discovery-interview

The discovery-interview skill is designed to help users transform vague ideas into clear, actionable specifications. It guides both technical and non-technical users through a structured, iterative interview process to deeply understand the actual needs behind an idea. By probing beyond surface-level answers and challenging assumptions, the skill ensures that the resulting specifications are precise, implementable, and aligned with the user's goals. This helps teams avoid miscommunication, overlooked requirements, and ambiguous project scopes before development begins.

The skill's main capabilities include conducting initial orientation to define project type, performing category-by-category deep dives into problem statements, user experience, data and state requirements, technical landscape, and scale and performance considerations. It identifies knowledge gaps in the user's responses, offers educational guidance, and triggers research when uncertainties arise. By tracking decisions throughout the interview, it ensures that all relevant factors are considered before generating a specification. The structured approach supports multiple project types such as backend services, frontend apps, mobile apps, scripts, and libraries.

This skill is ideal for product managers, designers, developers, and anyone involved in shaping software requirements. It is particularly useful for projects where initial ideas are unclear or stakeholders have varying levels of technical knowledge. Use cases include defining new features, planning complex applications, improving existing systems, and creating technical or non-technical specifications. By facilitating thorough discovery, the skill helps teams reduce risk, improve alignment, and accelerate the path from concept to implementation.