plan-epic

name	plan-epic
description	Plan and create a new epic with phased ticket breakdown. Walks through goal definition, success metrics, phase scoping, and ticket creation. Use when starting a new initiative or strategic work stream.
user-invocable	true
argument-hint	[epic name or description]

Plan Epic

You are designing a new epic for the backlog. This skill ensures epics are well-scoped, properly phased, and have clear success criteria.

Step 1: Define the Goal

Ask and answer:

1. What problem does this solve? (Not "what do we build" but "what changes for the user/business")
2. Who benefits? (Specific user segment or business function)
3. Why now? (What's the cost of NOT doing this?)
4. How will we know it worked? (Quantifiable metric)

Write a one-sentence goal and a measurable success metric.

Step 2: Define Done Criteria

What must be true to mark this epic complete? Write 3-5 explicit checklist items. These are NOT the same as individual ticket ACs -- they're the epic-level outcomes.

Bad: "All tickets are done" Good: "Onboarding completion rate is above 70% for new signups"

Step 3: Phase the Work

Break into max 3 phases. Each phase must:

• Ship something independently valuable
• Be testable/measurable on its own
• Have a clear target (date or milestone)

If you need more than 3 phases, the epic is too big. Split it.

Phase sizing guide:

• Phase 1: 3-5 tickets (ship the smallest valuable thing)
• Phase 2: 3-6 tickets (optimize based on Phase 1 learnings)
• Phase 3: 2-4 tickets (stretch goals, only if Phase 2 succeeds)

Step 4: Create Tickets

For each phase, create tickets following backlog/TICKET-TEMPLATE.md:

• Max 8 ACs per ticket. More = split the ticket.
• Each ticket should be completable in 1-2 days. Larger = split.
• Set dependencies explicitly.
• Assign tiers based on the project's tier system.

Step 5: Write the Epic File

Copy backlog/EPIC-TEMPLATE.md to backlog/epics/<slug>.md and fill in:

• Frontmatter (id, title, status, owner, goal, success_metric, done_criteria)
• Phase tables with ticket references
• Key decisions
• Architecture notes (if applicable)
• Related epics

Step 6: Update Backlog README

Add the new epic to the epic table in backlog/readme.md.

Step 7: Validate

Run through this checklist:

• Goal is about outcomes, not outputs
• Success metric is quantifiable
• Done criteria are explicit and testable
• Max 3 phases
• Each phase ships something valuable independently
• No ticket has more than 8 ACs
• Dependencies form a clean DAG (no circular deps)
• Tier assignments reflect business priority
• Epic file follows EPIC-TEMPLATE.md