Whats Next

What's Next

Orient the user on where their project stands and what to focus on next. Most of the time this is a quick read of the plan and a conversational nudge — the user just needs reminding. When the plan itself needs structural changes, escalate to the lean-startup-advisor subagent for a full reassessment.

Before you start

Check whether ./startup/core.md exists in the current working directory. Use a relative path. Do not list parent directories or absolute paths — the project is always the current working directory.

When no startup/ exists

The project hasn't been initialized yet. Load the initialization workflow:

.claude/skills/whats-next/references/initialization.md

The reference file's instructions take over from this point. For founders who already have materials or progress, initialization.md will route to:

.claude/skills/whats-next/references/with-progress.md

When startup/ exists and plan.md is present

Start with a quick orientation. Only escalate to a full reassessment if the plan needs structural changes.

Quick orientation (default)

Read startup/plan.md and startup/core.md. List the artifact directories (hypotheses/, competitors/, interview-scripts/, interviews/) to get a sense of what exists and what's changed. Also read the ## Next Action sections from startup/hypotheses/*.md — these are the per-assumption validation moves written by the last hypothesis assessment.

Then orient the user across two altitudes, so the strategic and the tactical don't compete:

• Strategic (from plan.md): the ## Current Focus — the milestone-level thing the project is working toward.
• Tactical (from the hypothesis ## Next Action sections): the single sharpest concrete move right now — the smallest observable next step. Pick it with simple judgment: weigh hypothesis status, stakes, and tag (a foundational untested assumption with nothing behind it, or one close to flipping, usually wins). If a recent assessment flagged a Top pick, prefer that.

Phrase it as both, e.g.: "Strategically you're on {Current Focus}. The sharpest concrete move right now is {next action from hypothesis X}." If the user completed something since last time, check it off in plan.md. Offer to jump into whatever the current focus or the next action points to.

Keep this lightweight: read the ## Next Action sections that already exist on disk — do not dispatch the hypotheses-manager just to refresh them. Those sections are refreshed during full reassessments and after interview analysis, which is where assessments belong.

Quick orientation does not restructure the plan — no adding, removing, or reordering steps, no changing the Current Focus. It works with the plan as-is.

When to escalate to full reassessment

Use your judgment. These are signals, not a checklist — weigh them in context:

• The plan's current milestone is complete (all or nearly all steps checked off)
• The user says something has fundamentally changed or explicitly asks to reassess
• The user changed core.md's foundational fields (Audience/ICP, Problem, or Solution) — a potential pivot
• Artifacts appear to contradict the plan's assumptions (e.g., interviews revealed a different problem than what the plan is built around)
• The Current Focus no longer makes sense given what exists in the project
• The user is questioning direction ("is this the right approach?"), not asking for next steps

When none of these apply — uncompleted steps remain that still make sense, the Current Focus is clear and not invalidated, the user is just resuming or needs a reminder — stay in quick orientation.