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@b68bf96
by Dean Petersdeanpeters/product-manager-skills7.1k stars
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Define a Proof of Life probe to test a risky hypothesis cheaply. Use when you need harsh truth before building real product.

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Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/deanpeters/product-manager-skills/pol-probe

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template.md

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PoL Probe Template

Use this template to document a Proof of Life (PoL) probe.

Template

# PoL Probe: [Descriptive Name]

## Hypothesis
[One-sentence statement of what you believe to be true]
Example: "If we reduce the onboarding form to 3 fields, completion rate will exceed 80%."

## Risk Being Eliminated
[What specific risk or unknown are you addressing?]
Example: "We don't know if users will abandon signup due to form length."

## Prototype Type
[Select one of the 5 flavors]
- [ ] Feasibility Check
- [ ] Task-Focused Test
- [ ] Narrative Prototype
- [ ] Synthetic Data Simulation
- [ ] Vibe-Coded PoL Probe

## Target Users / Audience
[Who will interact with this probe?]
Example: "10 users from our early access waitlist, non-technical SMB owners."

## Success Criteria (Harsh Truth)
[What truth are you seeking? What would prove you wrong?]
- **Pass:** 8+ users complete signup in under 2 minutes
- **Fail:** <6 users complete, or average time exceeds 5 minutes
- **Learn:** Identify specific drop-off fields

## Tools / Stack
[What will you use to build this?]
Example: "ChatGPT Canvas for form UI, Airtable for data capture, Loom for post-session interviews."

## Timeline
- **Build:** 2 days
- **Test:** 1 day (10 user sessions)
- **Analyze:** 1 day
- **Disposal:** Day 5 (delete all code, keep learnings doc)

## Disposal Plan
[When and how will you delete this?]
Example: "After user sessions complete, archive recordings, delete Frankensoft code, document learnings in Notion."

## Owner
[Who is accountable for running and disposing of this probe?]

## Status
- [ ] Hypothesis defined
- [ ] Probe built
- [ ] Users recruited
- [ ] Testing complete
- [ ] Learnings documented
- [ ] Probe disposed

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 warning17d5 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub17d

    No security issues detected. The skill is purely instructional, providing templates and frameworks for documenting product validation experiments (Proof of Life probes) without any executable code, scripts, or network operations.

  • Socket17d

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  • Snyk17d

    Risk: LOW · No issues

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  • ZeroLeaks5mo

    Score: 93/100 · 2 sections analyzed

Provenance

Signed by skilld at b68bf96. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub last month.

Activeupdated 2 months ago

Capability

argument-hint
[hypothesis to test]
type
component
theme
validation-experiments
Other metadata
intent
Define and document a **Proof of Life (PoL) probe**—a lightweight, disposable validation artifact designed to surface harsh truths before expensive development. Use this when you need to eliminate a specific risk or test a narrow hypothesis **without building production-quality software**. PoL probes are reconnaissance missions, not MVPs—they're meant to be deleted, not scaled.
best_for
[
  "Documenting a lightweight validation artifact before build",
  "Testing a narrow hypothesis without shipping production software",
  "Reducing risk before spending engineering time"
]
scenarios
[
  "Define a Proof of Life probe for a new workflow automation idea",
  "Help me write a PoL probe for this pricing hypothesis",
  "Create a low-cost validation probe before we build this feature"
]
estimated_time
15-25 min

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