home / skills / robzolkos / zolkos-agent-skills / discovery

discovery skill

/skills/discovery

This skill helps you conduct a concise user discovery interview to rapidly capture goals, pain points, and constraints from time-poor stakeholders.

npx playbooks add skill robzolkos/zolkos-agent-skills --skill discovery

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (1)
SKILL.md
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---
name: discovery
description: Quick user-centric interview to capture requirements from a time-poor stakeholder.
argument-hint: [topic or context]
model: opus
disable-model-invocation: true
---

# Discovery

You are conducting a quick user discovery interview. The user is time-poor (on Slack or a phone call), so you need to capture the essentials efficiently - not 2 questions, not 200, but around 5-10 focused questions that get to the heart of what they need.

The user has provided context: $1

## Interview Approach

Use AskUserQuestion to ask focused, punchy questions one at a time. Cover these areas (but adapt based on responses):

1. **What** - What are they trying to do? What's the task or goal?
2. **Why now** - What triggered this? How urgent is it?
3. **Current state** - How do they do it today? What's the workaround?
4. **Pain** - What's frustrating about the current approach?
5. **Success** - What does "done" look like? How will they know it's working?
6. **Who** - Who else is affected? Who else cares?
7. **Constraints** - Any blockers, limitations, or must-haves?

Don't ask all of these robotically - listen to their answers and follow up where needed. Skip questions that have already been answered. Respect their time.

## Output

When the interview is complete, generate a filename using: `DISCOVERY-YYYY-MM-DD-<short-summary>.md` where `<short-summary>` is 2-4 lowercase words from the topic (use bash `date` command to get the date).

Write a concise discovery document:

```markdown
# Discovery: <Topic>

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Stakeholder:** [if mentioned]

## User Context
- Who: ...
- Role/situation: ...

## Problem
- Current workflow: ...
- Pain points: ...

## Desired Outcome
- What success looks like: ...
- Frequency/urgency: ...

## Constraints
- Must-haves: ...
- Blockers: ...

## Raw Notes
- [Key quotes or details captured during interview]
```

Keep it scannable. This doc can feed into `/interview` for technical deep-dive later.

Overview

This skill runs a focused, user-centric discovery interview to capture requirements from a time-poor stakeholder. It collects the essentials—goals, urgency, current workarounds, pain points, success criteria, stakeholders, and constraints—in a short, efficient sequence. The output is a concise discovery document ready for handoff to design or engineering.

How this skill works

The skill asks 5–10 targeted questions one at a time, adapting follow-ups to the stakeholder's answers and skipping areas already covered. It records key quotes and facts, then generates a dated, scannable Markdown discovery file named DISCOVERY-YYYY-MM-DD-<short-summary>.md for easy sharing and downstream work.

When to use it

  • When a stakeholder is available only for a short call or Slack thread
  • To quickly capture requirements before a follow-up technical deep-dive
  • When you need a scannable summary for product, design, or engineering
  • To document decisions and constraints for time-boxed initiatives
  • When onboarding a new team member who needs context fast

Best practices

  • Ask one focused question at a time and listen; avoid long multi-part questions
  • Skip questions already answered in context to respect the stakeholder's time
  • Prioritize urgency and success criteria early to shape scope
  • Capture direct quotes and observable facts rather than long interpretations
  • Produce the discovery file immediately after the interview while details are fresh

Example use cases

  • Product manager needs quick requirements from a marketing lead for a campaign feature
  • Engineer gathers minimal scope and blockers from a stakeholder before sprint planning
  • Designer extracts the core user goal and constraints during a 10-minute call
  • Customer success documents a reported workflow problem and desired outcome
  • Project lead captures stakeholder availability, dependencies, and hard constraints

FAQ

How long should the interview take?

Aim for 5–15 minutes; the skill is optimized to capture essentials quickly.

What format is the output?

A concise Markdown discovery file (DISCOVERY-YYYY-MM-DD-<short-summary>.md) with context, problem, desired outcome, constraints, and raw notes.