Claude Opus 5.5 for Product Managers: 39 Claude Skills to Run the Whole Product Cycle

What these skills are

The product cycle, as installable Claude skills.

This is Claude for product managers, running the whole cycle: the project set up so answers stop being generic, the question framed, the evidence gathered, the call made and defended, the work specced and shipped, and the week run.

The skills follow the cycle in seven phases, and each phase hands a named artifact to the next. Set up and connect hands over the project, the context file and live connectors. Frame hands over the problem question, the issue tree and the discovery plan. Discover hands over the evidence: themes, competitors, size, segments, usage. Decide hands over the recommendation. Build and ship hands over the roadmap, spec, prototype and KPIs. Communicate hands over the decision record. Run the week feeds what changed back into the context file.

The red line: Claude reads your tools, drafts the work and runs the routines. You talk to the customers, make every call, and press send.

Each skill teaches one named, checkable method: the inputs it needs, where it breaks, a fixed output template, a finish line and the next skill to run. No made-up numbers, quotes, customers or sources — a missing figure is marked unknown, confirmed figures are kept apart from assumptions, and every figure carries its source and date. Legal, regulatory and individual-employee questions go to a qualified adviser rather than being answered.

The pack uses what Claude can actually do for a product manager: specs written in Claude Docs, decks in Claude Slides, prototypes in Claude Design, Claude Code set up read-only so you can see how a feature really behaves, connectors that read your stack with the write actions kept off, and scheduled routines that draft the Friday work and never send it.

Mechanically, each skill is one folder with a SKILL.md file. The 39 are grouped into the seven phases, and each one gives full value on its own: run one, run a phase, or work the cycle through in the order it arrives.

Download all 39 skills. One zip: ready-to-install skill zips, readable SKILL.md files, and the sources behind every method. Free, no signup. The same 39 skills are open on GitHub: polar-bear-org/claude-skills.

The 39 skills you get

The set follows the product cycle, in seven phases: setting Claude up and connecting it, framing the question, discovering the evidence, deciding, building and shipping, communicating the call, and running the week.

1 · Set up and connect

1. Set Up the Product Project

Use when: Every chat starts with “so, our product is...” and answers stay generic

Output: Project instructions, knowledge list (load, link, keep out), five test prompts

2. Write the Product Context File

Use when: Claude writes for users you do not have, or remembers last quarter's priorities

Output: Dated context file with owners, memory rules, Topics audit

3. Turn a Repeat Task Into a Skill

Use when: You paste the same long prompt every Friday and it still drifts

Output: Skill draft, three test inputs from past work, before and after check

4. Plan Your Connectors

Use when: You want Claude to read your tools but not change them by surprise

Output: Stack map, read and write actions, writes kept off, setup order, first-run tests

5. Schedule a Routine Safely

Use when: You want the Friday work to run without you, and never post as you

Output: Scheduled task spec, connectors kept and removed, draft-only rule, first-run review

2 · Frame

6. Frame the Problem

Use when: A leader asks to “fix retention” and nobody knows what decision is due

Output: One testable question, the decision it feeds, owner, scope, criteria, deadline

7. Read the Product's Health

Use when: You are new to the product or about to plan

Output: Sourced, dated read of usage, quality, revenue signals and feedback, unknowns

8. Map the Stakeholders

Use when: Last week's sign-off was reopened by someone you never mapped

Output: Who decides, influences and can block, by role, and how to involve each

9. Build the Issue Tree

Use when: The question is big and the team argues about where to start

Output: Sub-questions that do not overlap and cover the question, data per branch

10. Draft the Hypotheses

Use when: Discovery has no shape and data piles up without a point

Output: Answer-first guess per branch, what would kill it, test, ranked list

11. Plan the Discovery

Use when: You have two weeks between sprints to learn enough to decide

Output: Time-boxed workplan, method and owner per hypothesis, decision checkpoint

3 · Discover

12. Synthesise Customer Calls

Use when: Twelve recorded calls sit in the notes tool and the spec is due

Output: Themes with linked quotes, contradictions, counts by segment, next questions

13. Map the Competitors

Use when: You hear about a competitor launch from sales, a week late

Output: Sourced, dated landscape table, where you differ, optional weekly watch

14. Size the Market

Use when: Leadership asks “how big is this?” and any number becomes the plan

Output: Top-down and bottom-up ranges, sourced assumptions, the gap explained

15. Segment Customers by Needs

Use when: “Our users” means four groups and the roadmap serves none well

Output: Segments by job and circumstance, size signal, current alternative, needs

16. Analyse the Usage Data

Use when: You wait three days to learn whether a feature is used

Output: Answer with query, definitions, cleaning log, charts, caveats

17. Run a Deep Research Brief

Use when: You need the market read by Thursday, with claims you can trace

Output: Research brief, cited report, confidence per finding, still-unknown list

4 · Decide

18. Generate Distinct Options

Use when: The only options are the CEO's idea and a smaller version of it

Output: Three to five options that differ in kind, do nothing included, bets and costs

19. Model the Scenarios

Use when: One forecast line is in the plan and everyone knows it is wrong

Output: Base, upside and downside per option, drivers, early signals

20. Score the Options

Use when: The decision meeting turns into who argues loudest

Output: Weighted criteria agreed first, evidence per score, weight sensitivity

21. Build the Business Case

Use when: Finance asks for the return and the numbers are visible guesses

Output: One-page case, confirmed figures apart from assumptions, ranges

22. Red-Team the Plan

Use when: The plan looks finished and nobody has argued with it yet

Output: Case against, pre-mortem story, counter-evidence, what to change now

23. Write the Recommendation

Use when: You have the analysis and need a call, not another discussion

Output: Recommendation first, reasons, rejected options, risks, the ask, owner

5 · Build and ship

24. Sequence the Roadmap

Use when: The recommendation is approved and everything wants to be “now”

Output: Now, next, later board, cost of delay order, not-on-the-roadmap list, exec cut

25. Write the Spec in Claude Docs

Use when: The spec lives in five chats and engineers read none of them

Output: Answer-first spec, testable requirements, open questions with owners

26. Prototype in Claude Design

Use when: Leadership saw a flashy demo and expects yours by Friday

Output: Clickable prototype, layout options, edge states, test brief

27. Set Up Claude Code as a PM

Use when: You need to know how a feature really behaves before you promise

Output: Product folder, read-only setup, feature explainer with file references

28. Define the KPIs

Use when: The feature ships next month and nobody has defined success

Output: Outcome metric, leading and lagging indicators, baseline, target, guardrails

29. Read the Experiment Result

Use when: The test ended and everyone reads the dashboard differently

Output: Readout with interval, guardrails, sample ratio check, ship, iterate or stop

6 · Communicate

30. Write the Executive Summary

Use when: Your work is strong and invisible past the first screen

Output: One page, point first, three supported points, the ask, the risk

31. Write the Leadership Memo

Use when: A big call needs more than bullets and basics keep being relitigated

Output: Narrative pre-read for one decision meeting, read in silence first

32. Build the Deck in Claude Slides

Use when: The review is tomorrow and the doc is already done

Output: Action-title storyline, deck, speaker notes, numbers matched to the doc

33. Prepare the Hard Questions

Use when: The review is in two days and the pet feature will come up

Output: Questions by role, short answers with evidence, numbers to have ready

34. Run the Decision Meeting

Use when: Meetings end with “let's take this offline” and nothing is decided

Output: One-decision agenda, DACI roles, pre-read, decision record after

7 · Run the week

35. Build the Morning Brief

Use when: The first hour goes on opening twelve tabs

Output: Daily brief of what needs you, a “since date” mode after time off

36. Triage This Week's Feedback

Use when: Feedback sits in four tools until a customer escalates

Output: Tagged feedback log, new against known themes, reply drafts

37. Prepare the Weekly Update

Use when: Two hours every Friday on an update people skim in seconds

Output: Friday draft, headline, at risk, asks, one cut per audience

38. Prep for the Meeting

Use when: Back-to-back meetings and you walk into the next one cold

Output: One-page brief, decision wanted, what each role cares about, open actions

39. Wrap the Week

Use when: The week ends and Monday starts from zero again

Output: Done against planned, decisions to log, open loops, context file edits

Where to start, and how the skills chain

Start with the setup phase, even when the question is urgent: a product project, a dated context file and connectors that read but cannot write are what stop every later answer from being about a generic product. After that there is no compulsory sequence. Bring the decision that is due this week and open the phase that matches it.

They chain. pmc-frame-the-problem sets the one testable question, pmc-build-issue-tree breaks it into branches that do not overlap, and pmc-draft-hypotheses turns each branch into a guess worth testing, which pmc-plan-the-discovery time-boxes. The discovery skills — pmc-synthesise-customer-calls, pmc-map-the-competitors, pmc-size-the-market, pmc-segment-by-needs and pmc-analyse-usage-data — feed pmc-generate-options, which pmc-score-the-options compares on weights agreed before any scoring and pmc-red-team-the-plan argues with. pmc-write-the-recommendation makes the call. pmc-sequence-the-roadmap, pmc-write-spec-in-claude-docs, pmc-prototype-in-claude-design and pmc-define-the-kpis build it; pmc-write-executive-summary, pmc-build-deck-in-claude-slides and pmc-run-decision-meeting carry it into the room. At the end of the week, pmc-wrap-the-week writes what changed back into the context file pmc-write-product-context created.

The sources behind each method are in resources/evidence-and-sources.md, inside the pack.

Setup guide

1. Download the pack. One zip: an install folder with 39 ready-to-upload skill zips, a skills folder with the same 39 skills as readable SKILL.md files, and resources/evidence-and-sources.md, which names the source behind every method and where it stops.
2. Install your skills. In Claude Code, add the marketplace and install opus-for-product-managers-pack, and all 39 load at once. In Claude, turn on code execution in Settings, Capabilities, then go to Customize, Skills and upload one zip per skill from the install folder. Prefer working from files? Add the SKILL.md files to your Project knowledge instead; it works, just less cleanly.
3. Run the setup phase first. Before the first analysis, run pmc-set-up-product-project and pmc-write-product-context, then pmc-plan-connectors to settle what Claude may read and which write actions stay off. Ten minutes there is what stops the other thirty-six skills from answering about a generic product. Then bring the decision that is actually due this week.

Where to start

The quality bar

Every skill in the pack holds the same standard, the one we hold when we run our own product:

• Answer first, method named: the answer is on the first line, and every skill names the method it applies, so you can check that it was applied
• No invented facts: a missing figure is marked unknown, confirmed figures are kept apart from assumptions, and every figure carries its source and date
• Evidence you can open: every customer quote links to the call or ticket it came from, and each draft ends with a check — numbers traced, quotes linked, sources opened, padding cut
• Work is scored, people are not: options are scored on criteria agreed before any scoring, and customer personal data never goes into memory, the context file or a deck
• Read only, draft only: connectors stay read-only unless you turn one write on for one task, and scheduled routines draft and never send
• A named role decides: the decision and the send stay with a named role, and legal or regulatory questions go to a qualified adviser instead of being answered
• The red line: Claude reads your tools, drafts the work and runs the routines — you talk to the customers, make every call, and press send

Who made this

Polar Bear is a people ops consultancy for human-size teams (20 to 200 people). Built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. This pack is the free, self-serve version of how we work.

The pack carries one product manager's work. When you want your whole team working this way, AI carrying the overhead so people do the part only people can do, across product, delivery and everyday operations, that's what we build with clients.

Meet Pauline. Running the product cycle in chats that never remember the product? Bring the decision that is due and we will set the project up. Book a 30-minute call · Pauline on LinkedIn

Install in Claude Code

Two lines, and every skill in the pack loads at once.

/plugin marketplace add polar-bear-org/claude-skills
/plugin install opus-for-product-managers-pack@polar-bear-skills

Using Claude on the web instead? Download the zip and upload each skill from its install folder under Customize → Skills.