Name: Design Lean Startup Experiments
Author: Skills Guide Bot

Automated summary

This skill helps design lean startup experiments (pretotypes) by creating XYZ hypotheses and suggesting low-effort validation methods like landing pages, explainer videos, and pre-orders.

Strengths

Based on Alberto Savoia's The Right It and its proven principles
Emphasizes skin-in-the-game and own data (YODA) for reliable signals
Provides a concrete structure for formulating hypotheses and designing experiments
Offers multiple validation methods adaptable to different contexts

Limitations

Requires a clear and precise definition of the target market (Y) for the hypothesis to be valid
May not adequately cover complex B2B sales cycles or heavily regulated products
Depends on the user's ability to execute experiments and interpret results

When to use it

Use this skill when validating a new product idea, creating pretotypes, or testing market demand with minimal effort.

When not to use it

Avoid using it if the product is already validated with real data or if you lack the resources to implement the suggested experiments.

Security analysis

Safe

Quality score88/100

The skill only provides text-based brainstorming guidance for lean startup experiments. It does not execute any code or system commands and has no declared tools, posing no execution or data exfiltration risk.

No concerns found

How this analysis is made

Examples

Validate a meal-prep subscription service

Design lean startup experiments for a meal-prep subscription service that delivers weekly ingredients for healthy meals.

Test a pet-sitting platform

Create XYZ hypotheses and suggest pretotypes for a peer-to-peer pet-sitting platform for vacations.

Check demand for a language learning app

I'm thinking of building a language learning app that uses AI to practice conversations. What experiments can I run to validate it?

name: brainstorm-experiments-new description: "Design lean startup experiments (pretotypes) for a new product. Creates XYZ hypotheses and suggests low-effort validation methods like landing pages, explainer videos, and pre-orders. Use when validating a new product idea, creating pretotypes, or testing market demand."

Design Lean Startup Experiments (New Product)

Create XYZ hypotheses and design pretotype experiments to validate a new product concept with minimal effort.

Context

You are helping validate a new product concept: $ARGUMENTS using lean startup methodology.

If the user provides files (market research, landing page mockups), read them first.

Instructions

Create an XYZ Hypothesis in the form: "At least X% of Y will do Z"
- X%: The percentage of the target market expected to engage
- Y: The specific target market (e.g., "mid-size luxury sedan buyers")
- Z: How they will engage with the product
Suggest 2-3 pretotype experiments to test the hypothesis with minimal effort. Consider:
- Landing Page: Test interest by measuring sign-ups or clicks
- Explainer Video: Test understanding and appeal through engagement metrics
- Email Campaign: Test demand through response and click-through rates
- Pre-Order / Waitlist: Test willingness to pay through skin-in-the-game commitment
- Concierge / Manual MVP: Deliver the service manually to test value
Key principles (Alberto Savoia, The Right It):
- Skin-in-the-Game: Test willingness to pay — not just interest. Real commitment (time, money, reputation) is the only reliable signal.
- Your Own Data (YODA): Collect your own data through experiments rather than relying on Others' Data (ODP) like market reports or analogies. "The market for your idea does not care about the market for someone else's idea."
- Measure actual behavior, not users' opinions
For each experiment, specify the hypothesis being tested, the method, the metric, and the success threshold.

Think step by step. Save as markdown if substantial.

From the file to a first result

The download contains exactly the content displayed on this page. This copy may differ from the latest version in the source repository.

View the source and supporting files

This download contains SKILL.md only. Any scripts, references, templates and dependencies are not included. Get the required files from the source, preserving their directory structure, before continuing.

1. Download the file

Download SKILL.md

From the root of a test project, save the file as .skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md, or use the command below. This folder is for inspecting the skill before installation.

Command for macOS/Linux or WSL: requires a POSIX shell and curl. On Windows without WSL, use the download button and create the folder manually.

mkdir -p '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq' && curl --fail --show-error --location 'https://skills-guides.com/api/skills/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/download' --output '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md.part' && mv '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md.part' '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md'

2. Check prerequisites

Read SKILL.md before using it. If it references scripts or external services, inspect them and prepare the required access in your test environment.

No recognized prerequisites section in this file. This does not mean it is self-contained: libraries, tools and access requirements may be mentioned elsewhere in the content or source repository.

The platforms on this page are catalog indications. The paths below follow tool documentation; they do not prove this skill has been run in those tools. No minimum tool version is confirmed for this listing.

3. Load the skill

After inspection, copy the complete folder into your project using one of the commands below, then open a new tool session. The command stops if a folder with the same name already exists: compare the files before replacing it.

Claude Code

test -f '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/brainstorm-experiments-new' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq' '.claude/skills/brainstorm-experiments-new'

OpenSkills

OpenSkills must already be installed. The local install/read procedure is checked with OpenSkills 1.5.0, which requires Node.js ≥ 20.6.0. Catalog slugs are not resolved automatically.

Official OpenSkills installation

openskills install './.skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq'

openskills read 'design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq'

Reading should display the installed file content and its base directory. It does not run the skill or install its dependencies.

For an agent that reads AGENTS.md, then sync the index. This command changes AGENTS.md: review the diff before using it.

openskills sync

Manual method or another tool: attach SKILL.md to a conversation, or open it in an agent that can read files. Include any required supporting resources. No universal folder is recognized by every tool.

4. Try a first task

Use a short, synthetic input: an API endpoint, a small document or an interface brief. In a new conversation, attach the file or give the agent its path, then adapt this request:

Read .skill-downloads/design-lean-startup-experiments-mryiqhkq/SKILL.md and apply its instructions to this example: [describe a test input]. Identify any missing files, dependencies or access. Produce the result requested by the skill without inventing data or running unreviewed scripts.

Expected result: output matching the skill instructions, or a precise list of missing prerequisites. A read confirmation alone does not validate a first use. If an external resource is unavailable, that path remains untested.

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