feature-investment-advisor

Feature Investment Advisor is an interactive skill that guides product managers through deciding whether a specific feature deserves investment, using a financial lens rather than a generic scoring model. It solves the common problem of roadmap requests being prioritized on gut feel or top-line revenue alone, by connecting each feature to revenue impact, cost structure, ROI, and strategic value and then delivering a clear build or don't-build recommendation backed by supporting math.

The skill applies a four-part framework. It first classifies the revenue connection as direct monetization (new tier, add-on, usage charges) or indirect (retention, conversion, expansion). It then estimates cost structure across one-time development, ongoing COGS, and OpEx. It calculates ROI appropriate to the revenue type, factoring in gross margin rather than raw revenue, and finally weighs strategic value such as competitive moat, platform enablement, market positioning, or risk reduction that might override pure ROI. Operationally it runs as a guided conversation of up to four adaptive questions with three-to-five enumerated options at each decision point, gathering context like MRR/ARR, ARPU, churn, and gross margin. It defers to a shared workshop-facilitation protocol for interaction mechanics and includes an example conversation flow. It explicitly states its anti-patterns and when not to use it, such as table-stakes features, purely qualitative impact, unvalidated problems, or work under a week.

The target users are product managers and product leaders pressure-testing roadmap requests, comparing feature ideas, defending prioritization to leadership, or making build/buy/partner calls where financial impact is a key factor. It is positioned as a complement to methods like RICE and value-versus-effort, not a replacement.