Needs Elicitor — The Interviewer
Action skill: turn "I need a robot vacuum" into an auditable requirements spec — before a single price or product page is seen. The decision-science evidence is blunt: anchoring (first price seen sways ~70% of buyers), spec-sheet seduction, and social proof all enter through premature exposure to the market. This skill is the bias gate.
Description
Elicits the buyer's actual job, hard constraints, and priorities, then locks them. Downstream phases (scan, eliminate, evaluate) treat the spec as frozen; changing it means returning here explicitly. The spec's weighted criteria feed agentic-researcher's evaluation matrix directly.
Input
| Parameter |
Required |
Notes |
request |
yes |
The raw purchase intent ("best X for Y") |
priors |
no |
Preference profile + prior briefs from decision-journal Phase-0 recall |
depth |
no |
quick (3 questions, low-stakes purchases) / standard (full interview, default) |
Process
- Frame the job (JTBD). Ask what situation the purchase should change — functional job (the task), emotional job (how they want to feel), social job (if any). A stand mixer's job might be "weekly bread without arm fatigue", not "600W motor".
- Capture constraints (MoSCoW). Must-haves (pass/fail — budget cap, size limits, compatibility, safety), should-haves, could-haves, won't-haves. Challenge each "must": "If an otherwise-perfect option lacked this, is it really out?" — the classic failure is conflating strongly-wanted with required.
- Lock the budget before price exposure. Elicit the cap (and stretch tolerance, if any) from the buyer's situation — never from market prices. Record
locked_before_prices: true. No WebSearch/WebFetch happens in this skill, by design.
- Weight the soft criteria. Rank should/could-haves by importance; assign weights summing to 1.0 via direct assignment or quick pairwise comparison. Confirm aloud: "reliability 0.3, pickup performance 0.35 — sound right?"
- Read the buyer's style. Satisficer ("good enough, decided fast") vs maximizer ("must be the best") — one question suffices. Maximizer-leaning buyers get the satisficing exit emphasized later (maximizers are measurably less satisfied post-purchase).
- Apply priors with consent. If the preference profile suggests recurring must-haves or weight priors, propose them — never silently apply: "last time you weighted reliability heavily — still true?"
- Sign off. Present the spec; the buyer confirms or amends. Only a confirmed spec unlocks the search phases.
In quick mode, compress to: the functional job, must-haves + budget, top-2 priorities.
Output
requirements_spec:
job: {functional: "...", emotional: "...", social: null}
must_haves: ["<= $400", "..."] # pass/fail, elimination order = list order
wont_haves: ["..."]
weighted_criteria: # soft criteria, weights sum to 1.0
- {criterion: "...", weight: 0.35, rationale: "..."}
budget: {cap: 400, currency: USD, stretch: null, locked_before_prices: true}
buyer_style: satisficer | maximizer | mixed
priors_applied: ["..."] # from profile, confirmed by user
signed_off: true
Error Handling
| Failure |
Response |
| Contradictory constraints (budget can't satisfy must-haves — discovered later) |
Downstream returns here; relax one constraint explicitly, never silently |
| Buyer says "just tell me the best" |
Run quick mode anyway — three questions beat zero; explain why in one sentence |
| Buyer anchors on a product they've seen |
Record it as a candidate, but elicit the job and budget as if it didn't exist |
Scope Boundaries
Handles: requirements, constraints, weights, budget lock.
Does not: search the web, name candidate products, or estimate market prices — that contaminates the anchor-free elicitation.
Related Skills
- Output feeds
emptor Phases 3-6 and agentic-researcher's criteria framing; priors come from decision-journal.
Learn Block
Next, learn source-trust-atlas — where the now-specified research should actually look.
1---2name: needs-elicitor3description: Interviews a buyer before any product research happens: jobs-to-be-done framing, MoSCoW must-haves, deal-breakers, and a budget locked before any price is seen. Use when starting a purchase decision and the real requirements are not yet pinned down — emptor's elicit phase, or standalone when someone says "help me figure out what I actually need". Produces a signed-off requirements spec with weighted criteria; performs no web searching itself.4---56# Needs Elicitor — The Interviewer78Action skill: turn "I need a robot vacuum" into an auditable requirements spec — before a single price or product page is seen. The decision-science evidence is blunt: anchoring (first price seen sways ~70% of buyers), spec-sheet seduction, and social proof all enter through premature exposure to the market. This skill is the bias gate.910## Description1112Elicits the buyer's actual job, hard constraints, and priorities, then locks them. Downstream phases (scan, eliminate, evaluate) treat the spec as frozen; changing it means returning here explicitly. The spec's weighted criteria feed `agentic-researcher`'s evaluation matrix directly.1314## Input1516| Parameter | Required | Notes |17|---|---|---|18| `request` | yes | The raw purchase intent ("best X for Y") |19| `priors` | no | Preference profile + prior briefs from `decision-journal` Phase-0 recall |20| `depth` | no | `quick` (3 questions, low-stakes purchases) / `standard` (full interview, default) |2122## Process23241. **Frame the job (JTBD).** Ask what situation the purchase should change — functional job (the task), emotional job (how they want to feel), social job (if any). A stand mixer's job might be "weekly bread without arm fatigue", not "600W motor".252. **Capture constraints (MoSCoW).** Must-haves (pass/fail — budget cap, size limits, compatibility, safety), should-haves, could-haves, won't-haves. Challenge each "must": *"If an otherwise-perfect option lacked this, is it really out?"* — the classic failure is conflating strongly-wanted with required.263. **Lock the budget before price exposure.** Elicit the cap (and stretch tolerance, if any) from the buyer's situation — never from market prices. Record `locked_before_prices: true`. No WebSearch/WebFetch happens in this skill, by design.274. **Weight the soft criteria.** Rank should/could-haves by importance; assign weights summing to 1.0 via direct assignment or quick pairwise comparison. Confirm aloud: "reliability 0.3, pickup performance 0.35 — sound right?"285. **Read the buyer's style.** Satisficer ("good enough, decided fast") vs maximizer ("must be the best") — one question suffices. Maximizer-leaning buyers get the satisficing exit emphasized later (maximizers are measurably less satisfied post-purchase).296. **Apply priors with consent.** If the preference profile suggests recurring must-haves or weight priors, propose them — never silently apply: "last time you weighted reliability heavily — still true?"307. **Sign off.** Present the spec; the buyer confirms or amends. Only a confirmed spec unlocks the search phases.3132In `quick` mode, compress to: the functional job, must-haves + budget, top-2 priorities.3334## Output3536```yaml37requirements_spec:38 job: {functional: "...", emotional: "...", social: null}39 must_haves: ["<= $400", "..."] # pass/fail, elimination order = list order40 wont_haves: ["..."]41 weighted_criteria: # soft criteria, weights sum to 1.042 - {criterion: "...", weight: 0.35, rationale: "..."}43 budget: {cap: 400, currency: USD, stretch: null, locked_before_prices: true}44 buyer_style: satisficer | maximizer | mixed45 priors_applied: ["..."] # from profile, confirmed by user46 signed_off: true47```4849## Error Handling5051| Failure | Response |52|---|---|53| Contradictory constraints (budget can't satisfy must-haves — discovered later) | Downstream returns here; relax one constraint explicitly, never silently |54| Buyer says "just tell me the best" | Run `quick` mode anyway — three questions beat zero; explain why in one sentence |55| Buyer anchors on a product they've seen | Record it as a candidate, but elicit the job and budget as if it didn't exist |5657## Scope Boundaries5859**Handles:** requirements, constraints, weights, budget lock.60**Does not:** search the web, name candidate products, or estimate market prices — that contaminates the anchor-free elicitation.6162## Related Skills6364- Output feeds `emptor` Phases 3-6 and `agentic-researcher`'s criteria framing; priors come from `decision-journal`.6566## Learn Block6768Next, learn `source-trust-atlas` — where the now-specified research should actually look.
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