This is a skillset -- it chains
/product-ops-assessment->/invisible-work-audit->/role-clarity-facilitatorin sequence. Each skill also works independently.
Use this when a product ops function needs a health check -- whether you're standing one up, justifying headcount, or resolving friction between ProdOps/PM/PMM/PMO roles.
The chain
| Step | Skill | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | /product-ops-assessment | Scorecard with gap analysis across 6 dimensions |
| 2 | /invisible-work-audit | "What breaks if this disappears" analysis and leadership narrative |
| 3 | /role-clarity-facilitator | Ready-to-run workshop with RACI activity map |
How skills chain
/product-ops-assessmentscores maturity across 6 dimensions -> identifies gaps and where the team is over- or under-investing/invisible-work-auditsurfaces work the team does that nobody sees -> builds the case for why the function matters/role-clarity-facilitatorresolves overlapping roles identified in the assessment -> produces a clear RACI and decision framework
What the PM does between stages
| After... | PM decision |
|---|---|
/product-ops-assessment | Which gaps are urgent vs. aspirational? Share the scorecard with leadership. |
/invisible-work-audit | Use the narrative to advocate for the team. Decide what work to stop doing. |
/role-clarity-facilitator | Run the workshop. Get agreement on the RACI. |
Related skills: For broader organizational assessment, see
/ai-maturity-org.
Example Output
Input
- Company: Benchling (Series E biotech SaaS, ~600 employees)
- Trigger: New CPO inherited a 4-person Product Ops team; engineers and PMs complain "ProdOps just schedules meetings," but ProdOps lead claims the team is overwhelmed and under-resourced
- Friction points: PMM owns the product launch checklist but ProdOps runs the launch readiness review; PMO owns the roadmap tool (Productboard) but ProdOps maintains the data; no defined owner for customer feedback triage
- Desired outcome: CPO wants a board-ready case for either expanding the team to 7 or restructuring responsibilities before Q3 planning
Output (abbreviated)
Product Ops Diagnostic — Benchling
Step 1: /product-ops-assessment — Maturity Scorecard
Overall Maturity: Emerging → Structured (2.4 / 5.0)
The team is performing real work but operating invisibly, with no documented mandate and overlapping charters creating both gaps and duplication.
| Dimension | Score | Signal |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm & Cadence Design | 3.5 | PI planning and QBRs run well; sprint retro templates inconsistent across squads |
| Data & Insights Infrastructure | 2.0 | Productboard maintained by ProdOps but owned by PMO — no single source of truth |
| Launch & Release Operations | 1.5 | Launch checklist lives in PMM; readiness review lives in ProdOps; no handoff protocol |
| Feedback Loop Management | 1.5 | Customer feedback triage has no assigned owner; Gong, Zendesk, and NPS data siloed |
| PM Enablement | 3.0 | Onboarding program exists; no ongoing skill development or PM community of practice |
| Tooling & Process Governance | 2.5 | Tools procured reactively; ProdOps maintains Productboard, Confluence, and Miro with no formal governance charter |
Gap Summary:
- 🔴 Critical gaps: Launch operations ownership, feedback triage accountability
- 🟡 Underinvestment: Tooling governance, PM skill development
- 🟢 Strengths to protect: Cadence design, PM onboarding
Step 2: /invisible-work-audit — What Breaks Without ProdOps
Work Nobody Sees (Monthly Estimate)
| Activity | Time Spent | Who Notices If It Stops |
|---|---|---|
| Productboard data hygiene (deduplication, tagging, scoring) | ~18 hrs/mo | Nobody — until roadmap reviews break |
| Cross-squad dependency tracking before PI planning | ~12 hrs/mo | Engineering leads, 2 weeks late |
| Customer feedback aggregation from Gong + Zendesk into weekly digest | ~10 hrs/mo | PM leads lose signal within 30 days |
| Launch readiness review facilitation (avg. 3 launches/quarter) | ~8 hrs/mo | PMM ships without engineering sign-off |
| New PM onboarding coordination (tooling, process walkthroughs) | ~6 hrs/mo | 60-day ramp extends to 90+ days |
Estimated invisible output: ~54 hrs/month of load-bearing work with no named owner in the org chart
Leadership Narrative (CPO-Ready)
"Benchling's Product Ops team is currently functioning as organizational connective tissue — but without a documented mandate, that tissue is invisible to leadership and vulnerable to being cut. The 4-person team is absorbing ~54 hours of monthly work that, if dropped, would surface as PM complaints, delayed launches, and degraded roadmap confidence. The perception that 'ProdOps just schedules meetings' is a visibility failure, not a performance failure. The case for expanding to 7 is not about headcount — it's about making implicit accountability explicit."
Step 3: /role-clarity-facilitator — Workshop Design & RACI
Friction Zones Identified
- Launch operations: PMM owns checklist, ProdOps runs review → no one accountable for readiness failures
- Roadmap tooling: PMO procured Productboard, ProdOps maintains it → change requests go nowhere
- Customer feedback triage: Three teams assume another team owns it → nobody does
Workshop Agenda (2.5 hrs, CPO + PMM Lead + PMO Lead + ProdOps Lead)
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 0:00–0:20 | Frame the problem: share invisible work audit findings — no blame, just data |
| 0:20–0:50 | Activity mapping: each team writes their top 10 activities on cards, posts to a shared board |
| 0:50–1:20 | Overlap identification: facilitated sort into "clear owner," "contested," "orphaned" |
| 1:20–1:50 | RACI negotiation on contested and orphaned activities |
| 1:50–2:20 | Decision framework alignment: when does ProdOps escalate to PMO vs. resolve independently? |
| 2:20–2:30 | Commit to written RACI and 30-day check-in |
Draft RACI — Launch & Feedback Domains
| Activity | ProdOps | PMM | PMO | PM Squad Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain launch checklist | C | R/A | I | C |
| Run launch readiness review | R/A | C | I | C |
| Escalate launch blockers | R | C | I | A |
| Customer feedback triage (weekly) | R/A | I | I | C |
| Productboard governance & hygiene | R/A | I | C | I |
| Roadmap tooling changes | C | I | R/A | I |
Recommended Structural Actions (for CPO decision)
- Immediate (Week 1–2): Publish the RACI as a one-pager; socialize at next all-hands
- Near-term (Q3): Add 1 dedicated role — a Feedback & Insights Ops Manager — to close the feedback triage gap before Benchling's enterprise push
- Aspirational (H2): Stand up a PM community of practice under ProdOps ownership; target 3.5+ on PM Enablement dimension by Q4 review
CPO Decision Point: The scorecard and invisible work audit support the headcount case. Recommend sharing Step 1 + Step 2 outputs with the board as a pre-read before requesting the 3 additional headcount — framed as "closing accountability gaps," not "growing the team."