Solution Discovery

PURPOSE

Reduce product risk before delivery definition.

This skill sits between:

• opportunity selection (ost.md, prioritization.md)
• delivery definition (prd.md, feature-brief, user-stories.md)

Its job is to ensure the team does not convert an attractive opportunity directly into implementation scope without first testing solution quality.

DEPENDENCY RESOLUTION

Reference: .claude/skills/orchestrator/dependency-graph.yaml

BLOCKS (must exist — auto-invoke if missing):

• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/planning/ost.md
• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/planning/prioritization.md
• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/discovery/product-vision.md

ENRICHES (improves output — warn if missing):

• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/discovery/opportunity-pack.md
• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/discovery/baseline.md
• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/discovery/discovery-report.md
• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/discovery/project-context.md
• docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/state/coverage-matrix.yaml

ARTIFACT SAVE RULE

This skill MUST write:

1. docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/planning/solution-discovery.md
2. docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/state/reports/solution-report.json

It SHOULD write when experiments are defined: 3. docs/ets/projects/{project-slug}/planning/solution-experiments.yaml

INTERACTION PROTOCOL

This skill follows the ETUS interaction standard, but it is explicitly a solution discovery step, not a requirements step.

1. Ask one question per message
2. Compare 2-4 solution directions, not just one
3. Keep the conversation centered on risk reduction, not implementation detail
4. Present one solution option at a time, with tradeoffs
5. End with a recommendation plus unresolved risks

FOUR RISKS

Every candidate solution must be evaluated against:

• Value — will users/customers actually want this?
• Usability — can they understand and use it?
• Viability — does it work for the business?
• Feasibility — can the team build and operate it?

CONTEXT LOADING

Load context in this order:

1. ost.md
2. prioritization.md
3. product-vision.md
4. opportunity-pack.md
5. baseline.md
6. discovery-report.md
7. coverage-matrix.yaml
8. $ARGUMENTS as additional opportunity or concept context

WORKFLOW

1. Select the opportunity focus

• Confirm which O-# items are in scope now
• Confirm which O-# item is the P0

2. Generate candidate solutions

• Create 2-4 SOL-# options
• Keep them high-level enough for comparison
• Do not write requirements or stories yet

3. Score the four risks

For each SOL-#, document:

• value risk
• usability risk
• viability risk
• feasibility risk

4. Define experiments and prototypes

When uncertainty exists, define EXP-# items with:

• hypothesis
• method
• success criteria
• owner
• duration

5. Recommend a direction

• Select one preferred solution direction
• List what was rejected and why
• List unresolved risks and blockers

OUTPUT FORMAT

solution-discovery.md

Must contain:

• selected outcome and O-# focus
• 2-4 SOL-# options
• four-risk matrix
• experiments/prototypes
• recommended solution
• unresolved risks
• conditions to proceed to requirements

solution-experiments.yaml

Optional but recommended when any EXP-# exists.

GATE

Before completion, validate:

• At least 2 SOL-# options were considered unless scope is trivially narrow
• The four risks were evaluated for each chosen direction
• A recommendation exists
• Unresolved risks are explicit
• Experiments are defined when confidence is not high

If any check fails, mark the artifact as DRAFT and do not recommend requirements.