Hire an AI product and team priority planner

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• The product line cut to the few that pay, with the numbers behind each cut
• Every programme reviewed as keep or cut
• A give-up list: what you will no longer do, said plainly
• A disagree-and-commit note for the team

How it does the job well

• Start from the user problem and the evidence for it, then the solution.
• Write decisions down with the reason and the options you rejected.
• Keep scope small enough to ship and learn. Name what is out of scope.
• Define how success will be measured before building.

Mistakes it avoids

• Treating opinions or one loud request as proven demand.
• Specs that skip edge cases, error states or dependencies.
• Roadmaps with dates but no owners or confidence levels.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: You have thirty products and five of them make most of the money.

• Step 1: The cut line. Each product marked keep or cut, with what it earns, the attention it takes and the reason.
• Step 2: Programmes. Each programme or recurring effort marked keep or cut, with its result and the reason.
• Step 3: Give-up list. What you will no longer do, the customers and revenue you give up, and what you give them up for.
• Step 4: Commit note. The decision, who disagreed and why, what everyone commits to, and what each team does on Monday.
• Hand-back summary. Each step's file, any step not run, and every MISSING line in one list.

How the work is checked

• Each step passed its own checks, or the run stopped at the step that failed and says why.
• The steps ran in order. Step 2 used step 1's plan, step 3 used step 1's shortlist and plan, and step 4 used step 3's give-up list.
• Nothing was invented to fill a gap. Every gap is a MISSING: line.
• Nothing was sent, published or paid for without a clear yes.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way Jeff Bezos and Al Ries would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Cut the line. Ranks products by what they earn and the attention they take, and cuts to the few that pay, in the manner of Jobs's 1997 cull.
• Review every programme. Reviews each programme as keep or cut on its results, in the manner of Bezos and Buffett.
• Write the give-up list. Writes what you will no longer do, sell or chase, naming the customers and revenue given up, following Ries and Trout.
• Write the commit note. Writes a note that states the decision, records the disagreement and asks everyone to commit, in Bezos's manner.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id cut-your-product-line-to-the-few-that-pay-and-commit-the-team only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/cut-your-product-line-to-the-few-that-pay-and-commit-the-team/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• Your products and programmes with revenue, margin and the attention each takes
• What you believe the business is for
• Who on the team owns which product
• Your brand file (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• Margin after discounts and returns by product
• Team hours by product, even rough
• Customer words about which products they would miss

Tools and access

• Any good chat AI: Every step is a plan or a piece of writing.
• A spreadsheet: Holds revenue, margin and attention per product so the cut is a sort, not a fight.
• Any good chat AI: Sorting a product list and writing a grid are text tasks any strong chat AI does well.
• A spreadsheet: Gives it clean sales and margin by product to paste in.
• Any good chat AI: Comparing lines and writing verdicts is text and table work that any strong chat AI does with this skill.
• A spreadsheet: The skill reads tables best, and you can check its sums against yours.
• Any good chat AI: Sorting a list against one word and writing rules is text work any strong chat AI does with this skill.
• A spreadsheet: Revenue by item lines up best in a sheet before you paste it in.
• Any good chat AI: Writing fair summaries of views and a short team note is text work any strong chat AI does well with this skill.

Functions and deliverables

• Product and team priority planner: Review products and recurring work. Propose what to stop and draft a team decision note with the trade-offs and disagreement kept clear.
  • The product line cut to the few that pay, with the numbers behind each cut
  • Every programme reviewed as keep or cut
  • A give-up list: what you will no longer do, said plainly
  • A disagree-and-commit note for the team
• Product range reviewer: Cut your product line down to the items worth keeping. List what you sell with sales and margin. Get a keep list, a cut list and a simple grid.
  • Every product placed in one group with a reason
  • The two splits that matter, and a grid of the plan
  • A keep list with the star products marked
  • A cut list where each cut has a plain reason the team can repeat
• Program keep-or-cut reviewer: Paste results for each project you run. This program keep-or-cut review marks every one keep, cut or double down, judged on cash and customers.
  • A verdict for each line, either keep, cut or double down
  • Earnings and new cash needed side by side
  • The four tests for each line, and a note on what customers are doing
  • A lesson for every cut line, and a reason short enough to share
• Brand focus trade-off planner: Share your brand positioning and products. Get a focused list of what to cut, prioritize and protect.
  • Each item marked feeding, neutral or diluting
  • A cut list in order, with dates
  • One target, separate from the whole market
  • A rule against changing the position
  • Three questions to ask of every new idea
• Team decision and dissent note writer: Share a decision and each person’s reasons. Record doubts fairly, name the decision owner and draft actions, signals and a review date.
  • One fair line of dissent per person, including the boss if they disagree
  • Each dissent sorted as a difference of view or a clash of aims
  • A named decider, a time limit and what each side brings, if the aims clash
  • A commit line each person says back, with an action in it
  • A signal that would show the decision is wrong, and a review date
  • A short note for the team
• Product context file writer: Share product facts, audience and positioning. Get a reviewed context file that other marketing skills can reference.
  • A product marketing context file
  • A summary of what the file already holds
  • A change log of updates
  • Gaps you still need to fill
  Source: Corey Haines.
• Jeff Bezos: Review a product or stuck decision through Jeff Bezos’s recorded approach. Start with the customer, test what can be undone and write the reasoning.
  • Your problem worked on the way Jeff Bezos would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Jeff Bezos's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step
• Al Ries: Clarify what a brand should stand for using Al Ries’s recorded approach. Examine its category, focus, name and launch story.
  • Your problem worked on the way Al Ries would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Al Ries's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• You have thirty products and five of them make most of the money.
• Every meeting is about a product nobody would launch today.
• You tried to cut before and the team quietly kept the old products alive.

Limits to check before starting

• You sell one product. Use a pricing review, or talk it through with an adviser you trust.
• You want to decide which big choices to make first. Use the Decision priority planner.
• You only want to say what you will give up, with no product numbers. Use the Brand focus trade-off planner.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the handoff pack. It's a zip with HANDOFF.md plus one skill file for each step.
• Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
• Paste your products and programmes with revenue, margin and team hours, what the business is for, and who owns each one. It ranks and cuts.
• Read the cuts and the give-up list. Argue with any, then decide.
• Read the commit note with the people who disagreed, then send it.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/cut-your-product-line-to-the-few-that-pay-and-commit-the-team for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.