Business design

Turn messy research and signals into structured product or business strategy with explicit facts, interpretations, hypotheses, and implications.

Canonical skill profile. This page is generated from the repository contract. The linked SKILL.md remains the source of authority.

Jump to

• Overview
• When to use
• When not to use
• Core moves
• Expected output
• Verification
• Handoff signals
• Pairs well with
• Anti-patterns

View the canonical contract on GitHub.

Overview

Use this skill to structure strategy work so it becomes teachable, reviewable, and decision-oriented instead of becoming a pile of disconnected notes.

When to Use

• thesis framing
• strategic research synthesis
• value proposition or operating model work
• strategy documents that need a clear point of view

When NOT to Use

• deep technical planning
• UI design work
• research capture with no strategic interpretation

Core Moves

1. Classify the strategic question.
2. Separate facts, interpretations, hypotheses, and implications.
3. Choose the dominant strategic angle.
4. Write the smallest strategy note that changes a decision.

Optional Modules

• Assumption map — List the assumptions carrying the strategy before the team over-trusts them.
• Leverage scan — Identify where growth, retention, or defensibility could change materially.
• Operating constraints — Name the organizational or execution limits that shape the strategy.
• Value-layer lens — Read the strategy through a value-layer framework (existence, growth, sustainment, organization). The framework is pluggable knowledge, resolved via the strategic_framework slot (a proprietary pack or the generic example-4-layers) — never hard-coded here. In generic mode, apply the layers by name and mark the inference.

Activation Triggers

• Use assumption map when the strategy rests on early or weak evidence.
• Use leverage scan when the work touches growth or monetization.
• Use operating constraints when organizational reality can invalidate the thesis.
• Use the value-layer lens when the strategy must show coherence across existence, growth, sustainment, and organization; resolve strategic_framework and cite pack_id@version, or mark generic.

Expected Output

• clear strategic question
• facts vs hypotheses split
• decision-ready strategic note

Verification

• The note teaches how to think, not only what to do.
• Evidence and speculation are visibly separated.
• The strategy changes or protects a real decision.

Handoff Signals

• The next step belongs to product planning, research, or executive alignment.
• The strategy now needs operational translation by another function.

Pairs Well With

• feature-planning
• triad-check
• observability-review

Anti-patterns

• Writing strategic prose with no decision consequence.
• Treating research volume as strategic clarity.
• Hiding assumptions behind polished language.