Agency: an AI skill for product managers

A skill that gives your AI assistant the method from Agency: A Practical Guide for Product Managers to Build Confidence, Navigate Change and Lead with Impact.

Describe a real situation, such as a hard stakeholder update, a situation where you experienced self-doubt, a promotion conversation, or a meeting you need to prepare, and your assistant applies the book's frameworks to your context. The skill distills the book's method into guidance. It does not reproduce the book, which has the stories, research, and full exercises behind each tool.

What it covers

• Alignment: self-awareness, values and purpose, life-first career design, imposter patterns, and an empowered mindset

• Altitude and focus: seeing the whole system, setting priorities, and catching burnout early

• Communication: managing early attachment to plans and preparing meetings and updates with intention

• Advocacy: making your team's work and your own impact seen

Install

Command line (Claude Code, Cursor, and other coding agents that use the skills CLI):

npx skills add Capras/agency-skill --skill agency-for-product-leaders -g

Claude.ai or Claude Desktop: download the .zip from the latest release, then upload it under Settings > Capabilities > Skills. Menu labels may change; see Anthropic's help center for current steps.

Use it

Describe your situation and mention the skill, or just describe the situation and let your assistant load it. For example:

• "Our VP is still anchored to the original launch date even though we've learned a lot. Draft an update using the agency skill."

• "Help me prepare a 45-minute cross-functional workshop where I need a decision on scope using the agency skill."

Not a substitute for therapy or other professional mental health support

This is professional guidance. It is not therapy or medical advice. For burnout with serious symptoms or any crisis, please talk with a qualified professional or someone you trust.