Lifecycle Play Advisor

Purpose

Work out what to do with a product that has stopped growing. Three plays are available, extend, replace, retire, and this skill gets you to the right one through diagnosis rather than debate, then hands you to whichever skill executes it.

Most teams argue the play before establishing the stage. The argument is unwinnable that way, because nobody has agreed on what's actually happening to the product. Four questions fixes that.

This skill is deliberately willing to say "nothing yet." A mature product throwing off margin with manageable support cost doesn't need a play; it needs to be left alone and watched.

Input

Works best with: The product, and what makes you think something needs to change.

Also useful: Revenue trend and over how long, support load, what customers say, whether an internal driver (cost, capacity, strategy) is really behind the question, and what investment appetite exists.

Anything supplied with the invocation itself, text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended ARGUMENTS: line, counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.

Arriving empty-handed? That works too. The diagnosis runs on questions a PM can answer from what they already know, no report-pulling required. "I don't know" is a valid answer and becomes a labeled assumption in the recommendation.

Example invocations:

• Our reporting module has been flat six quarters and people want to rebuild it. Extend, replace, or retire?
• Leadership wants to kill our parts module. Walk me through whether that's right.

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Key Concepts

The Three Plays