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/problem-statement

@b68bf96
by Dean Petersdeanpeters/product-manager-skills7.1k stars
851

Write a user-centered problem statement with who is blocked, what they are trying to do, why it matters, and how it feels. Use when framing discovery, prioritization, or a PRD.

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

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template.md

≈278 tokens on demand. Your agent reads this file only when SKILL.md points to it.

Problem Statement Template

Use this template to frame a user problem from the persona's perspective, capture context and constraints, and produce a single-sentence problem statement.

Provenance

Adapted from prompts/framing-the-problem-statement.md in the https://github.com/deanpeters/product-manager-prompts repo.

Template

## Problem Framing Narrative

**I am:** [Describe the key persona, highlighting 3-4 key characteristics]
- [Key pain point or characteristic 1]
- [Key pain point or characteristic 2]
- [Key pain point or characteristic 3]

**Trying to:**
- [Single sentence listing the desired outcomes the persona cares most about]

**But:**
- [Describe the barriers preventing outcomes]
- [Outcome obstruction 1]
- [Outcome obstruction 2]
- [Outcome obstruction 3]

**Because:**
- [Describe the root cause empathetically]

**Which makes me feel:**
- [Describe emotions from the persona's perspective]

## Context & Constraints
- [Geographic, technological, time-based, or demographic factors]

## Final Problem Statement
- [Single, concise, empathetic summary statement]

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 warning17d5 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub17d

    The skill provides a framework for generating user-centered problem statements based on provided personas and pain points. It is safe for its intended use, containing only documentation and templates, but it presents a surface for indirect prompt injection by processing user-provided context without explicit boundary markers or sanitization.

  • Socket17d

    No alerts

  • Snyk17d

    Risk: LOW · No issues

  • Runlayer7mo

    3/3 files flagged

  • 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
[user and their struggle]
type
component
theme
discovery-research
Other metadata
intent
Articulate a problem from the user's perspective using an empathy-driven framework that captures who they are, what they're trying to do, what's blocking them, why, and how it makes them feel. Use this to align stakeholders on the problem before jumping to solutions, and to frame product work around user outcomes rather than feature requests.
best_for
[
  "Framing a problem before anyone proposes a solution",
  "Getting a team to agree on who is blocked and why it matters",
  "Turning a vague complaint into something a team can act on"
]
scenarios
[
  "The team keeps jumping to solutions and we've never written down the actual problem",
  "I need a crisp problem statement for a PRD that a skeptical exec will read"
]
estimated_time
10-20 min

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