layers-orient

This skill is a rapid diagnostic audit across all seven layers of a layered product design framework. It acts as the front door for finding the live design decisions the other skills then work on, mapping the current state of decisions across every layer, identifying the bottleneck (the lowest layer with unresolved or risky decisions), and recommending where to focus next. It deliberately avoids deep dives, answering the prior question of which layer deserves attention most urgently.

The guided session opens by asking what product or feature is being worked on, the current design challenge, and how far along the work is. It then runs a layer audit with one or two targeted questions per layer (observed behaviour, the domain, user needs, product and service strategy, conceptual model, interaction structure and flow, and surface), rating each as Strong, Partial, Assumed, Weak, Not started, or N/A. Results are produced as a decision-landscape table, followed by a bottleneck analysis that names the lowest layer with Weak, Assumed, or Not started state and the risk it creates for the layers above, while separately flagging assumed layers where dangerous decisions often hide. It acknowledges deadline constraints that change the calculus and closes with a specific recommendation pointing to the matching layer skill and an invitation to run it or push back first.

It targets product designers, UX practitioners, and product teams using this methodology (it assumes layers-intro is loaded). Typical use cases include quickly diagnosing where a stalled or risky design effort should focus, distinguishing solid decisions from untested assumptions, and routing to the appropriate deep-dive layer skill. It is pure diagnostic methodology with no code execution or external tooling.