# Formulate Success Criteria

> >-

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-jek-bao-choo-productivity-plugins-formulate-success-criteria`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [jek-bao-choo](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/jek-bao-choo)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Upstream author:** [jek-bao-choo](https://github.com/jek-bao-choo)
- **Source:** https://github.com/jek-bao-choo/productivity-plugins/tree/main/sales-process/skills/formulate-success-criteria

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-jek-bao-choo-productivity-plugins-formulate-success-criteria
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Formulate Success Criteria

Turn customer meeting notes and/or call transcripts into a filled copy of the
success criteria workbook. The output is a `.xlsx` file based on the template in
`references/success-criteria-template.xlsx` with one row per success criterion,
populating four columns: **Success Criteria**, **Current Challenge**,
**Future State**, and **Product(s) Tested**. The **Validated Y / N** and
**In-app Recording** columns are left blank for the SE to fill in later.

## The #1 rule: ground challenges, formulate outcomes

- **Current Challenge must come from the notes/transcript.** Do not invent a pain
  the customer never expressed. If it is not in the input, it is not a challenge —
  ask about it (see Step 3) or leave it out.
- **Success Criteria and Future State may be formulated.** Once a challenge is
  grounded in the input, you may write a polished, outcome-oriented success
  criterion and a Datadog-oriented future state, even if the customer did not
  phrase it that way. This is the value of the skill.
- **Never invent products the customer's context does not support.** Only map to
  Datadog products that plausibly address a stated challenge.
- **Follow the column style guide below**, not fabricated content. Mirror the
  voice of each column; never invent details the customer's input does not support.

## Inputs

The user provides one or more of:
- **Meeting notes** (pasted text, a file, bullet points from a discovery call)
- **Call transcript** (raw or cleaned)
- Both

There may also be an account/customer name. If none can be identified, use
`unnamed` and proceed (do not block on it).

## Workflow

### Step 1: Ingest the input

Acknowledge what you received (notes, transcript, or both) and read all of it.
Extract the customer/account name for the output filename if present.

### Step 2: Extract current challenges (grounded)

Read through the input and pull out the customer's actual pains, gaps, and
frustrations. Typical signals: tool sprawl / consolidation, reactive detection
("customers report issues first"), slow/manual triage, alert fatigue, no
centralized logging, no end-to-end visibility, high MTTD/MTTR, cost/FinOps
pressure, security/compliance gaps, SLO/reporting needs.

Group related pains into distinct challenges — each challenge becomes one row.

### Step 3: Clarify when unclear (ask, do not guess)

Before formulating, decide whether the input is clear enough. **Ask the user
targeted clarifying questions** (use the AskQuestion tool when available) if any
of these are true:

- The challenges are vague or high-level with no concrete detail.
- It is unclear which Datadog products/solution areas are in scope.
- A stated pain could map to several very different success criteria.
- The input is too thin to formulate meaningful, testable criteria.

Keep it to a few focused questions at a time. Wait for answers before continuing.
If the input is already clear and specific, skip straight to Step 4.

### Step 4: Formulate each row

For each grounded challenge, formulate:

1. **Success Criteria** — outcome-oriented and testable, from the customer's
   desired-outcome perspective. Use a short headline (e.g. `Decrease MTTD/MTTR`,
   `Tool Consolidation`) or a numbered/bulleted list of concrete capabilities to
   validate, matching the depth of the input.
2. **Current Challenge** — the grounded pain from Step 2, in the customer's
   context. Preserve their specifics (tool names, environments, numbers).
3. **Future State** — how Datadog resolves it. Prefix with `[DD]` and name the
   specific Datadog products/capabilities that deliver the outcome. Keep it
   concise and benefit-led (single pane of glass, reduced MTTR, lower TCO,
   proactive detection).
4. **Product(s) Tested** — the Datadog products/pillars in scope for that row
   (e.g. Infrastructure Monitoring, APM, Log Management, RUM, DBM, NPM, CCM, CSM,
   Monitors/SLO/Event Management).

Use the column style guide below for phrasing patterns and apply the voice only
where the customer's input supports it.

### Step 5: Preview for approval

Present the proposed rows as a **Markdown table** (Success Criteria | Current
Challenge | Future State | Product(s) Tested) so the user can review and edit.
Ask whether to adjust anything before generating the workbook. Incorporate edits
and re-preview if requested.

### Step 6: Generate the filled workbook

On approval, write the rows to a JSON file and run the fill script:

```bash
python3 scripts/fill_success_criteria.py \
  --rows /tmp/success-criteria-rows.json \
  --output success-criteria//success-criteria--.xlsx
```

Where the rows JSON is a list of objects:

```json
[
  {
    "success_criteria": "Decrease MTTD/MTTR",
    "current_challenge": "Issues are reported by customers first; triage is slow and manual.",
    "future_state": "[DD] Datadog correlates APM traces, logs, infra metrics, and RUM in one place to detect issues proactively and cut MTTD/MTTR.",
    "products": "Infrastructure Monitoring, APM, Log Management, DBM, NPM, Incident Management"
  }
]
```

The script is stdlib-only (no installs), copies the branded template, appends one
row per entry with the template's styling preserved, and leaves Validated Y/N and
In-app Recording blank. Report the output path and row count to the user.

## Column style guide (from the validated examples)

| Column | Voice |
|---|---|
| Success Criteria | Outcome-oriented; short headline or bulleted/numbered testable capabilities |
| Current Challenge | Customer's pain in their own context; grounded in the notes; may use Before/After structure |
| Future State | `[DD]`-prefixed, benefit-led, names the specific Datadog products that deliver the outcome |
| Product(s) Tested | Datadog products/pillars in scope for that row |

## Files

- `references/success-criteria-template.xlsx` — blank branded template (base for output)
- `scripts/fill_success_criteria.py` — fills the template from a rows JSON file

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [jek-bao-choo](https://github.com/jek-bao-choo)
- **Source:** [jek-bao-choo/productivity-plugins](https://github.com/jek-bao-choo/productivity-plugins)
- **License:** Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-jek-bao-choo-productivity-plugins-formulate-success-criteria
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/jek-bao-choo
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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