Product & planning21 categories
Cut this to fit the deadline
The date is fixed, the scope is not, and someone has to decide today.
The deadline below will not move. Help me cut scope to meet it. 1. Sort every item into: **essential** (the thing does not work without it), **load-bearing** (something else breaks if it goes), **visible but optional**, **invisible to users**. 2. Propose the specific cut list. Commit to a version, do not offer three options and ask me to pick. 3. For each cut, state what a user will notice and what we will have to say about it. 4. Identify anything that is cheaper to do now than to retrofit later, and argue for keeping it even though it looks cuttable. 5. Name the one cut that everyone will resist, and make the case for it anyway. 6. Say plainly whether the remaining scope still fits, or whether the date is the thing that is wrong. Deadline and constraints: Scope list:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Prioritising and scope. Deciding what makes the cut and what the plan actually is: backlogs, MVPs, estimates, roadmaps.
Related prompts
Prioritise this actual backlogA real list of competing items and an argument about which comes first.Turn a roadmap into a narrativePresenting a plan that currently reads as a list of boxes on a timeline.Estimate effort as ranges, not single numbersSomeone wants a date and you only honestly have a spread.Define an MVP honestlyWhen the "minimum" version has quietly grown into the full product.Cut this to one weekScope that has quietly grown past the time available.Simplest version worth shippingA feature spec that has grown a second and third phase.
Keep this one
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