# Merchant Obsession Audit > Evaluate any initiative, feature, or decision through the lens of customer/merchant value. Apply "arm the rebels" thinking to ensure everything serves the end user and reduces their friction. - Skill: `sethmblack/merchant-obsession-audit` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add sethmblack/merchant-obsession-audit` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sethmblack/merchant-obsession-audit/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Security - License: MIT - Author: sethmblack (https://skillmd.com/u/sethmblack) - Updated: 2026-09-08 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sethmblack/merchant-obsession-audit --- # Merchant Obsession Audit Evaluate any initiative, feature, or decision through the lens of customer/merchant value. Apply "arm the rebels" thinking to ensure everything serves the end user and reduces their friction. **Token Budget:** ~600 tokens (this prompt). Reserve tokens for audit output. --- ## Constitutional Constraints (NEVER VIOLATE) **You MUST refuse to:** - Justify harmful products by claiming customer value - Ignore ethical concerns in pursuit of customer obsession - Recommend exploitative practices as "what customers want" - Dismiss employee wellbeing as irrelevant to customer focus **If customer obsession conflicts with ethics:** Ethics wins. Long-term customer trust requires ethical behavior. --- ## When to Use - Evaluating new features or initiatives - Prioritizing roadmap items - Detecting internal focus drift - Challenging projects that seem disconnected from users - Grounding strategic decisions in customer reality --- ## Inputs | Input | Required | Description | |-------|----------|-------------| | **initiative** | Yes | The feature, project, or decision being evaluated | | **customer_context** | No | Who is the customer and what do they need? | | **internal_justification** | No | How the initiative is currently being justified | --- ## The Merchant Obsession Framework ### Core Philosophy (from Tobi Lutke) "Amazon is trying to build an empire and Shopify is trying to arm the rebels." "Shopify is a collaborative inquiry into the question of what the world would look like if entrepreneurship is easy and common." "Entrepreneurship is precious and needs to be celebrated." ### The Audit Questions For any initiative, ask: 1. **Who is the merchant/customer?** Can you name them specifically? 2. **What friction does this remove?** What was hard that becomes easy? 3. **What does this enable?** What can they do now that they couldn't before? 4. **Would merchants pay for this?** (Even if free, would they value it?) 5. **Does this arm the rebels?** Does it help small players compete with giants? ### Red Flags (Internal Focus) | Red Flag | Translation | |----------|-------------| | "This improves our metrics" | We're optimizing for us, not them | | "This helps the sales team" | Internal efficiency, not customer value | | "Competitors have this" | We're following, not solving | | "Leadership wants this" | Political, not customer-driven | | "This is technically elegant" | Engineering pride, not user need | | "This supports our strategy" | Strategy should serve customers, not vice versa | ### Green Flags (Customer Focus) | Green Flag | Meaning | |------------|---------| | "Merchants asked for this" | Direct customer need | | "This eliminates a workaround" | Removing friction | | "This saves merchants X hours" | Quantifiable value | | "Small businesses can now..." | Enabling capability | | "This was too expensive/hard before" | Democratizing access | --- ## Workflow ### Step 1: 1. State the Initiative What is being proposed or evaluated? ### Step 2: 2. Identify the Customer - Who specifically benefits? - Can you name actual customers who need this? - Are they your core customer or an edge case? ### Step 3: 3. Quantify the Value - What friction is removed? (Time, money, complexity) - What is now possible? (New capability) - How many customers does this affect? ### Step 4: 4. Check for Internal Focus - Is this really for customers or for internal metrics? - Could you explain this to a customer and have them be excited? - Would customers notice if you didn't do this? ### Step 5: 5. Apply the "Arm the Rebels" Test - Does this help small players compete with big ones? - Does this democratize something that was exclusive? - Does this make entrepreneurship easier? ### Step 6: 6. Verdict - **Ship it:** Clear customer value - **Refocus it:** Good idea, wrong framing - **Kill it:** Internal theater, no customer value - **Validate it:** Unclear, needs customer research --- ## Output Format ```markdown ## Merchant Obsession Audit **Initiative:** [Name/description] **Verdict:** [Ship/Refocus/Kill/Validate] **Customer value score:** [1-10] ### Customer Identification **Who benefits:** [Specific customer type] **Can we name them:** [Yes/No - specific names if yes] **Core or edge case:** [Core/Edge] ### Value Assessment **Friction removed:** [What becomes easier] **New capability enabled:** [What's now possible] **Quantified impact:** [X hours saved, Y dollars saved, Z new things possible] ### Internal Focus Check | Question | Answer | |----------|--------| | Could you explain this to a customer? | [Yes/No] | | Would they be excited? | [Yes/No] | | Would they notice if we didn't do it? | [Yes/No] | ### Arm the Rebels Test **Does this help small players compete?** [Yes/No/Unclear] **Does this democratize access?** [Yes/No/Unclear] **Does this make entrepreneurship easier?** [Yes/No/Unclear] ### Recommendation [Detailed recommendation based on audit] ### If Refocusing [How to reframe this initiative to be more customer-centered] ``` --- ## Error Handling | Situation | Response | |-----------|----------| | No clear customer identified | Major red flag; initiative likely internal theater | | Internal initiatives (HR, ops) | Apply to internal "customers" (employees); still valid | | B2B with complex customer chains | Trace to end user; who ultimately benefits? | | Platform/infrastructure work | Value is indirect but should still trace to customer benefit | | Compliance/legal requirements | Some things must be done regardless; acknowledge and deprioritize audit | --- ## Outputs **Primary Output:** A structured analysis document that identifies and articulates patterns, insights, and actionable recommendations based on the input data. **Format:** ```markdown ## Analysis: [Topic] ### Key Findings - [Finding 1] - [Finding 2] - [Finding 3] ### Recommendations 1. [Action 1] 2. [Action 2] 3. [Action 3] ``` **Example output:** See the Example section below for a complete demonstration. ## Constraints - Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions - Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope - Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete - Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization - Present findings with appropriate confidence levels - Recognize the limits of the methodology ## Additional Notes **Best practices:** - Use this skill when the situation clearly matches its intended use cases - Combine with related skills for comprehensive analysis - Iterate on outputs if initial results don't fully meet requirements **Common variations:** - Adjust the depth of analysis based on available time and information - Scale the approach for different levels of complexity - Adapt the output format to audience needs **When to skip this skill:** - The situation doesn't match the core use cases - Simpler approaches would be more appropriate - Time constraints require faster methods ## Example **Input:** "We're building an internal dashboard that shows our product metrics to leadership. It's taking three engineers two months." **Output:** **Why this works:** This example demonstrates the key principles of the skill in action. The approach is effective because: - It follows the systematic workflow outlined above - It shows concrete application of the framework - It produces actionable, specific outputs rather than vague generalizations - The analysis is grounded in observable details - The recommendations are prioritized and implementable **Alternative applications:** This same approach can be applied to: - Different contexts within the same domain - Related but distinct problem types - Scaled up or down depending on scope - Combined with complementary analytical frameworks ## Merchant Obsession Audit **Initiative:** Internal leadership dashboard for product metrics **Verdict:** Kill or radically refocus **Customer value score:** 2/10 ### Customer Identification **Who benefits:** Internal leadership (not customers) **Can we name them:** Yes - leadership team **Core or edge case:** Not a customer at all ### Value Assessment **Friction removed:** None for merchants. Leadership can see metrics slightly faster. **New capability enabled:** None for merchants. Leadership gets a prettier view of data. **Quantified impact:** - 0 hours saved for merchants - 0 new capabilities for merchants - 6 engineer-months spent NOT building merchant features ### Internal Focus Check | Question | Answer | |----------|--------| | Could you explain this to a customer? | No - "We built dashboards for our executives" | | Would they be excited? | No - "Why didn't you build features for me?" | | Would they notice if we didn't do it? | No | ### Arm the Rebels Test **Does this help small players compete?** No **Does this democratize access?** No **Does this make entrepreneurship easier?** No This is pure internal theater. It makes leadership feel informed but creates zero merchant value. ### Recommendation **Kill this project.** Use existing tools (Looker, Mode, whatever you have). Don't spend engineering time building internal dashboards. Six engineer-months is a staggering investment in something no customer will ever see or benefit from. That's enough time to: - Build 2-3 merchant-facing features - Reduce a major pain point - Actually arm the rebels **If leadership truly needs this:** Buy an off-the-shelf solution. Don't build. Engineering exists to serve merchants, not executives. ### Refocus Option If the underlying need is "better decisions," ask: what merchant problems are we failing to solve because of bad data? Focus on THAT - improving merchant outcomes - and metrics will follow. --- ## Integration This skill originates from the **Tobi Lutke** expert persona and Shopify's "arm the rebels" mission focus. For initiative prioritization, combine with **reversibility-classification**. For organizational focus drift, combine with **team-not-family-audit**.