board-prep
by alirezarezvaniboard-prep is a Claude skill for adversarial board meeting and investor update prep. It helps leaders know key metrics cold, anticipate hard questions, and shape a candid narrative around misses, runway, growth, and decisions.
This skill scores 70/100, which means it is acceptable for directory listing but should be presented as a lightweight executive-prep playbook rather than a fully packaged workflow. Directory users get a clear trigger and useful board-meeting preparation framing, but there are few supporting artifacts, examples, or install/adoption aids beyond the main SKILL.md.
- Clear trigger and use case: the frontmatter and command specify using it for board meetings, investor updates, fundraising presentations, and adversarial high-stakes reviews.
- The skill provides a focused executive-prep frame around knowing numbers cold, anticipating hard questions, and presenting weaknesses credibly rather than relying on generic meeting prep.
- Substantive SKILL.md content with multiple sections and no placeholder or experimental markers suggests it is real workflow guidance rather than a demo stub.
- Single-file skill with no supporting templates, examples, scripts, or reference materials to help users operationalize the board-prep process.
- Repository signals show limited practical artifacts and only one workflow marker, so execution may still require the agent/user to supply structure, metrics, and meeting-specific context.
Overview of board-prep skill
What board-prep is for
board-prep is a Claude skill for preparing leaders for high-stakes board meetings, investor updates, fundraising reviews, and executive presentations where weak assumptions will be challenged. Instead of helping you make a friendlier deck, it pushes you to prepare for the adversarial version of the room: hard questions, uncomfortable metrics, narrative gaps, and numbers you must know without checking slides.
Best-fit users and situations
The board-prep skill is best for founders, CEOs, CFOs, chiefs of staff, and executive operators who already have an agenda, board deck, or investor update in progress. It is especially useful when the company has mixed results: missed targets, runway pressure, slowing growth, customer concentration, hiring tradeoffs, product delays, or strategic uncertainty. It is less useful for routine meeting scheduling or generic presentation polish.
What makes it different from a normal prompt
A generic Meeting Prep prompt may summarize talking points. board-prep is more pointed: it frames preparation around “numbers cold,” anticipated objections, and a narrative that acknowledges weakness without losing credibility. Its value is not slide design; it is pressure-testing whether an executive can explain what is happening, why it matters, what changed, and what the team will do next.
Adoption considerations
The repository evidence is concentrated in SKILL.md; there are no companion scripts, resources, or reference folders. That makes board-prep lightweight to install and easy to inspect, but it also means output quality depends heavily on the agenda, metrics, and business context you provide. Treat it as an executive-prep framework, not an automated board-pack generator.
How to Use board-prep skill
board-prep install and repository check
Install from the GitHub skill source with:
npx skills add alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill board-prep
Then inspect the skill file at:
c-level-advisor/executive-mentor/skills/board-prep/SKILL.md
Read SKILL.md first because it contains the actual command, intended behavior, preparation phases, and the mental model behind the skill. The file tree currently shows only SKILL.md, so there are no hidden scripts or templates to configure before first use.
Calling the board-prep command
The source defines the command as:
/em:board-prep <agenda>
In practice, call the skill with your meeting agenda plus the relevant operating context. A weak input is: “Help me prep for my board meeting.” A stronger input is:
/em:board-prep Q3 board meeting: missed new ARR plan by 18%, enterprise pipeline slipped, burn is $420k/month, runway is 11 months, churn improved from 3.2% to 2.1%, need approval for revised hiring plan and discussion on Series B timing.
This gives the skill enough material to surface likely objections, required numbers, and narrative risks.
Inputs that materially improve output
For best board-prep usage, provide the metrics board members will test first: current MRR or ARR, month-over-month growth, burn, runway, cash balance, gross margin, churn, net revenue retention, pipeline, forecast accuracy, major customer wins or losses, headcount plan, and prior commitments from the last meeting. If you have a deck, paste the agenda and the weakest slides or claims. If you have board personalities, add them: “one investor focuses on sales efficiency,” “one director challenges product timelines,” or “the chair is concerned about cash.”
Suggested workflow for Meeting Prep
Use board-prep before polishing slides, not after. First, ask it to identify the questions you are most likely to face. Second, ask for the numbers you must know cold. Third, rehearse concise answers to the hardest questions. Fourth, revise the board narrative so bad news is direct, causality is clear, and the plan has owners, dates, and measurable next steps. Finally, run a second pass asking: “What still sounds evasive, overconfident, or unsupported?”
board-prep skill FAQ
Is board-prep only for formal board meetings?
No. board-prep for Meeting Prep also fits investor updates, fundraising partner meetings, executive committee reviews, and advisory board sessions. The common thread is scrutiny: you are presenting performance, asking for trust or approval, and need to show command of the business under pressure.
What does board-prep not do?
It does not replace financial modeling, legal review, board governance process, or investor-relations judgment. It will not verify whether your numbers are correct unless you provide the underlying facts. It also does not appear to include spreadsheet parsers, slide-generation scripts, or external data connectors in the repository. Use it to sharpen thinking and rehearsal, not to automate finance work.
How is this better than asking Claude for board questions?
You can ask Claude for board questions, but the board-prep skill gives the agent a more specific operating frame: adversarial preparation, numbers-cold mastery, weakness-aware narrative, and executive composure. That frame reduces the chance of receiving generic questions and increases the chance of getting pointed prompts about burn, growth quality, forecast misses, runway, accountability, and decision asks.
Can beginners use the board-prep skill?
Yes, but beginners should bring structured context. If you have never prepared a board update, start with your agenda, company stage, key metrics, last meeting commitments, and the decisions you need from the board. The skill can help expose blind spots, but it cannot infer your business model or investor dynamics from a vague request.
How to Improve board-prep skill
Give board-prep the uncomfortable facts first
The fastest way to improve board-prep output is to lead with the issues you are tempted to bury. Include missed targets, unexplained variance, customer losses, pipeline weakness, hiring mistakes, margin pressure, or runway constraints. Board members usually find these anyway; the skill is most valuable when it helps you explain them clearly before the room forces the issue.
Convert rough goals into decision-ready prompts
Instead of asking, “Make me ready,” specify the decision and risk. For example:
/em:board-prep Need board approval to slow hiring and extend runway from 11 to 17 months. Risk: growth target will move from 70% to 45% YoY. Need to explain why this is prudent, what we will protect, and what milestones trigger hiring again.
This produces better preparation because it links metrics, tradeoffs, board approval, and narrative burden.
Watch for common failure modes
Common weak outputs come from weak inputs: missing historical comparisons, unclear ownership, no decision ask, or metrics without context. If the first answer feels too generic, add prior plan versus actuals, trend lines, customer examples, and the names of initiatives that did or did not work. Ask the skill to separate “facts,” “interpretation,” “risks,” and “recommended response” so you can see where the story is thin.
Iterate with rehearsal and red-team passes
After the first board-prep run, do not stop at the question list. Ask for a red-team pass: “Challenge my answers like a skeptical board member.” Then ask for a tighter executive version: “Reduce each answer to 30 seconds while keeping the key number and action.” The best final output should leave you with hard questions, crisp answers, numbers to memorize, and a board narrative that is candid without sounding defensive.