Hard Call
Run a structured reversibility-and-stakeholder framework when you must fire, pivot, lay off, or shut down—and every option feels wrong.
Overview
hard-call is a journey-wide agent skill that guides solo builders through irreversible business decisions with no good options—usable whenever you need to choose a less-wrong path before committing to layoffs, pivots, or
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill hard-callWhat is this skill?
- Slash command `/em:hard-call <decision>` with a stepwise ritual for no-good-options choices
- Reversibility test first—separate reversible tries from partially and irreversible moves
- Frames delay cost: most hard calls are late decisions that worsen required cuts or conversations
- Centers real people impact, avoidance, irreversibility, and founder bias—not missing data alone
- Targets firing co-founders, layoffs, killing loved products, pivots, and shutdown scenarios
Adoption & trust: 1.4k installs on skills.sh; 17.5k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
Who is it for?
Founders delaying a known-hard people, product, or company decision who want agent-facilitated structure before irreversible action.
Skip if: Routine reversible choices (vendor swaps, small feature toggles) or decisions that only need lightweight pros/cons without stakeholder harm.
When should I use this skill?
You run `/em:hard-call <decision>` for decisions that keep you up at night—firing, layoffs, product kills, pivots, or shutdown—with no clearly right answer.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You leave with an explicit reversibility classification, clearer tradeoffs, and a documented less-wrong decision rationale you can act on instead of deferring again.
- Reversibility classification for the decision
- Structured rationale for the less-wrong call
- Action-ready summary you can execute or share with stakeholders
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Useful at every journey phase - explore requirements and options before committing to a direction.
Where it fits
Decide whether to narrow scope or pivot before sinking another build cycle into a stalled idea.
Choose to kill a beloved feature or product line that distracts the core roadmap.
Size a layoff or co-founder separation when runway math finally forces the conversation.
Weigh shutting down exploration on a crowded market versus committing to a narrower wedge.
Decide whether to sunset a segment or offering that traps support load without sustainable growth.
How it compares
Use instead of unstructured late-night chat spirals when the bottleneck is courage and framing, not missing analytics.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is hard-call for?
Solo builders and small-team founders using Claude-style agents who must make painful, often irreversible calls about team, product, or company direction.
When should I use hard-call?
Use it before acting on layoffs or role changes, co-founder exits, killing a product customers love, strategic pivots, or shutdown—during validate scoping, build product bets, or operate iteration when avoidance has already compounded the problem.
Is hard-call safe to install?
It is procedural guidance only; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing any skill from the catalog.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Hard Call
# /em:hard-call — Framework for Decisions With No Good Options **Command:** `/em:hard-call <decision>` For the decisions that keep you up at 3am. Firing a co-founder. Laying off 20% of the team. Killing a product that customers love. Pivoting. Shutting down. These decisions don't have a right answer. They have a less wrong answer. This framework helps you find it. --- ## Why These Decisions Are Hard Not because the data is unclear. Often, the data is clear. They're hard because: 1. **Real people are affected** — someone loses a job, a relationship ends, a team is hurt 2. **You've been avoiding the decision** — which means the problem is already worse than it was 3. **Irreversibility** — unlike most business decisions, you can't undo this easily 4. **You have skin in the game** — your judgment about the right call is clouded by your feelings about it The longer you avoid a hard call, the worse the situation usually gets. The company that needed a 10% cut 6 months ago now needs a 25% cut. The co-founder conversation that should have happened at month 4 is happening at month 14. **Most hard decisions are late decisions.** --- ## The Framework ### Step 1: The Reversibility Test The most important question first: **can you undo this?** - **Reversible** — try it, learn, adjust (fire the vendor, kill the feature, change the strategy) - **Partially reversible** — painful to undo but possible (restructure, change co-founder roles) - **Irreversible** — cannot be undone (layoff a person, shut down a product with customer lock-in, close a legal entity) For irreversible decisions, the bar for certainty is higher. You must do more due diligence before acting. Not because you might be wrong — but because you can't take it back. **If you're treating a reversible decision like it's irreversible, you're avoiding it.** ### Step 2: The 10/10/10 Framework Ask three questions about each option: - **10 minutes from now**: How will you feel immediately after making this decision? - **10 months from now**: What will the impact be? Will the problem be solved? - **10 years from now**: When you look back, will this have been the right call? The 10-minute feeling is usually the least reliable guide. The 10-year view usually clarifies what the right call actually is. **Most hard decisions look obvious at 10 years. The question is whether you can tolerate the 10-minute pain.** ### Step 3: The Andy Grove Test Andy Grove's test for strategic decisions: "If we got replaced tomorrow and a new CEO came in, what would they do?" A fresh set of eyes, no emotional investment in the current path, no sunk cost. What's the obvious right call from the outside? If the answer is clear to an outsider, the question becomes: why haven't you done it yet? ### Step 4: Stakeholder Impact Mapping For each option, map who's affected and how: | Stakeholder | Option A Impact | Option B Impact | Their reaction | |-------------|----------------|----------------|----------------| | Affected employees | | | | | Remaining team | | | | | Customers | | | | | Investors | | | | | You | | | | This isn't about finding the option that hurts nobody — there isn't one. It's about understanding the full picture before you decide. ### Step 5: The Pre-Announcement Test Before making the decision: write the announcement. The email to the team, the message to the customer, the conversation you'll have. **If you can't write that announcement, you're not ready to make the decision.** Writing it forces you to confront the reality of what you're doing. It also surfaces whether your reasoning holds under examination. "We're making this change because…" — does that sentence ring true? ### Step 6: The Communication Plan Hard decisions almost always get harder if communication is bad. The decision itself is not the only thing that matters — how it's done matters enormously.