CEO Review (Strategic Scope Calibration)

Before committing weeks of engineering effort to an implementation plan, the founder must ask: Are we building the right scope?

Are we thinking too small and missing the breakthrough product experience? Or are we overcomplicating an MVP that should ship by Friday?

ceo-review evaluates an implementation plan or feature proposal across 4 distinct strategic postures.

When to Invoke

• You have an engineering implementation plan or RFC ready to build.
• You feel unsure whether the scope is too broad or too conservative.
• You want to pressure-test the user experience before writing code.

The 4 Scope Modes

When invoking /ceo-review [mode], select one of the following postures:

1. SCOPE_EXPANSION (The 10-Star Product)

Inspired by Brian Chesky's Airbnb product design framework.

• Question: "What would make a customer tell 10 friends about this?"
• Ignores conventional constraints for a moment to imagine the magical version:
  • A 5-star experience: It works and doesn't crash.
  • A 7-star experience: It anticipates what the user needs before they click.
  • A 10-star experience: The problem is solved automatically with zero manual effort.
• Identifies which pieces of the 10-star vision can be built today with AI agent leverage.

2. SELECTIVE_EXPANSION (Hold the Core, Elevate the Key Detail)

• Holds 90% of the scope fixed to ensure speed.
• Cherry-picks the single high-leverage delight factor that turns a boring utility into a beloved product (e.g. instant keyboard shortcut, zero-latency optimistic update, beautiful CLI progress display).

3. HOLD_SCOPE (Maximum Execution Rigor)

• Freezes the boundaries.
• No new features, no scope creep.
• Focuses 100% on bulletproof edge cases, rock-solid tests, error boundaries, and unslop.

4. SCOPE_REDUCTION (The Friday Ship)

• Question: "What can we cut so this ships by tomorrow afternoon?"
• Identifies unnecessary tables, secondary settings, complex configuration options, and premature generalizations.
• Strips the plan to its irreducible core: 1 input, 1 action, 1 output.

The Review Deliverable

# 🏛️ CEO Strategic Review: [Project / Feature Name]
**Selected Posture**: [SCOPE_EXPANSION | SELECTIVE_EXPANSION | HOLD_SCOPE | SCOPE_REDUCTION]

### 🎯 Strategic Assessment
[2-3 sentences diagnosing whether the current plan is over-engineered or under-ambitious]

### ✂️ Scope Adjustments
- **Cut**: [Feature / complexity to remove immediately]
- **Keep**: [Core non-negotiables]
- **Add / Elevate**: [The single detail that makes it remarkable]

### ⚖️ Tradeoff Matrix
| Dimension | Current Plan | Recommended Plan | Business Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to Ship | 2 Weeks | 3 Days | 4x faster feedback loop |
| Complexity | 4 Models, 6 Tables | 1 File, 1 SQLite Table | Zero migration overhead |
| User Delight | 6/10 (Functional) | 9/10 (Magical) | High word-of-mouth potential |

### 🚀 Next Action
Hand the calibrated plan to `/engineer-mode` for flawless engineering execution.