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How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/erpaval:customer-researchThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
| File | Path | When to load |
Activate for: customer discovery, user research, interview, empathy, jobs to be done, JTBD, persona, pain point, customer insight, discovery, interview guide, synthesis, insight map, interview notes, customer quotes, what do customers want, what problems do customers have, user needs, customer feedback, research synthesis, discovery sprint, problem validation, HMW problem statement, how might we, empathy map, journey map. NOT for: idea generation (use idea), assumption mapping (use hypothesis), pilot results analysis (use validate).
Designs complete user interview research packages: research brief, screener, interview guide, and analysis framework. Supports discovery interviews, switch interviews, contextual inquiry, and evaluative interviews. Use when the user needs to validate JTBD hypotheses, test a concept with users, understand switching behavior, or observe how users interact with a product. Also triggers when the user says "I need to talk to users," "help me plan user interviews," "write an interview guide," "I need to validate this assumption," or "design a research study." Do NOT use for quantitative research (surveys, A/B tests) or for conducting the research itself.
Guides user research from planning to synthesis: interview scripts, survey design, usability tests, diary studies, contextual inquiry, affinity mapping, thematic coding, insight extraction.
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| File | Path | When to load |
|---|---|---|
| Research design method | ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/product-design-shared/references/research-design.md | Hypothesis + null + MECE + findings |
| Pyramid composition | ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/product-design-shared/references/pyramid-principle.md | Where findings get composed into arguments |
| Canonical Working Backwards reference | ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/product-design-shared/references/working-backwards.md | Listen + Define stage context |
| Research methods | references/research-methods.md | Interview protocols, affinity clustering, qual/quant taxonomy |
| Customer-insights role | ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/working-backwards/references/roles/customer-insights.md | Researcher agent for Listen-stage execution |
| Research plan template | templates/research-plan.md | Hypothesis, null, MECE questions, methods, findings (fill-in) |
| Problem statement template | templates/problem-statement.md | "Today [customers] have to..." |
| Customer journey map template | templates/customer-journey-map.md | Phase / action / touchpoint / thought / feeling / opportunity |
The discipline of framing a testable hypothesis, gathering evidence via MECE sub-questions, and synthesizing findings into a shape the Pyramid Principle can compose. This is the research bottom-up half of Minto's core instruction — the upstream of working-backwards and any narrative composition.
When NOT to use:
skills/working-backwards/ or skills/product-discovery/.skills/meta-prompt-optimizer/.The load-bearing reference is ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/product-design-shared/references/research-design.md. Five steps:
The shape of your output is not optional. Pyramid-base-shaped findings feed pyramid-principle.md Phase 1 by construction.
This skill produces the Pyramid base. Downstream skills compose it:
working-backwards uses the findings for the 5CQ's Q1, Q2, Q4 and the PR's Situation + Complication.product-discovery uses the findings for its research-scout role.Keeping findings in a structured shape means downstream composition becomes mechanical translation, not improvisation.
| Artifact | Template | When |
|---|---|---|
| Research plan | templates/research-plan.md | Before gathering — pre-commit the hypothesis and null |
| Problem statement | templates/problem-statement.md | After Define — the Listen output used by WB Stage 2 |
| Customer journey map | templates/customer-journey-map.md | When you need to visualize current-state pain points across a flow |
A typical customer-research run:
templates/research-plan.md. Pre-commit in writing.references/research-methods.md for the taxonomy).customer-insights role of the researcher agent.research-design.md step 7 — one finding per sub-question, each with Evidence + So what + Confidence.| Upstream | Downstream |
|---|---|
| Raw customer data (tickets, interviews, surveys, analytics) | skills/working-backwards/ (Listen + Define + Invent) |
| User-research transcripts | skills/product-discovery/ (PRD personas + user stories) |
references/research-methods.md — interview protocols, affinity clustering, qual/quant/subjective metric taxonomy, common VoC resource categories${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/product-design-shared/references/:
research-design.md — the methodpyramid-principle.md — the downstream composition disciplineworking-backwards.md — the end-to-end product-discovery process this skill plugs intomethodology-selection.md — when to use this skill vs. others