Agent skill · product strategy · sickn33
before-you-build
Review product risk before coding by checking demand, alternatives, channels, switching costs, and failure signals.
Why this skill is useful
Provides a structured framework for assessing product viability and risks that the AI wouldn't generate on its own.
What it needs
About 3k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 44,571 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Before You Build Overview Before You Build helps an AI coding workflow pause before implementation and check whether the feature, product, or tool is worth building. It focuses on product risk rather than code structure: who needs the thing, what they use today, why they would switch, how distribution works, and what evidence would make the project safer to start. The upstream project ships a standalone skill repository and an npx installer for several coding assistants. When to Use This Skill Use when a user asks an AI coding assistant to build a new app, feature, internal tool, SaaS, or side project. Use when the idea sounds plausible but the buyer, workflow, distribution path, or switching reason is still vague. Use before writing code so the assistant can turn the request into sharper assumptions, risk checks, and validation steps. How It Works Step 1: Identify the Build Bet Restate the product or feature in one concrete sentence. Name the intended user, the job they are trying to finish, and the current workaround or competitor. Step 2: Check the Main Risks Review the idea across demand, workflow fit, willingness to switch, distribution, pricing, data access, and operational burden. Prefer specific doubts over generic brainstorming. Step 3: Decide the Next Small Test Suggest the smallest useful validation step before implementation. This could be a buyer conversation, landing page test, manual concierge workflow, prototype, waitlist, paid pilot, or narrow internal trial. Step 4: Continue or Stop If the risk is acceptable, move into implementation with the assumptions written down. If the risk is high or evidence is weak, recommend a smaller experiment instead of building the full version. Examples Example 1: SaaS Feature Request Example 2: Internal Tool Best Practices ✅ Ask for the user, job, current alternative, and switching reason before implementation. ✅ Separate product risk from engineering risk so the team does not solve the wrong problem well. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sickn33/before-you-build--858817