What problem does it solve? Product teams often mistake what they sell for what customers actually want, missing the real alternatives that can obviate their product and the outcomes they may honestly promise. This Skill maps the ladder of customer needs — from the level your product satisfies up to the customer's true goals — so positioning, promises, and competitive analysis rest on a verified map rather than assumptions. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Anchored stack building: Anchors the level your product satisfies in the customer's own words, then walks down (steps your product makes obsolete) and up (what the customer really wants), one level per exchange. - Crystallization gate: Every level must pass four tests — customer's own wording, a true means-to-end link, named real-world occupants, and distinctness from neighbors — before being recorded. - Positioning roles per level: Marks each level's role (what you do, the promise, aspiration, counter-positioning, or advancement) and records everything in NEEDS-STACK.md with stable level numbers. - Use Case: A SaaS founder selling managed hosting discovers their customer's real goal is launching a content site to win a book deal, revealing that website builders — not other hosts — are the true alternatives, and that the honest promise is one level up, not infrastructure specs. ## Quick Start Ask the assistant to build our needs stack for our product and ideal customer, starting from what our product does.
