6DuckLearn Skills

identify assumptions existing

Identify risky assumptions for a feature idea in an existing product across Value, Usability, Viability, and Feasibility. Uses multi-perspective devil's advocate thinking. Use when stress-testing a feature idea, doing risk assessment, or preparing for assumption mapping.

product-management Tags: pm-product-discovery, product-management, pm-skills

Identify Assumptions (Existing Product)

Devil's advocate analysis to surface risky assumptions across four risk areas.

Context

You are stress-testing a feature idea for $ARGUMENTS.

If the user provides files (designs, PRDs, research), read them first.

Instructions

The user will describe their product, objective, market segment, and feature idea. Work through these steps:

  1. Think from three perspectives about why this feature might fail:

    • Product Manager perspective: Business viability, market fit, strategic alignment
    • Designer perspective: Usability, user experience, adoption barriers
    • Engineer perspective: Technical feasibility, performance, integration challenges

  2. Identify assumptions across four risk areas:

    • Value: Will it create value for customers? Does it solve a real problem?
    • Usability: Will users figure out how to use it? Is the learning curve acceptable?
    • Viability: Can marketing, sales, finance, and legal support it?
    • Feasibility: Can it be built with existing technology? Are there integration risks?

  3. For each assumption, note:

    • What specifically could go wrong
    • How confident you are (High/Medium/Low)
    • Suggested way to test it

Think step by step. Be thorough but constructive — the goal is to strengthen the idea, not kill it.

Further Reading

Related skills

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  • analyze feature requests — Analyze and prioritize a list of feature requests by theme, strategic alignment, impact, effort, and risk. Use when reviewing customer feature requests, triaging a backlog, or making prioritization decisions.
  • brainstorm experiments existing — Design experiments to test assumptions for an existing product — prototypes, A/B tests, spikes, and other low-effort validation methods. Use when validating assumptions, testing feature ideas cheaply, or planning product experiments.
  • brainstorm experiments new — Design lean startup experiments (pretotypes) for a new product. Creates XYZ hypotheses and suggests low-effort validation methods like landing pages, explainer videos, and pre-orders. Use when validating a new product idea, creating pretotypes, or testing market demand.
  • brainstorm ideas existing — Brainstorm product ideas for an existing product using multi-perspective ideation from PM, Designer, and Engineer viewpoints. Use when generating new feature ideas, brainstorming solutions for an identified opportunity, or ideating with a product trio.
  • brainstorm ideas new — Brainstorm feature ideas for a new product in initial discovery from PM, Designer, and Engineer perspectives. Use when starting product discovery for a new product, exploring features for a startup idea, or doing initial ideation.