cpo-review

Overview of cpo-review skill

What cpo-review does

cpo-review is a CPO-style product review skill for interrogating a roadmap, feature bet, or product-line proposal before a team commits engineering time. It uses Jobs To Be Done, North Star alignment, PMF signal, RICE scoring, opportunity cost, and portfolio focus to force a sharper answer to one practical question: what should we ship, delay, or kill?

The command pattern is /cs:cpo-review <plan>, where <plan> should be a product plan, roadmap slice, feature proposal, launch brief, or prioritization debate.

Best fit for Product Management decisions

Use cpo-review for Product Management when the stakes are higher than ordinary backlog grooming: quarterly roadmap commitment, launching a new product line, adding several features to a release, dealing with flat retention, or deciding whether “we should build X.” It is especially useful for PMs, founders, product leads, and staff-level operators who need executive-level pressure testing without turning the exercise into a long strategy memo.

What makes this skill different

The strongest differentiator is its forcing-question structure. Instead of asking for a generic product critique, the cpo-review skill checks whether each proposed feature is tied to a user job, a measurable behavior, a credible retention signal, a prioritization score, and a tradeoff. That makes it more useful for cutting scope than for brainstorming a larger roadmap.

Main adoption constraint

This is a lightweight skill with its core logic in SKILL.md; the repository preview does not show extra reference files, scripts, or templates inside this skill folder. One referenced RICE command points to a broader product-manager toolkit path, so treat RICE automation as optional unless your local install includes that script. The skill still works as a structured review prompt, but output quality depends heavily on the plan details you provide.

How to Use cpo-review skill

cpo-review install and repository check

A typical install flow is:

npx skills add alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill cpo-review

After installation, inspect:

• c-level-advisor/c-level-agents/skills/cpo-review/SKILL.md

Because this skill appears to be concentrated in one file, read SKILL.md before relying on it in a leadership workflow. Confirm the command name, the six-question structure, and any local path assumptions if your environment supports executable helper scripts.

Inputs the skill needs

For strong cpo-review usage, provide more than a feature list. Include:

• Target customer segment and user role
• The user job in the customer’s words
• Proposed features or roadmap items
• Current North Star Metric and supporting metrics
• Retention, activation, expansion, or usage evidence
• Known constraints: team size, deadline, platform, revenue pressure
• Alternatives already considered
• What you are willing to cut

Weak input: “Review our onboarding roadmap.”

Stronger input: “Review this Q2 onboarding roadmap for SMB admins. Goal: increase first successful workspace setup within 7 days from 38% to 55%. Current retention for users who invite two teammates in week one is 42% at week eight; users who do not invite teammates decay to 12%. Proposed items: guided setup, CSV import, AI workspace templates, admin checklist, lifecycle emails. Team: 4 engineers for 8 weeks. We can ship at most 3 items.”

Prompt pattern for better invocation

A practical cpo-review guide prompt looks like this:

“Use /cs:cpo-review on the plan below. Challenge the roadmap using JTBD, North Star alignment, PMF signal, RICE, opportunity cost, and portfolio focus. Separate must-ship, defer, and kill recommendations. Call out missing evidence and the one metric we should validate before committing.”

Then paste the plan. This works better than asking “Is this a good roadmap?” because it gives the agent permission to cut scope, expose weak signals, and prioritize the decision.

Suggested workflow

Run cpo-review before the roadmap is socially locked. First, ask for a critique and kill/defer/ship recommendation. Second, revise the plan with stronger metrics or sharper JTBD language. Third, run the skill again and ask what changed. For team use, bring the output into a product review meeting as a decision aid, not as a final authority.

cpo-review skill FAQ

Is cpo-review only for CPOs?

No. The framing is executive-level, but the skill is useful for PMs, founders, product leads, and growth teams. It is most valuable when the decision involves tradeoffs, not when you simply need a ticket description or feature spec.

How is it better than an ordinary product prompt?

A generic prompt may produce broad feedback. cpo-review focuses the review on six product leadership questions: user job, behavior metric, PMF evidence, RICE priority, opportunity cost, and portfolio fit. That structure reduces vague opinions and pushes the conversation toward measurable commitment decisions.

When should I not use cpo-review?

Do not use it as the main tool for UX copywriting, user story generation, sprint planning, or discovery interview scripting. It can inform those tasks, but its real purpose is roadmap interrogation. It also performs poorly when you provide no customer segment, no metric, and no competing options.

Does the skill calculate RICE automatically?

The source references a RICE prioritizer command, but the visible cpo-review folder does not include local scripts. If your environment has the referenced toolkit script, you may be able to use it. Otherwise, provide Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort values directly and ask the skill to reason from them.

How to Improve cpo-review skill

Improve cpo-review inputs first

The best way to improve cpo-review results is to supply decision-grade evidence. Replace “customers want dashboards” with “finance admins manually export data weekly to reconcile invoices; 31% of active accounts used exports in the last 30 days; dashboard users retain 18 points higher after 90 days.” Specific jobs, cohorts, and behavior metrics give the skill something real to challenge.

Fix common failure modes

If the output feels generic, the usual cause is an under-specified plan. Add the current North Star Metric, baseline metric values, target movement, customer segment, and top constraints. If the output is too harsh, ask it to distinguish “kill now,” “defer pending evidence,” and “ship as scoped.” If it overweights RICE, ask for a second pass focused on retention curve and opportunity cost.

Iterate after the first review

After the first pass, ask follow-up questions such as:

• “Which item has the weakest JTBD claim?”
• “What evidence would change a kill recommendation into a ship recommendation?”
• “Which two roadmap items are competing for the same user job?”
• “What is the smallest experiment to validate the PMF signal?”

These follow-ups turn the skill from a one-time critique into a product decision loop.

Adapt the skill to your operating model

For higher-quality recurring use, add your company’s North Star Metric, product principles, active customer segments, RICE scale, and definition of PMF signal to the prompt or local skill context. The core cpo-review skill is intentionally compact; it becomes more valuable when paired with your real portfolio constraints and retention data.