Incoming Request Advisor

Purpose

Decode an incoming message, a Slack ping, email, mandate, escalation, or FYI, into a structured breakdown before you respond. This skill acts as a chief-of-staff-grade analyst sitting in a product leader's chair: it separates the literal ask from the job-to-be-done underneath it, reads sender power and stake, and opens the conversation toward a reply or next artifact.

Use it when a request lands and your first instinct is to answer the words on the screen. The skill slows that reflex down: it finds the outcome, for whom, and why now, not how to build. It is not a programmer breaking down a spec. When a request sounds like a feature or a build order, the skill hunts for the outcome and the job-to-be-done beneath it.

Input

Works best with: The incoming message itself, pasted text, a screenshot, an image, an attached file, or a PDF. The skill extracts the full message from whatever form it takes before analyzing.

Also useful:

• Who sent it and their apparent role relative to your work (upstream, peer, downstream)
• The situation or thread the message arrived in
• What you want next, analysis only, or a drafted reply too

Anything supplied with the invocation itself, text after the skill name, the pasted message, surrounding notes, or an appended ARGUMENTS: line, counts as answers already given. Treat anything written around the message as sender or situation context. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.

Arriving empty-handed? That works too. Drop in the message and nothing else. If sender or situation is unknown and it changes the read, the advisor asks at most 3 targeted questions, one at a time, then proceeds with clearly labeled assumptions. If part of the message is unreadable or cut off, the advisor says so and works with what is there.

Example invocation: My VP DM'd me: "Any chance the dashboard redesign lands next sprint? Board's asking." Analyze this before I reply.

Key Concepts