Prioritize Architecture-Aware
Purpose
Help product teams make prioritization decisions that account for architectural constraints, technical debt, and engineering feasibility — not just user value.
Skill type
Conceptual skill
Use this skill when
- Technical debt is blocking feature development speed
- Engineering is requesting investment in infrastructure but product can't evaluate it
- A prioritization decision requires architectural context
- A team is planning a major technical migration alongside feature work
Do not use this skill when
- The goal is pure feature prioritization without technical constraints (use build-roadmap-prioritization)
- The goal is a technical architecture decision (engineering-owned)
Required inputs
- Feature or initiative backlog (even rough)
- Technical debt or architecture constraints (as described by engineering)
- Business goals
Optional inputs
- Engineering capacity breakdown (feature vs. infrastructure)
- Current system limitations
- Migration or upgrade plans
Upstream context
Works best when:
- Roadmap priorities are defined
- Engineering has flagged technical constraints
Downstream handoff
Output can feed:
- plan-delivery-collaboration (architecture-aware plan feeds delivery)
- collaborate-with-engineering
Instructions
- Identify technical constraints and their product impact (velocity reduction, user impact, reliability risk).
- Translate technical debt into product terms: what does it cost in delivery speed or quality?
- Assess the trade-off: feature investment vs. technical investment.
- Recommend a ratio and sequencing for technical vs. feature work.
- Identify technical investments that unlock future feature velocity.
- Flag dependencies between technical and feature work.
Output
Provide:
- Technical constraint summary in product terms
- Trade-off assessment: features vs. technical investment
- Recommended investment ratio and rationale
- Sequencing recommendation
- Dependencies between technical and feature work
- Assumptions from engineering that need validation
Risks / caveats
- Product decisions that ignore technical debt create compounding delivery problems
- Always validate technical assessments with engineering — don't assume
- Technical investment without a product value narrative is hard to prioritize — frame both sides