Skip to content

/cs:cpo-review — CPO Forcing Questions

C-Level Advisory cpo-review Source

Install: claude /plugin install c-level-skills

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/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

Version: 1.0.0