Shipkit Product Discovery

shipkit-product-discovery - Lightweight Product Discovery

Purpose: Combines personas, user journey mapping, and user stories into a single lightweight workflow for POC/MVP projects

Protocol: This skill follows the canonical elicitation protocol defined in install/shared/references/elicitation-protocol.md (the mechanics — marker, state files, resume). The steps below are this skill's specific application of that protocol.

Calibration: Apply install/shared/references/ground-or-ask-calibration.md (the intelligence — propose vs ask). Ground first: scan cited signals (the opening prompt, why.json, README.md, package.json, the codebase) before asking anything. Propose every field you can tie to a signal, tagged with its source; flag low-leverage guesses as guessed. High-leverage for this skill: who the PRIMARY personas are and their core journeys / top user needs — these define who the product is FOR and are hard to reverse. If ungrounded, ask. Low-leverage: secondary personas, edge-case journeys, ordering details — propose flagged defaults, don't ask. Target 2–3 questions maximum; if you're about to ask more, your grounding pass was too shallow. Never silently invent an ungrounded primary persona or core need.

When to Invoke

User triggers:

• "Who are our users?", "Create personas", "User research"
• "User journey", "Map user needs", "Product discovery"
• "User stories", "What features?", "Requirements"

Workflow position:

• Early Pillar 1 (Vision) or Pillar 3 (Co-design) - before specification
• Replaces separate prod-personas + prod-jobs-to-be-done + prod-user-stories for POC/MVP

Prerequisites

Optional:

• .shipkit/why.json (Vision helps guide persona creation)
• .shipkit/stack.json (Technical constraints inform feasibility)

If missing: Generate personas and stories based on user input alone

Process

Step 0: Check for Existing File

Fork context — no user prompts. You are dispatched in a fork and have no user channel. Skip the file-exists menu entirely.

1. Check if .shipkit/product-discovery.json exists
2. If exists: read .shipkit/reviews/direction-assessment.json if present. If the latest review lists a gap against this artifact, archive the existing file to .shipkit/.archive/product-discovery.YYYY-MM-DD.json and regenerate addressing the gap. Otherwise, read the existing file and exit early with a "no changes needed" report — the reviewer already accepted it.
3. If no file exists: proceed to Step 0b (propose mode).

Step 0b: Grounding Pass (Context-Driven Propose)

Grounding pass — run before generating any question or artifact:

1. Read cited signals in order: why.json (targetUsers, problem, vision), README.md (audience, problem, value prop), package.json (name, description, keywords), the opening prompt / any argument provided.
2. For each field the artifact needs, classify:
   • Grounded → propose with source: <signal> tag (e.g. "source": "why.json §targetUsers"). Do not ask.
   • Ungrounded + high-leverage (who the primary personas are, their core journeys, their top needs) → add to candidate questions. These are hard to reverse.
   • Ungrounded + low-leverage (secondary persona details, edge journeys) → propose with "guessed": true. Do not ask.
3. Decision gate:
   • Primary persona(s) grounded (at least one persona and their core need are supported by a signal) → proceed to write the artifact (Step 3). Do not pause; propose secondary personas as guessed defaults. The orchestrator's review cycle catches gaps.
   • Primary persona(s) ungrounded (no signal identifies who the product is for) → you cannot safely proceed. Follow the Elicitation Path below.

Elicitation Path (Fork + Ungrounded Primary Persona)

Only reached when: (a) you are in a fork (check — is AskUserQuestion in your available tools? If not, you are in a fork), AND (b) the primary persona is ungrounded after the grounding pass.

Do not invent a persona. Do not write product-discovery.json. Follow this path exactly:

Write .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/questions.md — overwrite with:

---
skill: shipkit-product-discovery
turn: 1
last_updated: <ISO 8601 UTC>
---

## Turn 1

1. Who are the primary users of this product? (roles, types, or a short description) (field: `personas[].name/role`)
2. What is the core thing each primary user is trying to accomplish — their main goal or job-to-be-done? (field: `personas[].primaryIntent`)
3. What is their biggest frustration or pain point with how they do this today? (field: `painPoints`)

Limit to 3 questions (the high-leverage set). Do not ask about secondary personas or edge journeys here.

Write .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/progress.json — create or update:

{
  "skill": "shipkit-product-discovery",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "elicitation_turn": 1,
  "started_at": "<ISO 8601 UTC>",
  "last_updated_at": "<ISO 8601 UTC>",
  "completed_at": null,
  "last_elicited_at": "<ISO 8601 UTC>",
  "total_questions_planned": 3,
  "questions_answered": 0,
  "confidence": "low"
}

Do NOT write answers.md if it already contains real answers. Create an empty file with only the frontmatter header if the file does not yet exist.

Emit the marker as the FINAL line of your output:

NEEDS_ELICITATION:shipkit-product-discovery
status=paused
turn=1
questions_file=.shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/questions.md
reason=primary persona ungrounded — awaiting user answers for turn 1

Return immediately. Do not synthesize anything. Do not continue past this point.

Step 1: Gather Context About Users and Goals (Inline Mode Only)

Only run this step when AskUserQuestion IS in your available tools (you are running inline in the main session, not in a fork). If you are in a fork and the primary persona is ungrounded, use the Elicitation Path above instead.

Check for pre-populated answers first. Read .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/answers.md. If it contains real answers for the primary persona fields, skip the questions below and proceed to Step 3 using those answers.

Use AskUserQuestion tool to gather requirements:

Question 1 - Discovery Focus:

header: "Focus"
question: "What aspect of product discovery do you need?"
options:
  - label: "Full Discovery (Recommended)"
    description: "Personas + journeys + user stories"
  - label: "Personas Only"
    description: "Define who your users are"
  - label: "User Journeys"
    description: "Map how users accomplish goals"
  - label: "User Stories"
    description: "Generate feature requirements"

Question 2 - User Type: (if not provided in argument or signals)

header: "Users"
question: "Who are your primary users?"
options:
  - label: "Consumers (B2C)"
    description: "End users, general public"
  - label: "Businesses (B2B)"
    description: "Companies, teams, professionals"
  - label: "Internal Users"
    description: "Your team, employees, admins"
  - label: "Developers"
    description: "API consumers, integrators"

If user selects "Other": Follow up with clarifying questions about their specific user types and goals.

Step 2: Read Existing Context

Read these files (if exist):

• .shipkit/why.json - Vision context
• .shipkit/stack.json - Technical constraints

Token budget: Keep context reading under 1000 tokens.

Step 3: Generate Product Discovery JSON Artifact

Create file using Write tool: .shipkit/product-discovery.json

Content includes:

1. Personas (1-3 lightweight personas with IDs, primary intent, and cross-referencing)
2. Pain Points (extracted from personas, linked by ID)
3. User Journeys (step-by-step with emotion tracking and pain point references)
4. Opportunities (linked to pain points and personas)

Multi-user apps: When the product serves distinct user types (e.g., teachers + students, buyers + sellers), each persona MUST have a distinct primaryIntent that captures their core motivation. This ensures downstream skills (product-definition, engineering-definition, goals, spec) can map features, mechanisms, and criteria to specific user intents.

All entities use stable IDs (persona-1, pain-1, journey-1, opp-1) to enable graph traversal and relationship mapping across the artifact.

Product Discovery JSON Schema (Quick Reference)

The output MUST conform to the Shipkit JSON Artifact Convention.

{
  "$schema": "shipkit-artifact",
  "type": "product-discovery",
  "version": "1.0",
  "lastUpdated": "2025-01-15T10:00:00Z",
  "source": "shipkit-product-discovery",
  "summary": { "totalPersonas", "totalJourneys", "totalPainPoints", "totalOpportunities", "primaryPersona", "topPainPoint" },
  "personas": [{ "id", "name", "role", "primaryIntent", "goals", "frustrations", "techComfort", "context", "isPrimary" }],
  "painPoints": [{ "id", "description", "severity", "affectedPersonas", "currentWorkaround", "frequency" }],
  "journeys": [{ "id", "name", "persona", "steps": [{ "id", "action", "emotion", "painPoints", "touchpoints" }] }],
  "opportunities": [{ "id", "description", "addressesPainPoints", "impactedPersonas", "effort", "impact" }]
}

Full schema and field reference: See references/output-schema.md

Realistic example: See references/example.json

Graph Relationships

The ID-based cross-references enable these graph traversals:

• Persona -> Pain Points: painPoints[].affectedPersonas references personas[].id
• Journey -> Persona: journeys[].persona references personas[].id
• Journey Step -> Pain Points: journeys[].steps[].painPoints references painPoints[].id
• Opportunity -> Pain Points: opportunities[].addressesPainPoints references painPoints[].id
• Opportunity -> Personas: opportunities[].impactedPersonas references personas[].id

Step 4: Archive Old Version (If Replacing)

If user chose "Replace" in Step 0:

1. Create archive: .shipkit/archive/product-discovery/
2. Copy existing with timestamp: product-discovery.[timestamp].json
3. Write new file

Step 5: Save and Suggest Next Step

Output to user: Summary of personas defined, journeys mapped, user stories created.

Completion Checklist

Copy and track:

• Defined target personas with stable IDs
• Extracted pain points with severity and persona links
• Created user journeys with emotion tracking and pain point references
• Identified opportunities linked to pain points and personas
• Summary fields populated with correct counts
• All cross-references use valid IDs
• Saved to .shipkit/product-discovery.json

When This Skill Integrates with Others

Before shipkit-product-discovery

• /shipkit-why-project - Defines vision context (optional but recommended)
• /shipkit-project-context - Scans technical stack (optional)

After shipkit-product-discovery

• /shipkit-spec - Creates detailed specifications from user stories
• /shipkit-plan - Creates implementation plan

Context Files This Skill Reads

Optional (read if exist):

• .shipkit/why.json - Understand project vision
• .shipkit/stack.json - Understand technical constraints

Context Files This Skill Writes

Artifact strategy: replace — Overwrites the existing artifact file. Previous content is not preserved.

Write Strategy: OVERWRITE

Creates/Updates:

• .shipkit/product-discovery.json - Graph-ready JSON artifact with personas, pain points, journeys, and opportunities

Archive location (if replacing):

• .shipkit/archive/product-discovery/product-discovery.[timestamp].json

Elicitation state (persists as audit trail; run-scoped when under the orchestration engine):

• .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/questions.md — current turn's questions
• .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/answers.md — accumulated Q&A across turns
• .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/progress.json — turn state + timestamps

Lazy Loading Behavior

This skill loads context ON DEMAND:

1. User invokes /shipkit-product-discovery
2. Check if file exists (Quick Exit Check)
3. If regenerating: Ask 2 questions
4. Read why.json, stack.json (~1000 tokens)
5. Generate Product Discovery JSON artifact
6. Total context loaded: ~1500 tokens

After Completion

Guardrails Check: Before moving to next task, verify:

1. Persistence - Has important context been saved to .shipkit/?
2. Prerequisites - Does the next action need a spec or plan first?
3. Session length - Long session? Consider /shipkit-work-memory for continuity.

If NEEDS_ELICITATION:shipkit-product-discovery was emitted: The skill paused without writing product-discovery.json. The main session should run /shipkit-product-discovery inline (where AskUserQuestion is available), answer the questions in .shipkit/elicitation/product-discovery/questions.md, then re-invoke the original skill or orchestrator to resume. See install/shared/references/elicitation-protocol.md for full handling instructions.

Natural capabilities (no skill needed): Implementation, debugging, testing, refactoring, code documentation.

Suggest skill when: User needs to make decisions, create persistence, or check project status.

Success Criteria

Product Discovery JSON artifact is complete when:

• 1-3 personas with stable IDs, clear goals, and context
• Each persona has distinct characteristics (isPrimary set on exactly one)
• Every proposed value is tagged with source: <signal> (grounded) or guessed: true (low-leverage default) — no silent untagged guesses
• Pain points extracted with severity levels and persona cross-references
• User journeys include emotion tracking at each step
• Journey steps reference pain point IDs where friction occurs
• Opportunities link to both pain points and personas they address
• Summary counts match actual array lengths
• All ID cross-references are valid (no dangling references)
• File saved to .shipkit/product-discovery.json
• If marker emitted: NEEDS_ELICITATION:shipkit-product-discovery is the final output line; product-discovery.json was NOT written; primary persona was genuinely ungrounded

Remember: This file is your single source of truth for user understanding. Update it as you learn more about users. Product discovery is iterative; refine as insights emerge. The JSON format with stable IDs enables other skills and dashboards to traverse persona-pain-journey-opportunity relationships as a graph.