working-backwards skillA
working-backwards is agent-read markdown (skill) from teambrilliant/dev-skills: Write an Amazon-style PR-FAQ (mock press release + FAQ) to pressure-test a product idea customer-first and kill weak ideas on paper. Use when someone says "write a PR-FAQ", "PRFAQ", "press release", "working backwards", "start from the customer", "draft the launch announcement", "is this idea clear enough to build", or has a fuzzy idea and wants clarity on what and why. NOT for testing risky assumptions with experiments (product-discovery) or build plans (shaping-work / write-plan)..
Indexed from public GitHub and served as immutable, content-addressed versions. Install it pinned to an exact SHA-256 with the mdr CLI, and every file is verified before it reaches your agent: the main file against the SHA-256 recorded here, the others against the git hashes of its source commit. The deterministic audit below grades the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Working Backwards Start from the customer and the desired end-state, write it down, and iterate on the *document* until the thinking is clear — long before any engineering. The artifact is a **PR-FAQ**: a one-page mock press release + an FAQ of the hard questions. Most PR-FAQs are never built — **killing a weak idea cheaply on paper is the point, not a failure.** Why writing: prose forces clarity that slides and good intentions can't. If you can't write a compelling, honest press release for it, you don't understand it yet — and neither will the customer. References: - `references/pr-faq-template.md` — the press-release + FAQ structure, section by section. - `references/six-page-narrative.md` — the prose-memo / silent-read discipline (for proposals & reviews beyond a launch). - `references/input-metrics.md` — input-vs-output metrics, DMAIC, the WBR (how you'd *measure* it once live). ## When to use this vs. its neighbors - **product-thinker** decided *should we?* → use Working Backwards to force the *customer end-state* into focus. - Idea is fuzzy / stakeholders disagree on what it even is → write the PR-FAQ; the draft surfaces the disagreement. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add teambrilliant/dev-skills/working-backwards@git:20260927.b9558d0mdr add teambrilliant/dev-skills/working-backwards@sha256:3b0e299a6decf856Pin to a label to follow the author's releases, or to a sha256 for exact bytes. Either way the resolved hash is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install fetches those bytes again and checks them, so it installs them exactly or fails.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_ispk2zs3miw4etme)
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Versions
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260927.b9558d0 latest | 2026-09-27 | b9558d0 | 4,153 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260807.eadd958 | 2026-08-07 | eadd958 | 4,703 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260707.e955c58 | 2026-07-07 | e955c58 | 4,421 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260707.6dcc688 | 2026-07-07 | 6dcc688 | 4,413 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260609.b690cd7 | 2026-06-09 | b690cd7 | 4,263 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (4153 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
teambrilliant/dev-skills · 6 stars · license none · pushed 2026-09-27 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_ispk2zs3miw4etme GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=teambrilliant/dev-skills/working-backwards GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/3b0e299a6decf856a4367b15877e928570a103afee77b3cf1da4f6d09e21fadb
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