Raw capture — raw/skills-asmartbear-com.md

url: https://skills.asmartbear.com/ date_fetched: 2026-08-21

content: 'Skills from A Smart Bear AI skills that facilitate executing the frameworks and workflows from the A Smart Bear blog and in the book Hidden Multipliers. by Jason Cohen, founder of two Unicorns (WP Engine, Smart Bear). Download all skills How to install The BlogA Smart Bear The BookHidden Multipliers What makes these differentThey don’t think for you or hand you an answer. Each one interrogates you — pressing on vague claims and refusing to let you off the hook for a weak answer — the way Jason would if he were facilitating in the room. You leave with your own best thinking, not the AI’s. NewsletterGet new skills and articles by emailA short note when a new skill or article goes live. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.Subscribe / Splash hero leaves a lot of vertical space; tighten it on this page. / .main-pane > .content-panel:first-child, .main-pane main { padding-block-start: 1rem !important; } .hero { padding-block-start: 0 !important; padding-block-end: 0.5rem !important; } .hero-actions { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: center; align-content: flex-start; row-gap: 0.5rem; column-gap: 0.75rem; margin-block: 0 2rem; } / Defeat any default margin on Starlight''s content-panel children so wrapped button rows don''t pick up paragraph-style spacing. / .hero-actions > .sl-link-button { margin-block: 0 !important; } / The Blog / The Book buttons carry a small uppercase label above their title so a first-time visitor knows what each destination is. / .hero-actions .btn-stack { display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: flex-start; line-height: 1.15; text-align: left; } .hero-actions .btn-eyebrow { font-size: 0.68rem; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.06em; text-transform: uppercase; opacity: 0.6; } / "What makes these different" — an accented aside between the hero actions and the skills grid. Present enough to be read, but styled as an aside so it doesn''t compete with the hero. / .differentiator { margin-block: 0 2rem; padding: 1rem 1.25rem; border-inline-start: 3px solid var(--sl-color-accent); background: var(--sl-color-accent-low); border-radius: 0.35rem; max-width: 46rem; } .differentiator-eyebrow { margin: 0 0 0.35rem; font-size: 0.72rem; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.07em; text-transform: uppercase; color: var(--sl-color-accent-high); } .differentiator-body { margin: 0; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.5; color: var(--sl-color-gray-1); } .differentiator-body strong { color: var(--sl-color-white); font-weight: 700; } / Home page: Workshops and Skills side by side on wide screens; stacked (Workshops first, per source order) on narrow ones. / .home-columns { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr; gap: 2.5rem; align-items: start; } @media (min-width: 50rem) { .home-columns { grid-template-columns: minmax(0, 22rem) minmax(0, 1fr); / Three shared rows: title / blurb / list. Both columns span them via subgrid, so the titles align, the blurb tops align, and the first tiles align — regardless of how the blurbs wrap. / grid-template-rows: auto auto auto; column-gap: 3rem; row-gap: 0; } .home-col { display: grid; grid-row: 1 / span 3; grid-template-rows: subgrid; / Critical: without this the list cell stretches to fill the tall shared list row (sized to the longer Skills column), ballooning the Workshops tiles. start keeps every cell — including the tiles — at its natural height, top-anchored in its row. / align-items: start; } } / Starlight injects "margin-top:1rem" on any element that follows a sibling inside .sl-markdown-content (specificity 0,1,2) — it lands on the second column (dropping Skills below Workshops) and on every 2nd+ child inside a column. These 0,2,0 selectors outrank it and zero those offsets, so all vertical spacing comes solely from the explicit bottom margins below and every row lines up across the two columns. / .home-columns > .home-col, .home-columns .home-col > * { margin-top: 0; } .home-col-title { margin-block: 0 0.15rem; line-height: 1.15; } .home-col-blurb { margin-block: 0 0.85rem; color: var(--sl-color-gray-3); font-size: 0.95rem; } WorkshopsMulti-step methods — sequences of skills, each completing a meaningful step.Find YourselfDiscover who you actually are — then build the strategy around it.2 stepsFind Your CarolDefine the ideal customer your whole company can aim at.6 stepsCustomer InterviewsTurn customer conversations into decisions.6 stepsSet Your PriceCharge more, for the right reasons.3 stepsStandaloneSingle skills that each work on their own.Rude Q&AGrills your plan until it cracks.asb-rude-qaGood Market?Do enough people want to pay for this?asb-problemPositioningCreates the pitch that sells.asb-positioningNeeds StackMaps what your customer really wants.asb-needs-stack Next How to install'

content: 'document.querySelectorAll(".copy-btn").forEach(t=>{t.addEventListener("click",async()=>{const o=t.dataset.copyB64;if(!o)return;const a=new TextDecoder().decode(Uint8Array.from(atob(o),e=>e.charCodeAt(0)));try{await navigator.clipboard.writeText(a);const e=t.dataset.defaultLabel??"Copy";t.textContent="Copied ✓",setTimeout(()=>t.textContent=e,1500)}catch{t.textContent="Copy failed"}})}); Rude Q&A: The Constructive Devil''s Advocate Stress-test any decision, plan, pitch, or positioning against sharp questions until you can defend it or admit it isn''t ready. Adapted from Rude Q&A: The constructive devil''s advocate. Input A plan, pitch, decision, or positioning — a one-line dilemma or a fully-supported brief. Output A markdown document with sharpened decisions, accepted consequences, and the next questions you owe yourself. Installing asb-rude-qa npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills Copy command Installs every skill on this site into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and dozens of other agents — recommended, since the skills work together. (Append --skill asb-rude-qa to install only this one.) Later, npx skills update picks up improvements. Or skip the tooling and grab the file itself: Copy SKILL.md View source on GitHub → Raw file → Save into ~/.claude/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md, then restart Claude Code (or run /context) to pick up the new skill. ↓ Or download all skills as one ZIP — the easiest way to get this skill together with everything it works alongside. Last updated 2026-08-16 What this is about A hard decision has one big problem: you cannot interrogate yourself. Denial and excuse-making are normal human behavior. This is why strategy documents are full of hope and supporting data, instead of the scary challenges the business really faces. You need an outside attacker to get past this. This attacker asks unfair questions, refuses vague answers, and stays on each point until you give a real answer. This skill turns Claude into that attacker. Bring Claude anything you care about but are unsure of — a decision, a plan, a pitch, a target market, a pricing plan, or an idea still in progress. State it as a one-line problem or a full brief. Claude questions it from every angle, including unfair ones. It stays on any point where your answer is unclear, and it will not accept "approximately fine" as a final answer. You get one of three honest results: a sharper plan built from real decisions with the consequences accepted, a clear list of what you still need to find out or decide before you can defend the plan, or the conclusion that the idea was wrong. The exercise is like practice with a "heavy bat." You face attacks harder than reality will bring, so the real thing feels easier. The questions are deliberately rude, but the tone around them stays friendly. The result is a markdown document. It records the decisions, the reasoning, the consequences you accepted, and the points where you felt uncomfortable. Example invocation You can invoke the skill like this: /asb-rude-qa I''m writing a book which is outlined in the file /Users/jcohen/book/Hidden Multipliers. In that file you can also see who my audience is and why they should be interested in it. I don''t know exactly who my ICP is or how to market it. Claude presses every soft spot — ICP, differentiation, market size, competitive alternatives — until you give a real answer or admit what you still need to find out. One practical note: tell Claude where you are working. Name a directory (or point to your existing files) when you start, and the skill keeps the method''s files together there. If you do not name a location, it asks before it creates anything. From the source Two articles form the foundation of this skill: Rude Q&A: The constructive devil''s advocate — explains the technique itself. It covers why unfair, hostile, even wrong questions help rather than hurt, and why your own dissatisfaction with an answer signals that the exercise is working. Failure to face the truth — gives the reasoning behind the method. It explains why denial and excuse-making are normal human behavior, and why an outside attacker is the only reliable way past this. Rude Q&A is the practical answer to the question this article raises. Each supporting article covers one part of the method, or one goal the interrogator aims for: What makes a strategy great — defines "Candid" and "Decisive" as required qualities of a good strategy. The interrogation aims to bring your plan to this state. Strategic choices: When both options are good — shows what a real decision looks like: both sides are smart choices, you accept the consequences, and the parts reinforce each other. This is the final phase of the exercise. The "Opposite Test" — describes the specific test the interrogator uses to find meaningless claims and turn them into real choices. Scars — explains why even highly self-aware people cannot fix their own blind spots alone. This is the deepest reason this skill needs to exist. Get new skills by emailSubscribe Previous 3. Raise Prices Next Excuse me, is there a problem? Score your idea''s path to a viable business'

content: 'document.querySelectorAll(".copy-btn").forEach(t=>{t.addEventListener("click",async()=>{const o=t.dataset.copyB64;if(!o)return;const a=new TextDecoder().decode(Uint8Array.from(atob(o),e=>e.charCodeAt(0)));try{await navigator.clipboard.writeText(a);const e=t.dataset.defaultLabel??"Copy";t.textContent="Copied ✓",setTimeout(()=>t.textContent=e,1500)}catch{t.textContent="Copy failed"}})}); Excuse me, is there a problem? Score your idea''s path to a viable business Find out whether your idea can become a real business — a seven-factor Fermi scorecard that multiplies out to a viability verdict before you build. Adapted from Excuse me, is there a problem?. Input A business idea — anywhere from a rough direction to a running product — plus whatever real data you have. Output A PROBLEM-SCORE.md scorecard — seven evidence-cited Fermi scores, a viability verdict, and re-scored niche scenarios. Installing asb-problem npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills Copy command Installs every skill on this site into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and dozens of other agents — recommended, since the skills work together. (Append --skill asb-problem to install only this one.) Later, npx skills update picks up improvements. Or skip the tooling and grab the file itself: Copy SKILL.md View source on GitHub → Raw file → Save into ~/.claude/skills/asb-problem/SKILL.md, then restart Claude Code (or run /context) to pick up the new skill. ↓ Or download all skills as one ZIP — the easiest way to get this skill together with everything it works alongside. Last updated 2026-08-16 What this is about Solving a real problem is not enough to build a successful company. This may surprise you. Founders often confirm that the problem is real. They build a product that solves it. Many still fail. Five more gates stand between "a real problem" and "a viable business model." Founders also score themselves too high at each gate. This skill guides you through the path from "The Problem" to "Viable Business Model." It scores your specific target market on seven multiplying criteria, using power-of-ten Fermi estimates. In the best case, all seven criteria hold. In reality, some are strong and some are weak. The multiplied score is a simple directional tool. It shows whether your big strengths overcome your few weaknesses. The skill will not score a generic idea. It challenges every optimistic number unless evidence backs it. It can do light research to check your market-size claims. When the score is negative, the skill helps you target a narrower niche and score again. Or it helps you face the truth that the idea is not viable — while you still have the time and money to find a better one. The seven criteria Each criterion has its own full story in a separate article. The score here is the short version. Plausible — Do 10M consumers or 100k businesses have the problem? The threshold comes from conversion math. It also comes from how price and quantity trade off in your business model. Self-Aware — Do they know they have the problem, and do they care? Customer development helps you find out. A mission helps you survive the work of teaching a market that does not know or care yet. Lucrative — Is there a large budget already set aside for this? Positioning your product as creating value rather than saving money often makes the difference. Liquid — Are they willing and able to buy right now? The failure mode is Product Purgatory: they love the product and agree it has value, but they still do not buy. You are only their seventh priority. Eager (identity) — Do they trust you, and do they want to buy from you specifically? The Love and Utility kinds of willingness-to-pay explain the mechanics. Eager (comparative) — Are you different in a way that enough of the market cares about? See leverage and Worse, but unique. Enduring — Will they still pay you, or recommend you, a year from now? Churn grows exponentially, while growth is at best quadratic. So retention math always catches up with you. Example invocation You can invoke the skill like this: /asb-problem I''m building an uptime-monitoring tool for developers of Shopify apps. It catches silent failures and alerts them before their merchants notice. I''d charge $19/mo. I have 40 free beta users but only 3 paying customers so far. Score it — keep the files in ./viability First, the skill holds you to a specific target market: a specific buyer, with a specific problem, at a specific price. Then it walks you through the seven criteria one at a time. It challenges every optimistic score unless evidence backs it. You end up with a scorecard file and a directional verdict. If the number is bad, you also get re-scored niche scenarios that might save the idea. Or you get a clear reason to move on. Say where you are working. Name a directory, or point to existing files, in the invocation. This keeps the skill''s files together in one place. If you do not say, the skill asks before it creates anything. From the source The main article behind this skill is Excuse me, is there a problem?. In it, Jason describes the full path from "The Problem" to "Viable Business Model": the seven scoring criteria, the Fermi-estimation rubric, the multiply-and-normalize scoring method, and what to do with a negative answer. Each supporting article explains one criterion, or explains the scoring method itself: Fermi ROI: Fixing the ROI rubric — Explains why every score is a power of ten. Explains why you multiply the scores when every factor is required. Explains why you should debate only the scores where people disagree by a factor of ten. Product Purgatory: When they love it but still don''t buy — The full story behind the Liquid criterion. Covers the Magic Wand Test, the top-three-priorities rule, and how to narrow your target with "…and needs it right now." Willingness-to-pay: Creating permanent competitive advantage for the right reasons — Explains Love, Utility, and Coercion: the mechanisms behind the Eager scores, and the lock-in part of the Enduring score. The three kinds of leverage that anchor effective strategies — Explains what real competitive differentiation is. This grounds the Eager (comparative) score. Worse, but unique — Explains that differentiation means you pick your own game. It does not mean you win the feature-comparison matrix. Pricing determines your business model — Explains what each order-of-magnitude change in price means for the business. This grounds the Lucrative score and the customers-needed math behind the Plausible score. Selling to Carol — Explains why targeting a narrower niche after a negative score does not shrink your ambition. Bullseye targeting sells far beyond the bullseye. Failure to face the truth — The posture behind the whole exercise: optimism inflation is the default. The score only helps if you refuse to flinch at the answer. Chapters 2 and 3 of Hidden Multipliers: Carol Loves You for You and Speaking Carol Into Existence — hiddenmultipliers.com — Explains why narrowing the target market to improve the score is usually the right move. Focus wins. The bullseye sells far beyond the bullseye. Chapter 4 of Hidden Multipliers: A Rose by Any Other Name (section "The Golden Rule of Copywriting: Be Specific") — hiddenmultipliers.com — Explains the specificity standard. The skill holds every target-market description to this standard before it will score anything. Related skills Goal Questions Defines what your interviews must answer. asb-interview-goals Observations Extracts the unvarnished facts about your company. asb-carol-observations Rude Q&A Grills your plan until it cracks. asb-rude-qa Get new skills by emailSubscribe Previous Rude Q&A: The Constructive Devil''s Advocate Next Positioning: Reword your marketing until it''s worth more'

content: 'How to install a skill A skill is just a markdown file. You can get skills in several ways. One way is a one-line CLI install. This method updates later. Another way is to copy a single file by hand. Most workshops run several skills together. Some skills depend on other skills, like asb-rude-qa. So we recommend you install the whole set. Install with the skills CLI (recommended) One command installs every skill. It works with any coding agent you use, such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and dozens more: Terminal windownpx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills To install only one skill, add --skill: Terminal windownpx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills --skill asb-positioning The install points back to this repo. So you get fixes and improvements each time you update: Terminal windownpx skills update Or install as a Claude Code plugin This repo is also a Claude Code plugin marketplace. Use it from within Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add asmartbear/asb-skills/plugin install asb-skills@asb-skills This installs all the skills as one plugin. To get the latest versions, run: /plugin marketplace update asb-skills Or download everything as a ZIP You do not need any tools. Download a snapshot of every skill: Download all skills (ZIP) Unzip the file into your Claude Code skills folder. Then restart Claude Code, or run /context, to load the skills: Terminal windowunzip asb-skills.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/ Each skill goes into its own file: ~/.claude/skills/asb-/SKILL.md. Note: unlike the CLI methods, a ZIP file is a snapshot. To get updates, download the ZIP file again. Or copy a single file Every skill on this site is one SKILL.md file. You can copy just the file you want: Installing asb-skill-name npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills Copy command document.querySelectorAll(".copy-btn").forEach(t=>{t.addEventListener("click",async()=>{const o=t.dataset.copyB64;if(!o)return;const a=new TextDecoder().decode(Uint8Array.from(atob(o),e=>e.charCodeAt(0)));try{await navigator.clipboard.writeText(a);const e=t.dataset.defaultLabel??"Copy";t.textContent="Copied ✓",setTimeout(()=>t.textContent=e,1500)}catch{t.textContent="Copy failed"}})}); Installs every skill on this site into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and dozens of other agents — recommended, since the skills work together. (Append --skill asb-skill-name to install only this one.) Later, npx skills update picks up improvements. Or skip the tooling and grab the file itself: View source on GitHub → Raw file → Save into ~/.claude/skills/asb-skill-name/SKILL.md, then restart Claude Code (or run /context) to pick up the new skill. ↓ Or download all skills as one ZIP — the easiest way to get this skill together with everything it works alongside. What is a Claude Code skill? A skill is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter. The frontmatter tells Claude when and how to use a piece of knowledge or a workflow. Claude loads a skill automatically when its description matches your request. For more information, read the official Claude Code skills docs. This format is also an open standard, called Agent Skills. This is why these skills also work in other coding agents. Why “asb-”? Every skill on this site starts with asb- (for A Smart Bear). This prefix keeps the skill names separate from your own local skill names. It also shows clearly, in any Claude session, which skills came from this site. Get new skills by emailSubscribe Previous Home Next Overview'