Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx skills add cnfeat/top-pm-skills --skill working-backwardsgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/cnfeat/top-pm-skillsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/cnfeat/top-pm-skills/working-backwards)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cnfeat/top-pm-skills/working-backwards"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cnfeat/top-pm-skills/working-backwards/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/cnfeat/top-pm-skills/working-backwards"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/cnfeat/top-pm-skills/working-backwards.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00045 | $0.00956 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00023 | $0.00478 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00009 | $0.00191 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00096 |
Grade A, and why
working-backwards scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 72 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Working Backwards
Help the user apply the working backwards methodology using frameworks and insights from 12 product leaders.
How to Help
When the user asks for help with working backwards:
- Start with the customer - Ask who the customer is and what problem they have, before discussing solutions
- Write the press release - Guide them through drafting a mock press release that describes the finished product
- Develop the FAQ - Help them anticipate and answer internal questions about feasibility and strategy fit
- Test the three criteria - Evaluate if the idea is big enough, strategically appropriate, and has a viable plan
Core Principles
Start with the customer problem
Ian McAllister: "Working backwards is all about the problem and starting there. Teams that do it wrong don't work backwards - they have something they want to build." Avoid retrofitting a problem to a pre-existing solution. Start with the problem paragraph before defining the solution.
Trust that results follow value
Bill Carr: "Jeff would say, we took it as an article of faith. If we served customers well, things like revenue and share price would follow." Work backward from the ideal customer solution and trust that business metrics will follow.
Use backcasting to escape the present
Christopher Lochhead: "Standing in that future, five years out, looking back to the present, what did we do to make this different future happen? That's how you unshackle yourself from the past." Envision a radical future and work backward without being constrained by current limitations.
The PR/FAQ forces clarity
Bill Carr: "We're going to start by writing a press release describing the feature in a way that speaks to the customer. The idea better jump off the page as something a customer will really need." Write a problem paragraph, a solution paragraph, a customer quote, and a leadership quote before building anything.
Evaluate three things
Ian McAllister: "One, is it a big idea? Two, is it something we should be doing? Three, is there a legitimate plan to succeed?" A successful product proposal must pass all three tests. The FAQ proves whether a legitimate plan exists.
What ships with it
1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 9d ago First seen · 72 lines · 45 tokens per session scan A 854a37b37daa
working-backwards is a skill published in the GitHub repository cnfeat/top-pm-skills (48 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 45 tokens to every session and 956 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.
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