Product Discovery
Run structured startup discovery—interviews, JTBD problem validation, competitive gaps, and solution tests—before committing engineering time.
Overview
Product Discovery is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Validate scope and testing) that structures user research, JTBD problem validation, competitive differentiation, and pre-build experiments.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/ncklrs/startup-os-skills --skill product-discoveryWhat is this skill?
- Four discovery pillars: Research Methods (CRITICAL), Problem Discovery/JTBD (CRITICAL), Analysis & Synthesis (HIGH), Tes
- Competitive landscape framework: direct, indirect, alternative, and inertia competitors with differentiation—not feature
- Problem identification and Jobs-to-be-Done framing for problems worth solving
- Analysis stack: segmentation, competitive analysis, opportunity sizing, insight synthesis
- Validation stack: prototype testing, usability testing, and experiment design before full build
- Four section impacts: Research Methods CRITICAL, Problem Discovery CRITICAL, Analysis & Synthesis HIGH, Testing & Valida
- Competitive framework defines four competitor types: direct, indirect, alternative, and inertia
Adoption & trust: 1 installs on skills.sh; 27 GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits); trending (+100% hot-view momentum).
What problem does it solve?
You are guessing what to build because interviews, competitor maps, and validation tests are inconsistent and never synthesize into a clear problem to solve.
Who is it for?
Indie founders doing founder-led discovery on a SaaS or content product who need JTBD and competitive gap analysis in one playbook.
Skip if: Teams with a signed PRD and no appetite for interviews, or pure engineering tasks with no hypothesis to test.
When should I use this skill?
Starting or structuring product discovery work—user research, problem validation, competitive analysis, or pre-build testing.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You produce prioritized problems, differentiated positioning against four competitor types, and validated learning from prototypes before writing production code.
- Structured research and interview approach
- Competitive landscape and differentiation notes
- Validation plan for prototypes or experiments
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Product discovery first appears when you are still choosing what problem to solve, so Idea is the canonical shelf even though validation loops continue later. Research is the primary subphase because user interview techniques, survey design, and research operations are labeled CRITICAL and anchor all downstream discovery.
Where it fits
You design interview scripts and research ops before talking to ten target users about workflow pain.
You map direct vs indirect vs inertia competitors to find differentiation gaps instead of copying feature tables.
JTBD synthesis narrows the MVP to one job with evidence-backed problem statements.
You plan prototype and usability tests with experiment design before committing to full Build.
How it compares
Discovery methodology skill—not a analytics dashboard, SEO tool, or code generator.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is product-discovery for?
Solo builders and early-stage founders who own customer interviews, competitive maps, and validation experiments themselves.
When should I use product-discovery?
In Idea for research and competitor mapping, and in Validate for scoping, prototype/usability tests, and experiment design before build.
Is product-discovery safe to install?
It is process documentation; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page for the hosting repo before you install.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Product Discovery
## 1. Research Methods (research) **Impact:** CRITICAL **Description:** User interview techniques, survey design, and research operations. The foundation of all discovery work. ## 2. Problem Discovery (discovery) **Impact:** CRITICAL **Description:** Problem identification, validation, and Jobs-to-be-Done framework. Finding problems worth solving. ## 3. Analysis & Synthesis (analysis) **Impact:** HIGH **Description:** Segmentation, competitive analysis, opportunity sizing, and insight synthesis. Making sense of data. ## 4. Testing & Validation (testing) **Impact:** HIGH **Description:** Prototype testing, usability testing, and experiment design. Validating solutions before building. --- title: Competitive Analysis impact: HIGH tags: analysis, competitive, market, positioning --- ## Competitive Analysis **Impact: HIGH** Know your competition deeply — not to copy them, but to differentiate from them. The goal is finding gaps, not matching features. ### Competition Landscape **Types of Competitors** | Type | Definition | Example | |------|------------|---------| | **Direct** | Same solution, same market | Figma vs Sketch | | **Indirect** | Different solution, same job | Notion vs Confluence vs Google Docs | | **Alternative** | Different approach entirely | Hiring an agency vs using a tool | | **Inertia** | Doing nothing | Status quo, manual processes | **Map Your Competitive Landscape** ``` HIGH AWARENESS │ Direct ───────────┼────────── Indirect Competitors │ Competitors (Same solution) │ (Different solution) │ ──────────────────────┼──────────────────────── │ Alternative ──────┼────────── Inertia Approaches │ (Non-consumption) │ LOW AWARENESS ``` ### Competitive Research Framework **What to Research** | Category | Questions | Sources | |----------|-----------|---------| | **Product** | Features, pricing, UX, integrations | Website, free trials, demos | | **Positioning** | Who they target, how they differentiate | Website, ads, content | | **Go-to-Market** | Sales model, channels, pricing | Public info, job postings | | **Traction** | Revenue, customers, growth | Press, funding, reviews | | **Strategy** | Where they're heading | Job posts, leadership talks, roadmap | | **Weaknesses** | Where they fall short | Reviews, churned customers, forums | ### Competitor Profile Template ``` ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ COMPETITOR: [Name] │ │ WEBSITE: [URL] │ │ FOUNDED: [Year] FUNDING: [Amount] EMPLOYEES: [#] │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ POSITIONING │ │ Tagline: [Their headline] │ │ Target: [Who they serve] │ │ Category: [How they describe themselves] │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ PRODUCT │ │ Core features: [Key capabilities] │ │ Pricing: [Model and price points] │ │ Integrations: [Key platforms] │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ STRENGTHS │ │ • [Strength 1] │ │ • [Strength 2] │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ WEAKNESSES │ │ • [Weakness 1] │ │ • [Weakness 2] │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ SIGNALS