pre-build-interview

name

pre-build-interview

description

Run pre-build user interviews to validate whether a planned feature actually solves a real problem before engineering invests. Use when the user says "validate this feature", "should we build this", "interview users about [feature]", "test this feature idea", "pre-build validation", "is this feature worth building", "talk to users first", or has a feature idea and wants to pressure-test it with real users before writing a PRD or kicking off engineering. Also trigger when the user wants to avoid building something users will not adopt, when they say "what would users actually think of this", or when they have a hypothesis and need a structured interview plan. Combines Mom Test question discipline, Lean Customer Development hypothesis structure, JTBD Forces of Progress, and Opportunity Solution Tree synthesis into one workflow that ends with a clear build / iterate / kill recommendation.

Pre-Build Interview

A structured workflow for validating a feature idea with real users before engineering invests. The skill ends with a build / iterate / kill recommendation grounded in evidence, not vibes.

Why this exists

Most pre-build interviews fail for one of four reasons:

1. The interviewer pitches the feature and users politely confirm it.
2. There is no written hypothesis, so no signal threshold to fail against.
3. Users say "yes this is a problem" but never actually switch behavior, so the feature ships and dies.
4. Transcripts pile up with no decision framework to convert insight into a build call.

This skill addresses each one with a dedicated framework: Mom Test for question quality, Lean Customer Development for hypothesis structure, JTBD Forces of Progress for switching pressure, and Opportunity Solution Tree for synthesis.

When to use this skill

Use this BEFORE writing a PRD or feature spec. If a spec already exists and is in engineering review, use technical-review or spec-reviewer instead.

Do not use this for ongoing discovery (use the broader skill) or for post-launch validation (run a survey or analytics review instead).