# Product Manager: Intake Guide > Type-specific questions for /intake when creating a product manager project. - Skill: `tools-only/product-manager-intake-guide` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tools-only/product-manager-intake-guide` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tools-only/product-manager-intake-guide/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: tools-only (https://skillmd.com/u/tools-only) - Updated: 2026-09-29 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tools-only/product-manager-intake-guide --- # Product Manager: Intake Guide Type-specific questions for `/intake` when creating a product manager project. --- ## How to Use When `/intake` is invoked for a product-manager type project, work through these questions. Not all questions apply to every product — use judgment about what to skip or reorder. **Remember:** One question at a time. Let answers inform follow-up questions. Push for specificity — vague answers produce vague strategy. --- ## Phase 1: The Product Vision ### Core Idea 1. **What's the product idea?** (Describe it as you would to a friend — not a pitch deck) 2. **Where did this idea come from?** (Personal pain? Market observation? Customer request? Something else?) 3. **What problem does it solve?** (Be specific — "who has this problem" and "how bad is it?") ### Motivation 4. **Why you? Why now?** (What's your unfair advantage? What changed in the world?) 5. **What's the dream outcome?** (If this succeeds beyond expectations, what does it look like in 2-3 years?) ### The Quality 6. **What's the ONE thing that makes this product different?** (Not a feature list — the core insight. The thing that, if removed, would make this product pointless.) - Push hard here. This often takes multiple questions to uncover. - Examples: "It's the reverse prompting." "It's that we own the data layer." "It's the community network effect." --- ## Phase 2: Users and Market ### Target Users 7. **Who is the user?** (Be specific — not "everyone" or "small businesses") - What do they do today without this product? - How do they currently solve this problem (or work around it)? 8. **Are there multiple user segments?** If so: - Which segment would you test with first? - Why that one? ### Market Context 9. **What else exists in this space?** (Direct competitors, adjacent products, substitutes) 10. **Why do those solutions fall short?** (What's the gap they leave?) ### Validation 11. **Have you talked to potential users?** (What did they say? What surprised you?) 12. **Is there any evidence this works?** (Prototypes, MVPs, beta tests, analogies from other markets?) --- ## Phase 3: Strategy and Business Model ### Strategic Bets 13. **Tell me a story about something you've built before that succeeded.** (Not the product — the strategy pattern. What was the key insight that made it work?) - This reveals the founder's strategic instincts. Listen for patterns like: - Focus vs. breadth - Testing cheaply before investing - Finding the one metric that matters - Building moats vs. moving fast - Connect this pattern to the current product. 14. **What's your hypothesis?** (If they have one — don't force it. Some founders need to discover it through exploration.) - If they have one: "How would you test that?" - If they don't: "That's fine — we'll discover it. What do you believe most strongly about this product?" ### Business Model 15. **How does this make money?** (Or will it — what's the revenue model when it gets there?) 16. **What's the path from here to revenue?** (Phase 1 → Phase 2 → Phase 3, or a single focused bet?) ### Defensibility 17. **What would make this hard to copy?** (Network effects? Data moats? Brand? Switching costs?) 18. **What's your biggest strategic risk?** (The thing that keeps you up at night) --- ## Phase 4: Team and Constraints ### Team 19. **Who's on the team today?** (Solo? Co-founders? Contractors?) 20. **What capabilities are you missing?** (Technical? Design? Sales? Domain expertise?) ### Constraints 21. **What's your timeline?** (MVP in weeks? Fundraising deadline? Market window?) 22. **What's your budget?** (Bootstrapped? Seed funded? Revenue-funded?) 23. **What technical constraints exist?** (Platform requirements, integrations, regulatory, etc.) ### Development Approach 24. **How will this get built?** (AI-assisted development? Traditional engineering team? No-code? Hybrid?) 25. **What's the SDLC approach?** (This PM project handles left-side thinking — who handles the right-side building?) - If there will be a dev Claude project: note sibling project relationship - If external team: note handoff format requirements --- ## Phase 5: Working Style ### Session Rhythm 26. **How do you want to work with this PM?** (Daily check-ins? Weekly deep dives? On-demand when you need to think through something?) 27. **What does a productive PM session look like for you?** (Exploring? Pressure-testing? Generating specs? All of the above?) ### PM Voice Calibration 28. **How direct should the PM be?** (Most people say "very" — confirm) - "Should I push back hard when an idea doesn't hold up?" - "Should I tell you when you're avoiding a hard question?" 29. **Any topics that are off-limits or sensitive?** (Competitive dynamics, team issues, financial specifics?) --- ## After Intake Once these questions are answered, you should have enough to: 1. **Articulate the product hypothesis** (or identify that it needs discovery through `/explore`) 2. **Define the target user segment** for initial focus 3. **Understand the strategic pattern** the founder uses (focus vs. breadth, testing instincts, etc.) 4. **Map the competitive landscape** at a high level 5. **Set the PM voice** (how challenging, what behaviors to emphasize) 6. **Establish the working rhythm** (session frequency, primary commands to use) 7. **Identify the dev handoff model** (sibling project, external team, not yet) Write captured information to: - `context/requirements.md` - `context/decisions.md` - `context/constraints.md` - `context/questions.md` (for things that need more exploration) If the founder has existing research, transcripts, or documents, queue up `/process` to extract insights.