home / skills / robzolkos / zolkos-agent-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 discoveryReview the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.
---
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.
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.
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.
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.