Office Hours

What Is This?

Overview

Office Hours is a structured ideation and validation skill modeled after Y Combinator's office hours format. It operates in two distinct modes: Startup Mode and Builder Mode. Startup Mode applies six forcing questions that surface demand reality, expose assumptions about the status quo, identify the most desperate and specific user, find the narrowest viable wedge, encourage direct observation, and assess future-fit potential. Builder Mode applies design thinking principles to help developers brainstorm side projects, hackathons, learning initiatives, and open source contributions. At the end of each session, the skill saves a design document capturing the conclusions.

The skill is part of the garrytan/gstack collection and runs at preamble tier 3, meaning it loads a structured reasoning framework before engaging with your input. Version 2.0.0 introduces the dual-mode architecture, making it useful for both early-stage startup founders evaluating whether an idea is worth pursuing and individual builders who want a rigorous thinking partner for personal or community projects.

Trigger phrases include "brainstorm this," "I have an idea," "help me think through this," "office hours," or "is this worth building." The skill recognizes these cues and selects the appropriate mode based on context, then guides the conversation through a structured sequence of questions and outputs.

Who Should Use This

• Startup founders who need a fast, honest framework to validate or invalidate a new product idea before committing engineering resources
• Solo developers planning a side project who want structured thinking rather than open-ended brainstorming
• Hackathon participants who need to move from vague concept to scoped plan within hours
• Product managers evaluating whether a feature or new product line addresses a real demand signal
• Open source maintainers considering a new tool or library and wanting to assess community fit before investing time
• Engineering leads who want a repeatable process for evaluating internal tooling proposals from their teams

Why Use It?

Problems It Solves

• Unstructured brainstorming sessions that produce enthusiasm but no clarity on whether demand actually exists
• Wasted development cycles on projects built for imaginary users rather than desperate, specific ones
• Lack of a documented output after ideation sessions, causing teams to lose decisions and reasoning
• Difficulty identifying the narrowest viable wedge, leading to over-scoped initial builds that never ship
• No consistent framework for distinguishing startup-grade ideas from builder-grade projects, resulting in mismatched effort and expectations

Core Highlights

• Dual-mode operation covering both startup validation and builder design thinking
• Six structured forcing questions in Startup Mode that mirror real YC office hours methodology
• Design thinking brainstorming framework in Builder Mode suited for hackathons and open source
• Automatic design document generation saved at the end of each session
• Trigger-phrase recognition for natural conversational activation
• Preamble tier 3 loading ensures the reasoning framework is active before any input is processed
• Applicable to side projects, learning goals, and community contributions, not just commercial ventures

How to Use It?

Basic Usage

Activate the skill by using a natural trigger phrase in your prompt:

office hours: I want to build a tool that helps developers track their focus time

brainstorm this: a browser extension that summarizes GitHub PR discussions

is this worth building: a CLI tool for managing dotfiles across machines

Specific Scenarios

Scenario 1: Startup Validation A founder has an idea for a B2B invoicing tool. They trigger Startup Mode and work through the six questions. The skill asks who is so desperate for this solution that they would pay immediately, what they are doing today instead, and whether the founder has observed this pain directly. The session ends with a saved design doc summarizing demand evidence and the recommended wedge.

Scenario 2: Hackathon Planning A developer has 24 hours and a rough idea for a local-first notes app. Builder Mode applies design thinking to scope the project, identify the core interaction, and define a shippable prototype. The output document serves as the build brief for the hackathon.

Important Notes

Requirements

• The skill requires preamble tier 3 to be supported by the host environment for the reasoning framework to load correctly.
• Version 2.0.0 or later is required for dual-mode operation.
• A writable output location must be available for the design document to be saved at session end.