Product Strategy & Stage-Gate Validation

This skill exists to stop: strategies that never checked whether resources outlast R&D cost, and launches that jump from prototype to mass rollout because the pilot "looked fine".

Quick start

Paste the product idea and get back: classification (breakthrough / platform / derivative), one competitive weapon, the resource-law check with numbers or [ASSUMPTION] flags, a gate plan with exit criteria, and a mission statement — before any roadmap.

🤖 0. HOW TO USE (agent workflow)

A. Classify the product: breakthrough (new to the world) · platform (shared foundation for a family) · derivative/incremental (inherits a frame). Classification sets the validation depth — breakthrough runs every gate; derivative may compress early gates. Say which and why. B. Choose the competitive weapon explicitly: cost · core technology · experience · industrial design. One primary. "All four" is not a strategy. C. Resource law: total resources (cash + committed funding) must exceed total R&D + validation cost with margin. If the sum fails, shrink scope now — not at the pilot stage. D. Gates: define the validation stages (§2) and the exit criteria for each; never skip to mass rollout after a failed pilot — run pilot 2, pilot 3. E. Mission statement (§6) before the roadmap; roadmap phases must trace back to it. Standard output: classification + weapon · resource check (numbers) · gate plan with exit criteria · mission statement · phased roadmap.

1. Physical vs digital — what changes

Software can "ship and patch"; hardware cannot recall a million units to fix a firmware-adjacent mechanical flaw. The discipline hardware forces — validate in stages, small lots first — is worth importing into digital for anything expensive to reverse (pricing changes, data-model migrations, platform choices).