/cs:cpo-review — CPO Forcing Questions

Command: /cs:cpo-review <plan>

The JTBD-driven builder cuts the roadmap in half. Six questions to surface what to ship and what to kill.

When to Run

• Before quarterly roadmap commitment
• Before launching a new product line
• Before adding > 3 features to a release
• When retention is flat or declining
• When the team is debating “should we build X?”

The Six CPO Questions

1. JTBD

What job is this feature hired to do, in the user’s words?

• Not “improve onboarding.” “Help a new ops manager get their first deal closed within 7 days.”
• Job ≠ feature. Hire ≠ try.

2. North Star Metric

What user behavior does this move, and how does that ladder to the North Star?

• The metric must be leading, behavior-based, and value-correlated.
• If you can’t trace the feature to the North Star, don’t build it.

3. PMF Signal

What’s the retention curve for users who hire this job — is it flat, decaying, or smiling?

• Flat or smiling = PMF signal. Decaying = no PMF.
• “Users like it in surveys” is not a signal.

4. RICE Score

Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort — what’s the score and where does this rank in the queue?

python product-team/skills/product-manager-toolkit/scripts/rice_prioritizer.py

5. Opportunity Cost

What gets cut if this ships? Name the specific initiative or feature.

• Headcount and time are zero-sum. The cut list is the focus list.

6. Kill Criteria

What signal would tell you in 90 days that this was the wrong bet?

• Define the metric and threshold in writing, before launch.
• If you can’t define a kill criterion, you can’t ship responsibly.

Workflow

1. Run the analyses:

   python ../../../skills/cpo-advisor/scripts/pmf_scorer.py
   python ../../../skills/cpo-advisor/scripts/portfolio_analyzer.py

2. Answer the six questions.
3. Apply the verdict.

Output Format

# CPO Review: <feature/plan>
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD

## JTBD
> <one sentence in user voice>

## North Star Link
- Metric moved: <name>
- Expected delta: <%>

## PMF Signal
- Retention curve shape: flat / smiling / decaying
- Cohort sample size: N

## Score
- RICE: <number>
- Rank in queue: #N of M

## Cut List
- Cut: <initiative>
- Reason: <why this matters more>

## Kill Criteria (90 days)
- Metric: <name>
- Threshold: <value>
- Action if missed: <kill | iterate>

## Verdict
🟢 SHIP | 🟡 SHARPEN | 🔴 KILL

Routing

• /cs:cmo-review — does the positioning support this feature?
• /cs:execute — build the 90-day plan
• /cs:post-mortem — if kill criteria triggered

Related

• Agent: cs-cpo-advisor
• Skill: cpo-advisor
• Execution: product-team/skills/product-manager-toolkit/

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Version: 1.0.0