harness-grill-product

name

harness-grill-product

description

High-level product definition and UX discovery skill. Runs seven gates to determine whether a product is worth building, who it's for, what experience should exist, what the MVP boundary is, and what UI/UX direction should guide implementation. Produces .pm/stable/ files and initializes .pm/runtime/state.yaml. Use when: product idea, "worth building", "product definition", "define this product", user journey, UX principles, UI direction, MVP boundary.

harness-grill-product

Seven-gate product discovery. Each gate must pass before the next begins. The goal is to freeze a product contract that Supervisor can use to drive delivery.

Before Starting

1. Check for existing .pm/stable/ files. If they exist, ask whether to update or start fresh.
2. If .pm/ directory does not exist, create it with subdirectories stable/, runtime/, design/, design/generated-concepts/.
3. Read any existing README, product notes, or design references the user provides.
4. Assess product maturity: ask the user which stage applies:
   • Pre-product (idea only): Run all 7 gates. This is the default.
   • Has users (launched, has real users): Skip Gate 1 demand validation. Focus on Gate 4-6 for next iteration.
   • Has paying customers: Skip Gates 1-2. Focus on Gate 4 (MVP wedge for next version) and Gate 5-6.
   • Hackathon/learning project: Switch to Builder mode (see below).

Mode Selection

At the start, ask the user:

"What kind of project is this?"

A) Startup — I want to build something people will use or pay for. Scrutinize the idea hard. B) Builder — I'm building to learn, experiment, or for fun. Help me think bigger, but keep it fun.

Startup mode (default): Runs all applicable gates with full diagnostic pressure. Push back on weak evidence. Be the critical investor.

Builder mode: Replace Gates 1-2 with generative questions:

• "What's the coolest version of this you can imagine?"
• "What would make someone say 'whoa' when they see this?"
• "If you had no constraints, what would this become?" Keep Gates 3-7 for structural discipline (you still need to know who it's for and what it looks like).

Compressed mode: For quick dogfood or when the user says "fast" / "quick pass":

• Ask only 1-2 highest-value questions per gate
• Generate v0 stable files immediately after all gates touched
• Mark ux_depth: light and evidence_status: weak in state.yaml
• User can re-run individual gates later to strengthen specific areas

Gates

Gate	Goal	Output
1. Demand Reality	Determine if the idea corresponds to real demand	evidence.md, product.md sections
2. Product Reframe	Find the 10x version hiding behind the obvious request	product.md, value-proposition.md, decisions.md
3. User & Scenario Specificity	Define first users and core scenario with desperate specificity	product.md sections, user-journeys.md
4. MVP Wedge	Define the smallest useful product slice	product.md MVP boundary, roadmap.md, active-stage.md
5. UX Journey	Define user experience before code	user-journeys.md, ux-principles.md
6. UI Direction & Design Probe	Define visual and interaction taste before implementation	ui-direction.md, ui-feedback.md
7. Product Contract Freeze	Freeze enough product definition for Supervisor to enter delivery loop	state.yaml, runtime files, all stable files validated

See references/gate-questions.md for full question lists, recommended answers, outputs, and pass conditions for each gate.

Reference Files

• references/gate-questions.md — Full question lists, outputs, and pass conditions for all 7 gates
• references/pushback-patterns.md — Anti-sycophancy rules, pushback patterns, graduated escape hatch, gate execution rules
• references/cognitive-principles.md — Inversion Reflex, Focus as Subtraction, Proxy Skepticism, Temporal Depth, Subtraction Default
• references/design-probe.md — Design probe steps, coherence validation, subtraction check, block rule
• Templates: references/templates/pm/ — all .pm file templates (repo-root relative)
• Existing grill: subskills/grill/QUESTION_TREE.md — technical question tree (separate from this product grill)
• ../../references/DOMAIN-AWARENESS.md — project terminology