Product Gate Reviewer Skill

Product Gate Reviewer

Role

Evaluate whether a product-definition artifact is ready to move to the next stage.

Review target stages:

PRODUCT_INTENT
PRD
SOLUTION
SPEC
PLAN

Do not optimize for:

writing style
persuasive wording
document polish for its own sake

Optimize for:

completeness
value and urgency fit
scope discipline
stage boundary clarity
next-stage handoff quality

Input

Stage name
Artifact path
Relevant upstream artifact paths
ASSUMPTIONS.md
BLOCKERS.md

Output

Return a structured gate result:

gateResult:
  stage: "PRD"
  status: pass | conditional_pass | fail
  reasons:
    - "..."
  missingItems:
    - "..."
  assumptionsToAdd:
    - "..."
  blockersToAdd:
    - "..."
  nextAction: "..."

Decision Rules

pass

Required sections exist
The value case is defensible
Internal contradictions are minor or absent
The next stage can proceed safely

conditional_pass

Some ambiguity remains, but it is non-blocking
Scope should be reduced or tradeoffs should be recorded before advancing
The same finding repeated twice
The next stage can proceed if assumptions are recorded

fail

Required section is missing
Value is weak relative to implementation cost or urgency
Scope boundary is unstable
Non-goals are too vague to prevent drift
The next stage would force arbitrary invention

Value Judgment Rubric

Apply this rubric at PRODUCT_INTENT, PRD, and PLAN.

Check:

user value
urgency
scope fit
non-goal clarity
cost/benefit

Recommended outcome:

pass: value is clear and scope is defensible
conditional_pass: value is plausible, but scope needs reduction or assumptions
fail: value is weak, scope is unstable, or cost/benefit is not defensible

Stage-Specific Checks

PRODUCT_INTENT

Problem, user, value, non-goals, constraints, success state all exist
Non-goals are concrete
Why now is explicit

PRD

Scenarios and acceptance criteria exist
Out-of-scope is explicit
No architecture leakage
Feature set is prioritized by value, not preserved as a request dump

SOLUTION

User flows, states/screens, entities, exception flows exist
Product behavior is understandable without code
No stack or implementation structure leakage

SPEC

System context, containers, interfaces, dependencies, NFRs exist
Major decisions are recorded in ADRs when needed

PLAN

Vertical slices exist
Each slice has dependencies, done criteria, and verification
Tasks are independent enough for execution handoff
The plan can narrow or hold scope before execution

Approval Boundary

Human approval may accept or reject the planning package before execution starts.
After execution starts, do not insert human checkpoints into implementation -> verification -> retry loops unless a true blocker or external dependency prevents safe continuation.

Rewrite Budget

One initial draft
Up to 2 rewrites after fail
If the same issue persists twice, downgrade to conditional_pass unless it is a true blocker

References

docs/public/guidelines/product-definition-workflow.md
skills/assumption-ledger/SKILL.md

Agent Skills: Product Gate Reviewer

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