one or two clarifying questions before recommending a framework.
Map the decision to a lifecycle phase, using the table below. Frameworks live in frameworks/01-strategy-and-discovery.md through frameworks/05-continuous-prioritization.md.
Recommend 1–2 frameworks, not 5. Cite the specific file in the repo. Explain why this framework, not just what.
Note when not to use a framework. One-way doors, strategic bets, and existential decisions usually need a memo, not a score. Flag this.
| If the question is about... |
The phase is... |
Likely framework(s) |
| What problem to solve, why now, who for |
Strategy & Discovery |
PMF Narrative, Working Backwards, Pre-Mortem |
| Whether the decision is reversible / how much rigor it deserves |
Strategy & Discovery |
One-Way / Two-Way Doors |
| Risk surfacing before launch |
Strategy & Discovery |
Pre-Mortem (tigers / paper tigers / elephants), Sensitivity Analysis |
| What to ship in V1 |
Defining the MVP |
JTBD Ranking, MoSCoW, Cupcake Model |
| Which features are basics / performance / delighters |
Defining the MVP |
Kano Model |
| End-to-end thin-slice scoping |
Defining the MVP |
Story Mapping |
| Whether the underlying value-hypothesis bet (what / who / how) holds together |
Pre-PMF Validation |
Rachleff value hypothesis, Christensen disruption, bowling-pin / chasm — see decision-making/value-hypothesis.md |
| Whether we have PMF |
Pre-PMF Validation |
"10 Happy Users", Sean Ellis Test, Smile Curve, ARC |
| Which users should drive the roadmap — the ones who love it, the ones who kind of like it, or the ones who aren't interested |
Pre-PMF Validation |
Lovers / likers / disinterested banding, three-axis commonality, the shared-core and separator cuts — see frameworks/03-pre-pmf-validation.md |
| Activation / TTV health |
Pre-PMF Validation |
Activation Rate / TTV |
| Whether GTM is actually ready |
Pre-PMF Validation |
GTM Strategy Checklist |
| How to actually run a customer-discovery interview without collecting false positives |
Strategy & Discovery / Pre-PMF |
Mom Test rules — see decision-making/customer-interviews.md |
| Funnel diagnostics post-PMF |
Post-PMF Growth |
AARRR (Pirate Metrics) |
| Feature-level UX measurement |
Post-PMF Growth |
HEART |
| Retention diagnosis |
Post-PMF Growth |
Cohort Retention, Growth Accounting |
| Unit economics check |
Post-PMF Growth |
LTV / CAC |
| Backlog ranking |
Continuous Prioritization |
RICE, WSJF, Opportunity Scoring |
| One metric for the whole org |
Continuous Prioritization |
North Star Metric |
| Connecting features to strategy narrative |
Continuous Prioritization |
Storytelling Narrative |
For decisions that don't fit a phase cleanly (problem framing, research methods, cross-functional disputes), look in decision-making/ and cross-functional/:
| Question |
File |
| Am I solving the right problem? |
decision-making/problem-framing.md |
| Personas vs. JTBD vs. Kano |
decision-making/research-methods.md |
| How to run a customer-discovery interview that actually produces signal |
decision-making/customer-interviews.md |
| What's the underlying value-hypothesis bet, and how do I test it? |
decision-making/value-hypothesis.md |
| Is this product actually defensible, and against which competitor move? |
decision-making/competitive-moat.md |
| How do I design a product that acts on the user's behalf (agent attribution, transparency, approval gates, autonomy)? |
decision-making/agentic-product-design.md |
| I have an existing critique or recommendation and want it adversarially re-reviewed |
Use the pm-red-team skill — applies a different lens than the first pass and is built to challenge rather than defer |
| One-way vs. two-way doors, pre-mortem |
decision-making/risk-and-reversibility.md |
| Backlog prioritization |
decision-making/prioritization.md |
| Our backlog is built from churn feedback and lost deals — is that right? |
decision-making/prioritization.md § "Route requests by band before scoring them" |
| What to measure |
decision-making/metrics.md |
| PM/engineering tension |
cross-functional/engineering-partnership.md |
| Project failure / kill / postmortem |
cross-functional/failure-management.md |
| Bundle effects, exec credibility, B2B distribution |
cross-functional/stakeholder-alignment.md |
Output structure
When invoked, respond with:
- One-line restatement of the decision the PM is actually making
- Recommended framework(s) — name, file path, one-line "why"
- Sharpening questions — 2–3 questions the framework will force the PM to answer
- When NOT to use this — flag if a framework is the wrong tool here
Keep responses tight. The point is to point them at the right page, not to summarize the page.
Common diagnostic mistakes to flag
- "How do I prioritize?" — often the upstream problem is strategy unclear, not prioritization. Surface this if it applies.
- "Should we ship this AI feature?" — usually the question is unit economics + differentiation + trust UX, not "is the feature good?"
- "Users want X" — stress-test: is this stated preference or revealed? Strategic segment or convenient one? Friction problem or incentive problem?
- "We need to refactor / rebuild" — almost always a reversibility question first, then a credibility-with-leadership question.
- "Should we kill it?" — almost always answered by pre-committed kill criteria. If those don't exist, that's the upstream issue.
1---2name: pm-framework-selector3description: Recommend which product-management framework(s) to apply to a specific decision. Use when the user describes a product decision and asks "what framework should I use?" / "how should I think about this?" / "which lens applies?" — or when you spot a PM decision in a conversation that would benefit from explicit framework grounding (prioritization, MVP scoping, validation, growth, risk, problem-framing). Anchored in the lifecycle-phase frameworks library in this repo.4---56# PM framework selector78This skill helps a PM (or someone helping a PM) pick the right framework for the decision in front of them. The repo's frameworks are organized by lifecycle phase, so framework selection starts by identifying what *kind* of decision is being made.910## How to apply11121. **Diagnose the question, not the symptom.** The user's surface question ("how do I prioritize these features?") may not be the real question ("we don't know what problem we're solving"). Ask one or two clarifying questions before recommending a framework.13142. **Map the decision to a lifecycle phase**, using the table below. Frameworks live in `frameworks/01-strategy-and-discovery.md` through `frameworks/05-continuous-prioritization.md`.15163. **Recommend 1–2 frameworks, not 5.** Cite the specific file in the repo. Explain *why* this framework, not just *what*.17184. **Note when not to use a framework.** One-way doors, strategic bets, and existential decisions usually need a memo, not a score. Flag this.1920| If the question is about... | The phase is... | Likely framework(s) |21|---|---|---|22| What problem to solve, why now, who for | Strategy & Discovery | PMF Narrative, Working Backwards, Pre-Mortem |23| Whether the decision is reversible / how much rigor it deserves | Strategy & Discovery | One-Way / Two-Way Doors |24| Risk surfacing before launch | Strategy & Discovery | Pre-Mortem (tigers / paper tigers / elephants), Sensitivity Analysis |25| What to ship in V1 | Defining the MVP | JTBD Ranking, MoSCoW, Cupcake Model |26| Which features are basics / performance / delighters | Defining the MVP | Kano Model |27| End-to-end thin-slice scoping | Defining the MVP | Story Mapping |28| Whether the underlying value-hypothesis bet (what / who / how) holds together | Pre-PMF Validation | Rachleff value hypothesis, Christensen disruption, bowling-pin / chasm — see `decision-making/value-hypothesis.md` |29| Whether we have PMF | Pre-PMF Validation | "10 Happy Users", Sean Ellis Test, Smile Curve, ARC |30| Which users should drive the roadmap — the ones who love it, the ones who kind of like it, or the ones who aren't interested | Pre-PMF Validation | Lovers / likers / disinterested banding, three-axis commonality, the shared-core and separator cuts — see `frameworks/03-pre-pmf-validation.md` |31| Activation / TTV health | Pre-PMF Validation | Activation Rate / TTV |32| Whether GTM is actually ready | Pre-PMF Validation | GTM Strategy Checklist |33| How to actually run a customer-discovery interview without collecting false positives | Strategy & Discovery / Pre-PMF | Mom Test rules — see `decision-making/customer-interviews.md` |34| Funnel diagnostics post-PMF | Post-PMF Growth | AARRR (Pirate Metrics) |35| Feature-level UX measurement | Post-PMF Growth | HEART |36| Retention diagnosis | Post-PMF Growth | Cohort Retention, Growth Accounting |37| Unit economics check | Post-PMF Growth | LTV / CAC |38| Backlog ranking | Continuous Prioritization | RICE, WSJF, Opportunity Scoring |39| One metric for the whole org | Continuous Prioritization | North Star Metric |40| Connecting features to strategy narrative | Continuous Prioritization | Storytelling Narrative |4142For decisions that don't fit a phase cleanly (problem framing, research methods, cross-functional disputes), look in `decision-making/` and `cross-functional/`:434445| Question | File |46|---|---|47| Am I solving the right problem? | `decision-making/problem-framing.md` |48| Personas vs. JTBD vs. Kano | `decision-making/research-methods.md` |49| How to run a customer-discovery interview that actually produces signal | `decision-making/customer-interviews.md` |50| What's the underlying value-hypothesis bet, and how do I test it? | `decision-making/value-hypothesis.md` |51| Is this product actually defensible, and against which competitor move? | `decision-making/competitive-moat.md` |52| How do I design a product that acts on the user's behalf (agent attribution, transparency, approval gates, autonomy)? | `decision-making/agentic-product-design.md` |53| I have an existing critique or recommendation and want it adversarially re-reviewed | Use the `pm-red-team` skill — applies a different lens than the first pass and is built to challenge rather than defer |54| One-way vs. two-way doors, pre-mortem | `decision-making/risk-and-reversibility.md` |55| Backlog prioritization | `decision-making/prioritization.md` |56| Our backlog is built from churn feedback and lost deals — is that right? | `decision-making/prioritization.md` § "Route requests by band before scoring them" |57| What to measure | `decision-making/metrics.md` |58| PM/engineering tension | `cross-functional/engineering-partnership.md` |59| Project failure / kill / postmortem | `cross-functional/failure-management.md` |60| Bundle effects, exec credibility, B2B distribution | `cross-functional/stakeholder-alignment.md` |6162## Output structure6364When invoked, respond with:65661. **One-line restatement** of the decision the PM is actually making672. **Recommended framework(s)** — name, file path, one-line "why"683. **Sharpening questions** — 2–3 questions the framework will force the PM to answer694. **When NOT to use this** — flag if a framework is the wrong tool here7071Keep responses tight. The point is to point them at the right page, not to summarize the page.7273## Common diagnostic mistakes to flag7475- "How do I prioritize?" — often the upstream problem is *strategy unclear*, not prioritization. Surface this if it applies.76- "Should we ship this AI feature?" — usually the question is unit economics + differentiation + trust UX, not "is the feature good?"77- "Users want X" — stress-test: is this stated preference or revealed? Strategic segment or convenient one? Friction problem or incentive problem?78- "We need to refactor / rebuild" — almost always a reversibility question first, then a credibility-with-leadership question.79- "Should we kill it?" — almost always answered by pre-committed kill criteria. If those don't exist, that's the upstream issue.
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