BMAD PRFAQ
Role: Pre-Phase Analysis — Working-Backwards stress-test
Function: Guide the user through the Amazon Working-Backwards method to
produce a PRFAQ document (prfaq.md) that crystallises the product vision,
validates the concept, and surfaces hard questions before a PRD, architecture,
or a single line of code is written.
When to Use This Skill
Use when you need to:
- Validate a product concept before committing to a PRD or sprint plan
- Write a future press release that forces clarity on customer value
- Stress-test assumptions with a structured internal FAQ
- Prepare customer-facing answers before launch
- Update or validate an existing PRFAQ document
- Choose a BMAD planning track (the PRFAQ often precedes or replaces the product brief for Working-Backwards teams)
The Working-Backwards Method
Working-Backwards starts from the desired customer outcome and reasons backward to the product. The PRFAQ has two parts:
| Part | Purpose | |------|---------| | Press Release | Articulate the customer value as if the product already shipped | | Internal FAQ | Surface hard business and technical questions the team must answer | | External FAQ | Anticipate questions a curious customer or press contact would ask |
The process forces concrete answers to the hardest questions now, not after months of building.
Three Intents
This skill supports three modes. Identify intent from context:
| Intent | Trigger | Output |
|--------|---------|--------|
| Create | No existing PRFAQ; new concept | Full prfaq.md from scratch |
| Update | Existing PRFAQ; requirements changed | Revised prfaq.md with decision log entry |
| Validate | Draft PRFAQ exists; needs critique | Critique report; annotated checklist |
Core Workflow
1. Orient (all intents)
- Check output folder for existing
prfaq.md,project-context.md, anddecision-log.md. - Confirm intent with the user (Create / Update / Validate).
- For Create: proceed to Step 2.
- For Update: read existing doc, identify changed sections, proceed to Step 4.
- For Validate: read existing doc, run the Validation Checklist (see below), produce a critique; stop — do not rewrite unless the user asks.
2. Gather (Create / Update)
Ask the minimum questions needed to fill the template. Stop after each cluster and confirm before moving on. Suggested clusters:
Cluster A — Customer & Problem
- Who is the target customer (role, segment, context)?
- What is the specific problem or unmet need?
- How do they currently cope without this product?
Cluster B — Product & Value
- What does the product do in one sentence?
- What is the single most important customer benefit?
- What measurable outcome does the customer achieve?
Cluster C — Differentiation & Availability
- How is this different from existing solutions?
- When and how will customers get it?
- What is the call to action at launch?
Cluster D — Hard Questions (Internal)
- What are the top 3 risks or unknowns?
- What must be true technically for this to work?
- What does success look like in 6 months? 12 months?
Cluster E — Customer Questions (External)
- What will customers ask first?
- What might make them hesitate?
- What evidence or proof do they need?
3. Draft Press Release
Use the template at ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-prfaq/templates/prfaq.template.md.
Fill in order:
- Headline — product name + primary customer benefit in one line
- Subheadline — who it is for and the key outcome
- Opening paragraph — problem context (2-3 sentences)
- Problem paragraph — paint the pain without naming the solution
- Solution paragraph — introduce the product and its core capability
- Benefit paragraphs — 2-3 paragraphs, one key benefit each
- Customer quote — a realistic quote from a named persona
- Call to action — how to get it, when, what to do next
- Company quote — internal leader framing strategic intent
Keep the press release under 600 words. If you cannot keep it short, the concept is not clear enough — ask more questions.
4. Draft Internal FAQ
10-15 questions that the leadership team, investors, or a skeptical engineer would ask. Required question categories:
- Market: Why now? How large is the opportunity?
- Customer: How do we know this is a real problem?
- Business model: How does this make or save money?
- Technical: What are the hardest engineering problems?
- Risk: What are the top 3 ways this fails?
- Metrics: What does success look like at 30/90/180 days?
- Alternatives considered: What else did we consider and why not?
- Dependencies: What must exist before we can ship?
Answers must be specific. "We will figure it out" is not acceptable.
5. Draft External FAQ
5-10 questions that a customer, journalist, or analyst would ask at launch. Cover: pricing/access, privacy/security, compatibility, support, roadmap.
6. Assemble and Write
Assemble the three sections into prfaq.md in the output folder.
File path: {outputFolder}/prfaq.md
7. Log Decision (Create / Update)
Append a concise entry to {outputFolder}/decision-log.md:
- Date
- Intent (Created / Updated)
- Key decisions captured in the PRFAQ
- Open questions deferred to PRD phase
8. Recommend Next Steps
Suggest the appropriate BMAD track and next skill:
- If the PRFAQ is thin (few stories expected): Quick Flow → hand off to product-manager for a tech spec.
- If the PRFAQ is solid (multi-epic product): BMAD Method → hand off to product-manager for a PRD, then system-architect.
- If the PRFAQ reveals strategic uncertainty: recommend another round of creative-intelligence research before proceeding.
Validation Checklist
When intent is Validate (or as a self-check before finalising):
- [ ] Headline names a specific customer benefit (not a feature)
- [ ] Press release stays under 600 words
- [ ] Customer quote sounds like a real person, not marketing copy
- [ ] Internal FAQ has at least 10 questions with specific answers
- [ ] Internal FAQ includes at least one "how does this fail?" question
- [ ] Internal FAQ includes success metrics at 30/90/180 days
- [ ] External FAQ anticipates hesitation (not just enthusiasm)
- [ ] All open questions are explicitly labelled as open (not papered over)
- [ ] No implementation details in the press release section
- [ ] Document does not include velocity, story points, or burndown charts
Output Quality Standards
A complete PRFAQ must:
- Be readable by a non-technical executive and a skeptical engineer
- Surface at least 3 genuine open questions (not rhetorical ones)
- Be grounded in specific customer language, not internal jargon
- Avoid commitments to specific technical approaches (that is architecture's job)
- Be 1,000–2,500 words total (press release + both FAQs)
Subagent Strategy
Pattern: Sequential gather, parallel draft
For large or complex products where multiple customer segments exist, fan out FAQ drafting across segments:
| Agent | Task | Output |
|-------|------|--------|
| Agent 1 | Draft Internal FAQ (business/market/risk questions) | {outputFolder}/prfaq-internal-faq-draft.md |
| Agent 2 | Draft External FAQ (customer/press questions) | {outputFolder}/prfaq-external-faq-draft.md |
Coordination:
- Complete Clusters A–E interactively (sequential).
- Write gathered context to
{outputFolder}/prfaq-inputs.md. - Draft press release in main context (short, judgment-intensive).
- Launch Agent 1 and Agent 2 in parallel with shared inputs.
- Main context reviews both FAQ drafts, merges, and writes
prfaq.md.
Example subagent prompt (Internal FAQ agent):
Task: Draft the Internal FAQ section of a PRFAQ document.
Context: Read {outputFolder}/prfaq-inputs.md for the product concept, customer
segments, risks, and success metrics gathered from the user.
Objective: Produce 10-15 internal FAQ questions and specific answers covering
market opportunity, customer validation, business model, technical
risk, success metrics, alternatives considered, and dependencies.
Output: Write draft to {outputFolder}/prfaq-internal-faq-draft.md.
Constraints:
- Answers must be specific, not aspirational placeholders.
- Include at least one "what are the top ways this fails?" question.
- Include success metrics at 30, 90, and 180 days.
- Do not include implementation code or technical architecture decisions.
Integration
Receives input from:
- business-analyst (product brief, discovery notes)
- creative-intelligence (research, brainstorm outputs)
- User (direct concept description)
Provides output to:
- product-manager (PRFAQ feeds into PRD creation)
- system-architect (open technical questions from internal FAQ)
- decision-log.md (decisions recorded for future skills)
Tips for LLMs
- Use TodoWrite to track the cluster-by-cluster gather process.
- Ask one cluster of questions at a time; do not dump all questions at once.
- If the user is vague, use WebSearch to ground the problem in real market data before drafting (cite sources in the internal FAQ).
- The press release must be written as if the product has already launched — use past-tense achievements, not future promises.
- Customer quotes should sound human. Revise until they pass the "would a real person say this?" test.
- Do not proceed to architecture or story creation from this skill. Hand off.
Part of the BMAD Planning & Orchestrator plugin — a Claude Code harness for the BMAD Method by the BMAD Code Organization (https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD). Implements the spirit of
bmad-prfaq. All methodology credit belongs to the BMAD Code Organization.