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@b68bf96
by Dean Petersdeanpeters/product-manager-skills7.1k stars
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Guide teams through MITRE's Problem Framing Canvas. Use when you need a clearer problem statement before jumping to solutions.

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Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/deanpeters/product-manager-skills/problem-framing-canvas

This session only. Nothing lands on disk.

examplessample.md

≈704 tokens on demand. Your agent reads this file only when SKILL.md points to it.

Problem Framing Canvas Examples

Example 1: Good Problem Framing (SaaS Onboarding)

Q1 Response: "Observed behavior — Users abandon onboarding at step 3 (60% drop-off)"

Q2 Response: "It's hard (technically complex) + We've assumed we know what customers want"

Q3 Response: "Optimizing for ourselves, not users — Building what's easy for us (enterprise features), ignoring solopreneurs"

Q4 Response:

  • Who: Non-technical small business owners
  • When: First 24 hours after signup
  • Consequences: Waste time trying to configure product, give up, churn

Q5 Response:

  • Who else has it: Most SaaS products struggle with onboarding activation
  • Who doesn't: Consumer apps with guided tours (Duolingo, Instagram)

Q6 Response:

  • Who's been left out: Solopreneurs without IT support
  • Who benefits (problem exists): Engineering doesn't have to build guided flows

Q7 - Refined Problem Statement: "The problem is: Non-technical small business owners struggle to activate our product during onboarding because we use jargon-heavy UI and lack guided workflows, which leads to 60% abandonment within 24 hours. This disproportionately affects solopreneurs without technical support, and has been overlooked because our team optimizes for enterprise users who have IT departments."

Q8 - HMW Statement: "How might we guide non-technical users through onboarding with plain-language prompts as we aim to increase activation from 40% to 70%?"

Why this works:

  • Look Inward revealed internal bias (optimizing for enterprise)
  • Look Outward identified overlooked segment (solopreneurs)
  • Reframe produced actionable HMW statement tied to metric

Example 2: Bad Problem Framing (Jumped to Solution)

Initial statement: "We need a mobile app"

Why this fails:

  • Solution disguised as problem
  • No exploration of root cause
  • Skipped Look Inward and Look Outward phases

Fix with canvas:

  • Q1: "Customers complain they can't access product on the go"
  • Q2: "Low priority (focused on desktop features)"
  • Q3: "Assumed mobile-first users weren't our target"
  • Q4: "Freelancers, field workers experience this"
  • Q5: "Competitors offer mobile apps; we don't"
  • Q6: "Mobile-first users left out; desktop power users benefit from status quo"
  • Q7: "The problem is: Mobile-first users (freelancers, field workers) can't access core workflows on the go, forcing them to wait until they're at a desktop, which delays time-sensitive work"
  • Q8: "How might we enable mobile-first users to complete core workflows on any device as we aim to expand TAM by 30%?"

Now solution space is clear: Mobile app is one solution; responsive web, progressive web app (PWA), or SMS/Slack integrations are alternatives.

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 warning17d4 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub17d

    The skill is an interactive facilitator for the MITRE Problem Framing Canvas. It contains no malicious code, remote downloads, or credential access. It is rated as low severity due to the inherent surface for indirect prompt injection when processing user-provided problem descriptions, though it possesses no dangerous capabilities to exploit.

  • Socket17d

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  • Snyk17d

    Risk: LOW · No issues

  • Runlayer7mo

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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
[problem area]
type
interactive
theme
discovery-research
Other metadata
intent
Guide product managers through the MITRE Problem Framing Canvas process by asking structured questions across three phases: Look Inward (examine your own assumptions and biases), Look Outward (understand who experiences the problem and who doesn't), and Reframe (synthesize insights into an actionable problem statement and "How Might We" question). Use this to ensure you're solving the right problem before jumping to solutions—avoiding confirmation bias, overlooked stakeholders, and solution-first thinking.
best_for
[
  "Clarifying a messy problem before solutioning",
  "Surfacing assumptions and overlooked stakeholders",
  "Creating a bias-resistant problem statement in a workshop"
]
scenarios
[
  "Run a Problem Framing Canvas for our mobile retention issue",
  "Help me reframe this stakeholder request before we build anything",
  "We need a clearer problem statement for onboarding drop-off"
]
estimated_time
30-45 min

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