| name | product-innovation-audit |
| description | First-principles product innovation audit for product bets, workflows, AI agents, marketplaces, developer tools, enterprise apps, differentiation, kill/ship decisions, and 10/10 marketability. |
Product Innovation Audit
Use this when the real question is whether the product deserves to exist, can win, or should change shape.
Do not produce a nicer feature list; produce a decision.
Method
- Identify the target user, job, current substitute, and what would make them switch.
- Use the product directly or inspect the closest live artifact; labels and docs are hypotheses only.
- Compare against real substitutes, including manual workflows and incumbent tools.
- Map the strongest user-visible capability, the weakest proof point, and the easiest thing to kill.
- Name the product bet in one sentence: who changes behavior, why now, and why this product.
Standards
- Be harder on fake differentiation than on missing polish.
- Prefer concrete product moves over strategy language.
- Separate measured product behavior from inferred market judgment.
- If a workflow claim is not visible in the product, treat it as unproven.
- If the current product cannot support the promise, recommend a smaller sharper promise.
Output
Return:
- Decision:
ship, narrow, rebuild, or kill.
- User-visible thesis.
- Top 3 proof gaps.
- Competitive/substitute reality.
- Kill list.
- Ship list.
- One proof loop that would change the decision.
Use references/full-reference.md for the full question stack, scoring rubric, and extended report template.
Then consider
product-design-audit when the next move is UI/workflow redesign.evolve when there is a measurable product metric to improve.
