PM Frameworks Skill

Expert knowledge of proven product management frameworks for discovery, growth, measurement, planning, and AI-era practices.

When to Invoke

Auto-invoke this skill when users discuss:

• •Discovery: Feature validation, user research, testing assumptions, "should we build this?", risk assessment
• •Growth: Acquisition, retention, virality, growth loops, product-led growth, network effects
• •Planning: Roadmaps, prioritization, now-next-later, LNO framework, scoping projects
• •Measurement: PMF surveys, metrics, success criteria, measuring product-market fit
• •AI Products: Evals, fine-tuning vs RAG, prompt engineering, AI unit economics, production AI systems
• •Strategy: Four fits, market-product fit, competitive positioning, business model
• •Execution: PRDs, specs, issues vs stories, prototype-first development

Core Frameworks

Discovery Frameworks

Located in /frameworks/discovery/

Four Risks (Marty Cagan)

• •Value Risk: Will customers buy/use this?
• •Usability Risk: Can users figure it out?
• •Feasibility Risk: Can we build it?
• •Business Viability Risk: Does it work for the business?

Continuous Discovery (Teresa Torres)

• •Weekly touchpoints with customers
• •Opportunity Solution Trees
• •Assumption testing
• •Small experiments over big bets

Growth Frameworks

Located in /frameworks/growth/

Growth Loops (Elena Verna)

• •Viral loops (user invites user)
• •Content/SEO loops (content attracts users)
• •Network effect loops (more users = more value)
• •Paid loops (revenue funds acquisition)

Four Fits (Brian Balfour)

• •Market-Product Fit
• •Product-Channel Fit
• •Channel-Model Fit
• •Model-Market Fit

Product-Led Sales

• •Self-serve to sales-assist progression
• •Usage-based qualification
• •Expansion revenue patterns

Planning Frameworks

Located in /frameworks/planning/

Now-Next-Later (Janna Bastow)

• •Now: Current sprint, high confidence
• •Next: Next 1-3 months, medium confidence
• •Later: Future possibilities, low confidence
• •Cone of uncertainty principle

LNO Prioritization (Shreyas Doshi)

• •Leverage: High impact, do these first
• •Neutral: Expected work, batch and schedule
• •Overhead: Low value, minimize or eliminate

Scope Projects Down

• •80/20 principle for features
• •Minimum viable scope
• •Cut ruthlessly, add back later

Measurement Frameworks

Located in /frameworks/measurement/

PMF Survey (Rahul Vohra)

• •"How disappointed would you be if you couldn't use this product?"
• •Target 40%+ "very disappointed"
• •Find your high-expectation customers
• •Build for them, ignore the rest

AI-Era Practices

Located in /frameworks/ai-era-practices/

Prototype-First (Aakash Gupta)

• •Ship prototypes before docs
• •Code is the spec
• •Iterate faster than you document

Issues Not Stories (Linear)

• •Describe the problem, not the solution
• •Let engineers figure out how
• •Direction → Building → Quality phases

AI Unit Economics

• •Cost per interaction modeling
• •Inference costs at scale
• •Value vs cost tradeoffs

Continuous Calibration

• •Agency vs control spectrum
• •When to give AI more autonomy
• •Testing probabilistic systems

Organizational AI Adoption (CODER Framework)

• •Culture, Organization, Data, Expertise, Roadmap
• •Systematic approach to AI transformation

AI Technical Frameworks

Located in /frameworks/ai/

Production AI Systems (Chip Huyen)

• •Data quality > model complexity
• •Monitoring and observability
• •Handling model degradation

Fine-tuning vs RAG Decision

• •RAG for dynamic data, domain knowledge
• •Fine-tuning for style, task specialization
• •Cost and maintenance tradeoffs

AI Evals (Aman Khan)

• •Prompt-level testing
• •Task-level testing
• •System-level testing
• •Regression testing for AI

How to Apply Frameworks

Conversationally, Not as Lectures

Don't say: "Let me explain the Four Risks framework..." Do say: "What evidence do you have that users want this? That's the value risk."

Ask Questions That Apply Frameworks

• •"What's the smallest thing you could test this week?" (Continuous Discovery)
• •"Is this Leverage, Neutral, or Overhead work?" (LNO)
• •"Can you prototype this before writing the PRD?" (Prototype-First)
• •"What's your growth loop here?" (Growth Loops)

Push Toward Action

• •Prototype over document
• •Test with users over internal debate
• •Small experiments over big bets
• •Evidence over opinion

Thought Leaders

Detailed profiles in /thought-leaders/:

• •Marty Cagan - Discovery, empowered teams, four risks
• •Teresa Torres - Continuous discovery, opportunity trees
• •Elena Verna - Growth loops, product-led growth
• •Brian Balfour - Four fits, growth strategy
• •Chip Huyen - Production AI, ML engineering
• •Aman Khan - AI evals, vibe-driven development
• •Janna Bastow - Now-Next-Later, roadmapping
• •Aakash Gupta - Prototype-first, visual frameworks
• •Rahul Vohra - PMF survey, high-expectation customers
• •Ravi Mehta - Product Strategy Stack

Integration with Commands

This skill provides background knowledge for:

• •/strategy-session - Apply frameworks conversationally
• •/four-risks - Deep dive on risk assessment
• •/growth-loops - Identify growth mechanisms
• •/four-fits - Assess market-product alignment
• •/lno-prioritize - Categorize work by leverage
• •/now-next-later - Build roadmaps
• •/pmf-survey - Measure product-market fit
• •/ai-cost-check - Model AI economics
• •/start-evals - Design AI evaluation

Key Principles

1. •Evidence over opinion - Always ask "what evidence do we have?"
2. •Prototype over document - Ship something testable
3. •Users over internal debate - Talk to real customers
4. •Small experiments - Test assumptions cheaply
5. •Frameworks as tools, not rules - Apply judgment

This skill surfaces PM frameworks from the /frameworks/ and /thought-leaders/ directories.