pm

name	pm
description	Product manager skill for market research and feature discovery. Use when the user wants to research market needs, analyze competitors, discover user pain points, or prioritize features for a product. Triggers on /pm, "market research", "find features", "what should we build", "产品调研", "市场需求".
license	Complete terms in LICENSE.txt

Product Discovery & Market Research

A product manager skill that discovers market needs through parallel deep research. It runs 3 specialized agents concurrently — competitor analysis, user pain point mining, and trend tracking — then synthesizes findings into 5-10 prioritized feature recommendations. Research results are cached daily to docs/research/ to avoid redundant agent calls.

Process

Phase 1: Scope Clarification

Before launching research, ask the user one question at a time to establish:

1. Product direction — What are you building? (If not provided as argument)
2. Target users — Who is this for?

Keep it to 1-2 questions max. Extract search keywords from the answers for the agents.

Phase 1.5: Load Previously Rejected Ideas

Before launching research, check for previously rejected or deferred ideas:

1. Use the Glob tool to scan docs/rejected/*.md (skip README.md)
2. Read each file's YAML frontmatter to extract: idea, status, reason
3. Build two lists:
   • Rejected list: Ideas with status: rejected — these MUST be excluded from recommendations
   • Deferred list: Ideas with status: deferred — these may only be re-suggested if there is strong new evidence of changed market conditions

If no files exist in docs/rejected/, skip this phase and proceed to Phase 2.

Store these lists for use in Phase 2 agent prompts.

Phase 2: Parallel Deep Research (with caching)

Step 1: Check research cache

Before launching agents, check if today's research already exists:

1. Derive a {topic-slug} from the product description in lowercase kebab-case (e.g. "CLI developer tools" → cli-developer-tools)
2. Use Glob to check for docs/research/{YYYY-MM-DD}-{topic-slug}.md (using today's date)
3. Cache hit: Read the cached file and skip directly to Phase 3. Do NOT launch any agents.
4. Cache miss: Continue to Step 2 below.

Step 2: Launch agents (cache miss only)

Launch 3 agents in parallel using the Task tool with subagent_type: "general-purpose". Each agent uses WebSearch extensively.

IMPORTANT: Launch all 3 agents in a single message to maximize parallelism.

IMPORTANT: If Phase 1.5 produced any rejected or deferred ideas, append the following block to each agent's prompt (before the 800-word constraint line):

IMPORTANT: The following ideas have been previously evaluated and REJECTED by our team. Do NOT recommend features similar to these:
{for each rejected idea: "- {idea_name} (reason: {reason})"}

The following ideas were DEFERRED (not right now). Only mention them if you find strong evidence that market conditions have significantly changed since {date}:
{for each deferred idea: "- {idea_name} (deferred on: {date}, reason: {reason})"}

If there are no rejected or deferred ideas, omit this block entirely.

CRITICAL: Each agent prompt MUST end with this constraint:

Keep your response under 800 words. Return ONLY a structured summary — no preamble, no methodology explanation. Focus on actionable findings with specific data points.

CRITICAL: After ALL agents return, you MUST immediately proceed to Step 3 (cache write) and then Phase 3 (Synthesis) in the SAME response. Do NOT stop or wait for user input between Phase 2 and Phase 4.

Step 3: Write research cache (cache miss only)

After all 3 agents return, write their combined output to docs/research/{YYYY-MM-DD}-{topic-slug}.md:

---
topic: "{product_description}"
target_users: "{target_users}"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
---
## Competitor Analysis
{agent 1 output}

## User Pain Points
{agent 2 output}

## Market Trends
{agent 3 output}

Create the docs/research/ directory if it doesn't exist. Then proceed to Phase 3.

Agent 1: Competitor Analyst

Prompt template:

You are a competitor analyst. Research the competitive landscape for: {product_description}

Target users: {target_users}

Do the following:
1. Use WebSearch to find 5-8 competing products. Search for:
   - "{product_type} alternatives 2026"
   - "{product_type} best tools"
   - "{product_type} comparison"
2. For each competitor, search for their features and pricing:
   - "{competitor_name} features pricing"
   - "{competitor_name} review"
3. Compile a competitor analysis table with columns:
   - Name | Core Features | Pricing | Strengths | Weaknesses | Popularity

Return ONLY the structured analysis. Be specific with facts and data.

Keep your response under 800 words. Return ONLY a structured summary — no preamble, no methodology explanation. Focus on actionable findings with specific data points.

Agent 2: User Pain Analyst

Prompt template:

You are a user pain point researcher. Find real user complaints and unmet needs for: {product_description}

Target users: {target_users}

Do the following:
1. Use WebSearch to find user discussions. Search for:
   - "{product_type} pain points reddit"
   - "{product_type} frustrating"
   - "{product_type} missing features"
   - "{product_type} wish list forum"
   - "{product_type} complaints"
2. For each pain point found, note:
   - What the pain point is
   - How frequently it's mentioned (high/medium/low)
   - Source (Reddit, forum, review site, etc.)
   - Whether any existing product has solved it

Return a structured list of pain points ranked by frequency. Be specific — quote real user feedback when possible.

Keep your response under 800 words. Return ONLY a structured summary — no preamble, no methodology explanation. Focus on actionable findings with specific data points.

Agent 3: Trend Analyst

Prompt template:

You are a technology and market trend analyst. Research industry trends for: {product_description}

Target users: {target_users}

Do the following:
1. Use WebSearch to find trends. Search for:
   - "{product_type} trends 2026"
   - "{product_type} emerging technology"
   - "{product_type} market growth"
   - "{product_type} future"
   - "{related_technology} adoption rate"
2. For each trend, note:
   - Trend direction
   - Maturity stage (early/growing/mature)
   - Related technologies
   - Potential opportunity for a new product

Return a structured trend analysis. Focus on actionable insights, not hype.

Keep your response under 800 words. Return ONLY a structured summary — no preamble, no methodology explanation. Focus on actionable findings with specific data points.

Phase 3: Synthesis (MUST happen in the same response as Phase 2 results)

CRITICAL: Do NOT stop after agents return. Immediately synthesize and present findings in a single response. Never wait for user input between Phase 2 and Phase 4.

After all 3 agents return, synthesize their findings:

1. Cross-validate — Needs mentioned across multiple agents get higher weight:

   • Appears in competitor gaps AND user pain points → strong signal
   • Appears in user pain points AND aligns with trends → strong signal
   • Appears in all three → highest priority

2. Score each potential feature on 4 dimensions:

   • Market demand (0-3): How many users want this?
   • Competitive gap (0-3): How poorly do competitors serve this?
   • Trend alignment (0-3): Does this match where the market is going?
   • Feasibility (0-3): How realistic is this to build?

3. Select top 5-10 features by total score.

Phase 4: Collaborative Decision

Present findings to the user in this format:

## Market Research Results: {product_description}

### Key Findings

**Competitive Landscape**: {1-2 sentence summary}
**User Pain Points**: {1-2 sentence summary}
**Market Trends**: {1-2 sentence summary}

### Recommended Features

#### 1. {Feature Name} — Priority: HIGH
- **What**: {feature description}
- **Why**: {market evidence from agents}
- **Competitors**: {who does/doesn't have this}
- **Score**: Demand {x}/3 | Gap {x}/3 | Trend {x}/3 | Feasibility {x}/3 = {total}/12

#### 2. {Feature Name} — Priority: {HIGH/MEDIUM}
...

... (5-10 features total, ranked by score)

### What should we build first?

Then engage in discussion:

• Answer follow-up questions about any finding
• Adjust recommendations if user provides additional context
• Help narrow down to a final decision

Phase 4.5: Record Review Decisions

After the user has made their decisions on which features to pursue, record rejected and deferred ideas:

1. Ask for each recommended feature — Use AskUserQuestion to ask the user's decision for each feature that they did NOT choose to pursue:

   • Options: "Reject permanently" / "Defer for later" / "Already accepted"
   • For rejected/deferred: ask reason with options: "scope" / "direction" / "timing" / "duplicate" / "other"
   • If "other", ask for a brief explanation

2. Write rejection files — For each rejected or deferred idea, use the Write tool to create docs/rejected/{YYYY-MM-DD}-{idea-slug}.md:

   ---
   status: {rejected|deferred}
   idea: "{Feature Name}"
   date: {YYYY-MM-DD}
   score: {total_score}
   reason: "{reason}"
   ---
   
   ## Reason
   
   {User's explanation or generated summary based on reason category}
   
   ## Original Evidence Summary
   
   {2-3 bullet points from the Phase 3 synthesis for this feature}
   

   The {idea-slug} should be the feature name in lowercase-kebab-case (e.g., "Real-time Collaboration" → "real-time-collaboration").

3. Commit — Stage and commit all new rejection files:

   git add docs/rejected/
   git commit -m "docs: record rejected/deferred ideas from PM research"
   

4. Confirm — Tell the user which ideas were recorded and where the files are saved.

Key Rules

• Always launch 3 agents in parallel — never sequentially
• One question at a time in Phase 1 — don't overwhelm
• 5-10 features — broad enough for ideation, scored and ranked
• Cache research daily — Write to docs/research/, reuse same-day same-topic results
• Evidence-based — every recommendation must cite specific findings
• No implementation — this skill discovers WHAT to build, not HOW
• Check rejected ideas first — Always run Phase 1.5 before research; never skip it
• Record every decision — Every idea that isn't accepted must be recorded in Phase 4.5 as rejected or deferred