CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo
SkillPublic

epic-breakdown-advisor

Break down epics into user stories with Humanizing Work split patterns. Use when a backlog item is too large to estimate, sequence, or deliver safely.

Quality

82%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide
SecuritybySnyk

Low

Low-risk findings worth noting

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

76%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The content is highly actionable with an explicit, well-validated workflow and copy-paste templates. Its weakness is conciseness (duplicated structure and length) and progressive disclosure (everything is inlined with no bundle files to offload detail).

Suggestions

De-duplicate the 9-pattern coverage that appears both in 'Key Concepts' and again in 'Application'; keep one detailed version and reference it, to trim length and token cost.

Move the per-pattern worked examples and the full output template into reference files (e.g., references/pattern-examples.md, references/output-template.md) to improve progressive disclosure and reduce the inline footprint.

Prune explanatory restatements like 'Why This Works' and 'Why this works' when the preceding example already makes the point, to tighten conciseness.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is mostly efficient and assumes PM domain competence, but it is long and repeats the pattern structure in both 'Key Concepts' and the detailed 'Application' walkthroughs, with padded restatements; could be tightened without losing value.

3 / 5

Actionability

Concrete, executable guidance throughout: numbered INVEST questions with option sets, per-pattern agent prompts, worked right/wrong split examples for all 9 patterns, and a copy-paste ready markdown output template covering the common cases.

5 / 5

Workflow Clarity

A clearly sequenced three-step process (validate -> apply patterns -> evaluate) with explicit validation checkpoints (INVEST pass/fail gating, the critical 'STOP if not Valuable' rule) and a feedback loop (re-split large stories, restart at Pattern 1).

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

No bundle files exist, so the entire methodology is inlined in one ~660-line file; while section structure is reasonable, the bulk could be split out (e.g., the 9-pattern detail and examples into separate references) rather than monolithic, so level 3.

3 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Description

83%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

The description is clear, specific, and answers both what and when with a concrete Use-when trigger. It could enumerate more discrete actions and add a few synonyms for stronger trigger coverage.

Suggestions

Add 1-2 more concrete actions (e.g., 'evaluate splits, identify low-value work to eliminate') to lift specificity toward comprehensive coverage.

Include additional natural trigger phrases a PM might say (e.g., 'too big for a sprint', 'before sprint planning') to improve trigger-term coverage.

Tighten distinctiveness by referencing the methodology source directly in the description so it is unambiguously separated from sibling story-writing skills.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

"Break down epics into user stories with Humanizing Work split patterns" names a concrete domain and a specific action (splitting via 9 named patterns), with only minor coverage gaps; not level 5 because it does not enumerate multiple discrete actions like the comprehensive anchor.

4 / 5

Completeness

It explicitly answers both what ("Break down epics into user stories with Humanizing Work split patterns") and when ("Use when a backlog item is too large to estimate, sequence, or deliver safely") with a concrete trigger phrase, matching the top anchor.

5 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural terms a PM would say are present ("epics", "user stories", "backlog item too large to estimate, sequence, or deliver"), though it lacks some common synonyms a user might say; good coverage but a few natural phrases missing, so level 4.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The epic/story-splitting niche is fairly distinct with specific triggers, but it risks minor overlap with sibling artifact skills (user-story-splitting, user-story); mostly distinct, so level 4 rather than 5.

4 / 5

Total

17

/

20

Passed

Validation

81%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 13 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (680 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

relative_links

Relative link issues: 1 suspicious

Warning

Total

13

/

16

Passed

Repository

deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills

Path

skills/epic-breakdown-advisor/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.