A strategic advisor that uses YC-style first principles and rigorous interrogation to validate product ideas and generate comprehensive design documents.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install office-hours
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install office-hours using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is YC Office Hours: Product Thinking Assistant?
The YC Office Hours skill transforms your AI agent into a seasoned product partner. Inspired by Y Combinator's first-principles methodology, this tool focuses exclusively on the critical phase before a single line of code is written. It forces builders to confront the hard truths about demand, user behavior, and competitive reality.
By utilizing specialized modes like Startup Mode and Builder Mode, it guides you through a multi-phase discovery process. Instead of rushing to implementation, it helps you identify the narrowest possible entry point for your product, ensuring you build something people actually want while avoiding the trap of high-fidelity blueprints for unverified problems.
YC Office Hours: Product Thinking Assistant Use Cases
- Brainstorming new product features or standalone startup ideas.
- Validating product-market fit through evidence-based interrogation.
- Refining product planning and requirement analysis for internal projects.
- Preparing for hackathons or rapid prototyping by finding the 'cool' factor.
- Clarifying complex workflows and identifying core user pain points.
How YC Office Hours: Product Thinking Assistant Works
- Context Acquisition: The skill identifies your project type (Startup, Internal, Hackathon, etc.) to trigger the appropriate diagnostic mode.
- Deep Interrogation: It conducts a one-question-at-a-time interview focusing on evidence of demand, current alternatives, and specific user personas.
- Assumption Challenge: Before suggesting solutions, it presents a list of core assumptions for you to confirm or refute.
- Solution Generation: It produces 2-3 distinct implementation paths, including a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and an Ideal Architecture.
- Documentation: The final output is a structured Markdown design document—never code—ready for your development phase.
YC Office Hours: Product Thinking Assistant Setup
To integrate this capability into your workflow, ensure your environment is configured for Openclaw Skills. You can reference the skill in your configuration:
# Example of referencing the skill in your local environment
openclaw-cli add office-hours
YC Office Hours: Product Thinking Assistant Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill organizes its output into structured Markdown design documents based on the selected mode. Below is the taxonomy for a Startup Mode document:
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| Problem Statement | The core pain point being addressed. |
| Demand Evidence | Concrete proof that users need the solution. |
| Current Alternatives | How users currently solve the problem (e.g., Excel, WeChat). |
| Target Users | Highly specific personas and their motivations. |
| Implementation Paths | Comparison of Path A (MVP), Path B (Ideal), and Path C (Creative). |
| Success Criteria | Specific metrics or behaviors that define success. |
YC Office Hours: Product Thinking Assistant Advanced Features
- Six-Question Drill Down: A rigorous method to separate 'interest' from genuine 'need'.
- Precondition Challenge: An automated phase that forces users to validate their underlying hypotheses before proceeding.
- Reflective Observation: At the end of each session, the skill provides feedback on the user's thinking patterns, quoting them directly to highlight cognitive biases or strengths.
- Cross-Mode Adaptation: Switches logic between 'Startup' (market-driven) and 'Builder' (innovation-driven) workflows seamlessly.
SKILL.md
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