From se-skills
This skill should be used when the user asks to "prepare for a discovery call", "create a call plan", "plan a technical discovery meeting", "prepare customer questions", "build a discovery guide", "run a disco-stration", or needs to generate a structured interview guide for a first or follow-up customer technical discovery session. Incorporates MEDDPICC qualification, Gap Selling, ambition-oriented questioning, landmine competitive questions, and discovery-demo blending (Disco-Stration).
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/se-skills:discovery-prepThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Generate a structured call plan for a customer technical discovery meeting based on available customer context, industry patterns, and the knowledge base. The plan ensures the SE enters the call with clear objectives, testable hypotheses, and relevant reference material.
Generate a structured call plan for a customer technical discovery meeting based on available customer context, industry patterns, and the knowledge base. The plan ensures the SE enters the call with clear objectives, testable hypotheses, and relevant reference material.
At least one of the following should be provided. If none is available, prompt the SE to supply basic context before proceeding:
Assemble a customer profile from SE input and available assets:
| Dimension | Source |
|---|---|
| Industry & scale | SE input |
| Known pain points / interests | SE input |
| Tech stack (known or inferred) | SE input |
| Decision chain (known roles) | SE input |
| Competitive signals | SE input |
| Same-industry cases | knowledge/cases/ — match by industry |
| Relevant OSS capabilities | knowledge/oss-feature-matrix.md — modules likely relevant |
Score the opportunity against the MEDDPICC framework to surface blind spots before the call:
| Element | Status | What to probe in the call |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics (value levers) | Known / Unknown | What KPIs does the buyer care about? |
| Economic Buyer | Known / Unknown | Who signs? What is their priority? |
| Decision Criteria | Known / Unknown | How will they evaluate solutions? |
| Decision Process | Known / Unknown | Steps from eval to purchase? |
| Paper Process | Known / Unknown | Procurement, legal review, contract timelines? |
| Implicit Pain | Known / Unknown | What is the cost of doing nothing? |
| Champion | Identified / Missing | Who is our internal advocate? |
| Competition | Known / Unknown | Who else is in the eval? |
Elements marked "Unknown" or "Missing" become priority probe targets in the question path.
Formulate testable hypotheses about the customer's situation. Each hypothesis must include a verification method and the implication if confirmed.
Output outputs/discovery/<customer>-call-plan.md:
---
skill: discovery-prep
date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
inputs: <summary of SE input>
status: draft
---
# Call Plan — <Customer Name>
## Customer Profile
- **Industry**: ...
- **Known Background**: ...
- **Tech Stack (inferred)**: ...
- **Decision Roles**: ...
## Meeting Objective
<One sentence: what must be learned by the end of this call>
## Core Hypotheses (to validate)
| # | Hypothesis | Verification Method | If True, Means |
|---|-----------|--------------------|-----------------|
| 1 | ... | What to ask | ... |
| 2 | ... | What to observe | ... |
## Question Path
### Phase 1: Current State (10 min)
1. <Question> — Purpose: <why this question>
2. ...
### Phase 2: Pain Points & Ambition (15 min)
Mix pain-oriented and ambition-oriented questions:
| Type | Example | Purpose |
|------|---------|---------|
| Pain | "What slows your team down most right now?" | Surface explicit friction |
| Pain | "If nothing changed, what would that cost you in 12 months?" | Quantify cost of inaction |
| Ambition | "What would success feel like to your team?" | Reveal emotional drivers |
| Ambition | "If our platform could fix one thing tomorrow, what would it be?" | Prioritize value delivery |
| Ambition | "Where does your leadership want this team to be in 2 years?" | Surface strategic context |
1. <Question> — Purpose: <why this question, which capability it relates to>
2. ...
### Phase 3: Solution Probing (10 min)
**Gap Selling questions** — quantify the cost of inaction before proposing solutions:
- "You mentioned X takes 3 hours a day. What would recovering those 3 hours mean for your team's output?"
- "If this problem stays unsolved for another 6 months, what is the business cost?"
- "What is stopping you from solving this today?"
1. <Question> — Purpose: <why this question>
2. ...
**Landmine questions** — surface competitor weaknesses without criticizing them directly:
- "What is your contingency plan if implementation drags past the expected timeline?"
- "How are you handling [known competitor gap] today?"
- "Who on your team will own the integration work post-deployment?"
> Add specific landmine questions tailored to the competitive signals identified in Step 1.
### Disco-Stration Option
> When discovery and demo are merged into a single fluid session
Instead of separate Q&A and demo blocks, intersperse demonstration moments within discovery:
- Show a relevant capability, then ask: *"Does this map to how you operate?"*
- Use the "Reverse Demo": ask the customer to walk through *their* current workflow first, then reveal the corresponding capability
- Shift between question and demonstration based on buyer reactions, not a rigid script
If the SE plans a Disco-Stration, note it here and reduce Phase 3 (Solution Probing) time accordingly.
## Ammo Belt
> Relevant cases and capabilities to deploy during the conversation
| If customer mentions... | Reference... | Source |
|------------------------|--------------|--------|
| <Scenario A> | <Our approach / case> | case: ... |
| <Scenario B> | <OSS capability> | feature matrix: ... |
## Avoid
- <Specific capability not to promise>
- <Sensitive topic>
- <Angle to avoid in competitive comparison>
## Post-Call Notes
> Fill in after the call
- **Company Overview**: <1-2 sentences summarizing who they are>
- **Team Goals**: <What outcome are they driving toward>
- **Current Workflow**: <How do they operate today, key friction points>
- **Pain Points** (with direct quotes if possible):
- ...
- ...
- **Decision Makers** (roles identified):
- ...
- ...
- **Competition**: <Who else is in the eval>
- **MEDDPICC Scorecard** (updated):
| Element | Post-call status |
|---------|-----------------|
| M (Metrics) | ... |
| E (Economic Buyer) | ... |
| D (Criteria) | ... |
| D (Process) | ... |
| P (Paper Process) | ... |
| I (Implicit Pain) | ... |
| C (Champion) | ... |
| C (Competition) | ... |
- **Validated Hypotheses**:
- ...
- **Newly Discovered Pain Points**:
- ...
- **Action Items**:
- [ ] ...
- **Next Call Objective**: <one sentence>
/case-import to preserve them/discovery-prep runs for the same customer<!-- GAP: suggest adding <industry> cases -->Guides creation, editing, and verification of skills for AI coding agents using test-driven development with subagent scenarios. Use when authoring or debugging skills.
npx claudepluginhub futuretea/se-skills