tool-foundation-sprint-brief
Pre-sprint brief that locks scope, the decision the sprint must unlock, team and role assignments, logistics, inputs to bring, and success criteria before Day 1 of a Foundation Sprint. Use after the readiness verdict is Go and before the sprint begins. Produces a one-page artifact the team and Decider sign off on as the contract for the next two days.
- Installs
- 625
- Last 24h
- —
- Trending rank
- —
- Security
- Not audited
Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/product-on-purpose/pm-skills --skill tool-foundation-sprint-brief- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads tool-foundation-sprint-brief automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Foundation Sprint Brief
Produce the one-page brief that aligns the team on scope, decision target, participants, logistics, and success criteria before Day 1 begins. A well-built brief prevents Day 1 from opening with re-litigation of why-are-we-here; a missing or vague brief almost guarantees it.
Family contract: docs/reference/skill-families/foundation-sprint-skills-contract.md. This skill is a member of foundation-sprint-skills.
When to Use
- The readiness verdict from
tool-foundation-sprint-readinessis Go (or Conditional Go with preconditions cleared). - The sprint has dates blocked on calendars and you need the artifact that names what the sprint is for.
- The team has prep activities scheduled and you need a written reference for what to bring.
- A skeptical exec wants to know "what is the team doing for two days?" and you need an answer that fits on one page.
When NOT to Use
- The sprint has already started. The brief is a prep artifact, not an in-sprint deliverable. If Day 1 is happening, run
tool-foundation-sprint-basicsinstead. - The readiness verdict is Wait. The brief cannot fix an unready team; close the preconditions first, then re-run readiness, then invoke this skill.
- The team wants a strategy document. The brief is internal prep, not a stakeholder deliverable. If a stakeholder document is needed, that is a downstream artifact.
- The brief threatens to become a multi-page strategic document. Stop and reframe: the canonical brief is one page.
What This Skill Produces
A single bundled artifact with six sections:
- Initiative statement and stakes: one paragraph naming what the team is sprinting on and why a wrong direction would be costly.
- Decision the sprint must unlock: the open strategic question the sprint resolves. Single sentence.
- Team roster with role assignments: who is in the room and what role each person plays per section of the sprint.
- Logistics plan: dates, hours, location, format (in-person, remote, hybrid), tools, daily rhythm.
- Existing inputs to bring: the research, customer examples, competitor notes, metrics, and constraints the team should reference during the sprint.
- Readiness reaffirmation: a final check that the Go verdict from
tool-foundation-sprint-readinessstill holds.
See references/TEMPLATE.md for the canonical structure and references/EXAMPLE.md for the Brainshelf book-catalog brief.
Inference Inputs
| Input | What the skill does with it |
|---|---|
Readiness verdict and recommendations (from tool-foundation-sprint-readiness) | Pulls the recommended attendees, preconditions, and pre-sprint activities into the brief; flags any precondition that has not been closed |
| Initiative description | Compresses into one paragraph for the Initiative Statement section |
| Team roster | Maps people to the required Foundation Sprint roles (Decider, Facilitator, PM, Design, Engineering, Customer Expert) |
| Logistics constraints | Produces the dates/hours/location/format/tools matrix; flags any constraint that would force the sprint to extend beyond two days |
| (Optional) Skeptical-exec talking points | Tightens the Stakes paragraph to address why-now and why-this concerns |
Brief Length Discipline
The brief MUST fit on one page (or one screen). The skill enforces this through structural choices, not raw character counts:
- Initiative Statement: one paragraph, four sentences maximum.
- Decision the sprint must unlock: one sentence.
- Team Roster: table with one row per person.
- Logistics: table.
- Inputs to Bring: bulleted list, five items maximum.
- Readiness Reaffirmation: checklist.
If the brief expands beyond this scope, the sprint is being over-engineered before it starts. The fix is not a longer brief; the fix is a clearer decision target.
Common Pitfalls
- Over-engineering the brief. The brief is a prep artifact, not a strategy doc. If it has an executive summary, an appendix, or a "background" section longer than one paragraph, it has drifted.
- Treating the brief as a deliverable to stakeholders. Stakeholders do not read the brief; they read the Founding Hypothesis at the end. The brief is for the team. Sharing it publicly invites pre-sprint debate, which the sprint is supposed to resolve.
- Vague decision target. "We will figure out our strategy" is not a decision. "We will commit to a top bet between [option A] and [option B]" is.
- Logistics drift. "We'll figure out dates" or "we'll meet hybrid sometimes" telegraphs that the team has not actually committed to the sprint. Either dates and format are locked, or the readiness verdict was wrong.
- Skipping readiness reaffirmation. The readiness verdict was a snapshot. If a precondition has slipped or the Decider's availability has changed since readiness, the brief needs to surface that, not paper over it.
Canonical Sources
- Character Capital. "Foundation Sprint guide." Section on pre-sprint preparation and team scoping.
- Knapp, J., and Zeratsky, J. Click: How to Make What People Want. Pre-sprint prep recommendations.
- pm-skills
foundation-meeting-briefprecedent: brief-structure pattern adapted for the strategic context of a Foundation Sprint rather than a meeting.
Cross-Skill Usage
Prerequisites: tool-foundation-sprint-readiness. The brief expects the readiness output as its primary input. When prerequisites is honored, the brief inherits the readiness verdict, attendee recommendations, and pre-sprint activities; the skill then refines and commits them.
If the team has done equivalent prep without running the readiness skill explicitly (e.g., experienced sprint facilitator who knows the readiness criteria), the brief skill can be invoked directly. In that case, the skill body prompts the team to confirm the readiness criteria are met before generating the brief.
Next invocation in the sprint: tool-foundation-sprint-basics on Day 1 morning.
Decider Checkpoint
This skill ends with a Decider Checkpoint in references/TEMPLATE.md. The Decider signs off on scope (the decision target), team (the roster and role assignments), success criteria (what makes the sprint successful or not), and the explicit tradeoff that the sprint will force a top bet rather than preserve all directions. Without sign-off, the brief is advisory; with sign-off, it is the contract for the next two days.
FAQ
What does the tool-foundation-sprint-brief skill do?
Pre-sprint brief that locks scope, the decision the sprint must unlock, team and role assignments, logistics, inputs to bring, and success criteria before Day 1 of a Foundation Sprint. Use after the readiness verdict is Go and before the sprint begins. Produces a one-page artifact the team and Decider sign off on as the contract for the next two days.
How do I install tool-foundation-sprint-brief?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/product-on-purpose/pm-skills --skill tool-foundation-sprint-brief in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/tool-foundation-sprint-brief/ (personal) or .claude/skills/tool-foundation-sprint-brief/ (project).
Which AI agents can use tool-foundation-sprint-brief?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is tool-foundation-sprint-brief safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains tool-foundation-sprint-brief?
It is published by product-on-purpose in product-on-purpose/pm-skills. It has 625 recorded installs.
More from product-on-purpose/pm-skills
deliver-acceptance-criteria
product-on-purpose/pm-skills
Generates structured Given/When/Then acceptance criteria for a user story or feature slice, covering the happy path, key failure scenarios, and non-functional expectations in testable form. Use when turning requirements into verifiable scenarios for engineering handoff and QA sign-off. For a dedicated catalog of boundary conditions, error states, and recovery paths across a feature, use deliver-edge-cases; to write the stories themselves, use deliver-user-stories.
deliver-prd
product-on-purpose/pm-skills
Creates a comprehensive Product Requirements Document that aligns stakeholders on what to build, why, and how success will be measured. Use when specifying features, epics, or product initiatives for engineering handoff.
deliver-user-stories
product-on-purpose/pm-skills
Generates user stories in the standard persona, action, benefit story format from product requirements or feature descriptions. Use when breaking a feature into stories for sprint planning, writing tickets, or communicating scope to engineering. For testable Given/When/Then acceptance criteria on a story, use deliver-acceptance-criteria; for boundary and failure scenarios, use deliver-edge-cases.
deliver-edge-cases
product-on-purpose/pm-skills
Documents edge cases, error states, boundary conditions, race conditions, and recovery paths for a feature - the systematic catalog of what can go wrong and the failure modes to design for. Use during specification to map the failure surface and ensure comprehensive coverage, or during QA planning to identify boundary and limit scenarios to test. Distinct from deliver-acceptance-criteria, which writes story-level Given/When/Then checks; this skill produces the whole-feature edge-case catalog.
discover-competitive-analysis
product-on-purpose/pm-skills
Creates a structured competitive analysis comparing features, pricing, and positioning across 3-5 direct and indirect competitors, with a 2x2 map and actionable strategic recommendations. Use before entering a market, planning differentiation, or after losing deals. For market size rather than competitor positioning, use discover-market-sizing instead.
define-problem-statement
product-on-purpose/pm-skills
Creates a clear problem framing document with user impact, business context, and success criteria. Use when starting a new initiative, realigning a drifted project, or communicating up to leadership.
Popular business & finance skills
sales-enablement
coreyhaines31/marketingskills
When the user wants to create sales collateral, pitch decks, one-pagers, objection handling docs, or demo scripts. Also use when the user mentions 'sales deck,' 'pitch deck,' 'one-pager,' 'leave-behind,' 'objection handling,' 'deal-specific ROI analysis,' 'demo script,' 'talk track,' 'sales playbook,' 'proposal template,' 'buyer persona card,' 'battle card,' 'battlecard,' 'competitive one-pager,' 'win-loss analysis,' 'why are we losing deals,' 'loss reasons,' 'how do I respond to this objection,' 'prospect just said,' 'help my sales team,' 'sales materials,' or 'what should I give my sales reps,' 'cold call script,' or 'voicemail script.' Use this for any document or asset that helps a sales team close deals. For public competitor comparison pages, see competitors. For running buyer interviews or churn research, see customer-research. For marketing website copy, see copywriting. For cold outreach emails, see cold-email. For the offer being sold (bonuses, guarantees, pricing structure),
revops
coreyhaines31/marketingskills
When the user wants help with revenue operations, lead lifecycle management, or marketing-to-sales handoff processes. Also use when the user mentions 'RevOps,' 'revenue operations,' 'lead scoring,' 'outbound pipeline stages,' 'lead routing,' 'MQL,' 'SQL,' 'pipeline stages,' 'deal desk,' 'CRM automation,' 'marketing-to-sales handoff,' 'data hygiene,' 'leads aren't getting to sales,' 'pipeline management,' 'lead qualification,' or 'when should marketing hand off to sales.' Use this for anything involving the systems and processes that connect marketing to revenue. For cold outreach emails, see cold-email. For email drip campaigns, see emails. For pricing decisions, see pricing.
sales-funnel-blueprint
autonnel/autonnel-skills
Turn an offer into a concrete multi-step sales funnel spec - page-by-page structure, price ladder, copy outline and the metrics each step must hit. Use when asked to build a sales funnel, marketing funnel, landing page flow, lead magnet funnel, webinar funnel, tripwire or VSL funnel, when planning a product launch page flow, or when someone asks "what pages do I need" for selling something online.
pricing
coreyhaines31/marketingskills
When the user wants help with pricing decisions, packaging, or monetization strategy. Also use when the user mentions 'pricing,' 'pricing tiers,' 'freemium,' 'free trial,' 'packaging,' 'price increase,' 'value metric,' 'Van Westendorp,' 'willingness to pay,' 'monetization,' 'how much should I charge,' 'my pricing is wrong,' 'pricing page,' 'annual vs monthly,' 'per seat pricing,' 'should I offer a free plan,' 'pricing page teardown,' 'pricing page audit,' 'is my pricing page AI-readable,' or 'can AI read my pricing.' Use this whenever someone is figuring out what to charge, how to structure their plans, or wants to audit a pricing page (for humans and for the AI agents that shortlist tools). For in-app upgrade screens, see paywalls. For offer construction (bonuses, guarantees, value framing, naming) on services/courses/coaching/high-ticket B2B, see offers.
cross-border-ecommerce
nexscope-ai/ecommerce-skills
Cross-border e-commerce expansion advisor. Scores target markets on 8 weighted dimensions (market size, ecommerce penetration, competition, regulatory complexity, logistics infrastructure, payment ecosystem, cultural distance, IP protection), compares 5 fulfillment models with cost and transit data, provides country-by-country tax/duty compliance guides (EU VAT/IOSS, UK VAT, US sales tax, CA GST, AU GST, JP consumption tax), maps local payment preferences by market, and builds a phased expansion roadmap. No API key required.
pricing-strategy
coreyhaines31/marketingskills
When the user wants help with pricing decisions, packaging, or monetization strategy. Also use when the user mentions 'pricing,' 'pricing tiers,' 'freemium,' 'free trial,' 'packaging,' 'price increase,' 'value metric,' 'Van Westendorp,' 'willingness to pay,' 'monetization,' 'how much should I charge,' 'my pricing is wrong,' 'pricing page,' 'annual vs monthly,' 'per seat pricing,' or 'should I offer a free plan.' Use this whenever someone is figuring out what to charge or how to structure their plans. For in-app upgrade screens, see paywall-upgrade-cro.