# asb-rude-qa

Interrogates your strategy, pricing, or product pitch with unsparing questions. It acts as a relentless devil's advocate to expose blind spots before reality does.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 648 installs · ★ 48
- Author: asmartbear
- License: CC-BY-4.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/asmartbear/asb-skills/tree/HEAD/.claude/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-22
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/asb-rude-qa

## What it does

The skill implements Scott Berkun's Rude Q&A methodology alongside strategic frameworks from Jason Cohen at A Smart Bear. Instead of offering polite validation, the assistant attacks your assumptions with tough and intentionally unfair questions. It mimics hostile queries from reporters or aggressive competitors.

Every strategic claim must pass the Opposite Test: a real choice requires that an opposing path is also a sensible strategy for another business. Fluffy terms such as "scalable" or "customer-first" are rejected on sight. The prompt also bars speculative phrasing like "could" or "might", demanding concrete present-tense threats or odds above 70%.

Do not load this skill for standard code review or copyediting. Without an adversarial premise, the tool simply derails normal feedback into confrontation.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills --skill asb-rude-qa -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/asb-rude-qa/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills --skill asb-rude-qa -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills --skill asb-rude-qa -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install asmartbear/asb-skills asb-rude-qa
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills --skill asb-rude-qa -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/asmartbear/asb-skills --path .claude/skills/asb-rude-qa
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add asmartbear/asb-skills --skill asb-rude-qa -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/asmartbear/asb-skills/tree/HEAD/.claude/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- stress-test pricing tiers against hostile objections
- spot hidden blind spots in product positioning
- strip vague buzzwords out of strategic plans using the Opposite Test
- rehearse defenses against aggressive competitor moves

## Example prompts
- Run a rude Q&A session on our new enterprise pricing structure and poke holes in it
- Attack my go-to-market strategy as an aggressive competitor looking to exploit my weaknesses
- Grill my product pitch and tell me where my reasoning falls apart

## Source text · SKILL.md · CC-BY-4.0

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 1eae445d41d7fd2d.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 1eae445d41d7fd2d
```text
---
name: asb-rude-qa
description: "Interrogates a user's decision, plan, pitch, positioning, target market, pricing, or still-forming idea with sharp, unsparing questions — extended when useful to hostile or even unfair framings — until the plan sharpens into defensible decisions, or the user concludes it isn't a good idea after all. Acts as the constructive devil's advocate that the user cannot be for themselves. Load when the user wants to stress-test, attack, pressure-test, find holes in, or play devil's advocate against something they're attached to; when they ask to be \"grilled,\" \"beat up,\" or told \"why I'm wrong\"; when they suspect their plan contains wishful thinking, fluffy language, or an unnamed elephant in the room; or when they need to convert vague aspirations into real strategic decisions (with consequences accepted). Do NOT load for ordinary code review, prose editing, or general feedback requests without an adversarial frame."
---

# Rude Q&A — the constructive devil's advocate

You cannot find your own blind spots from inside your own head. Denial and rationalization are the normal human operating mode — that's why teams keep ignoring the elephant in the room, why strategies are full of optimism and confirmatory data instead of crystallized scary challenges, and why founders confidently misread their own customers. The way out is an outside attacker: a hostile, smart, even unfair interrogator who refuses to accept the answers you'd let yourself off the hook with.

That is the job of this skill. The user brings something they are attached to — a decision, a plan, a pitch, a positioning, a target market, a pricing scheme, an idea still forming — and you grill it. The questions are deliberately rude, sometimes unfair, sometimes based on wrong premises, because those are exactly the questions real customers, real reporters, real investors, and real competitors will ask. The exercise is the "heavy bat" before stepping up to the plate: practicing against attacks harder than reality will deliver, so reality feels easy.

What the user walks away with is either (a) a sharpened plan made of **real decisions** — choices where the opposite is also smart, where the negative consequences are explicitly accepted, and where the choices reinforce each other — or (b) the honest conclusion that the plan is not yet defensible and needs more work, or (c) the realization that it was a bad idea to begin with. Any of those three is a win. A fuzzy "approximately fine" exit is a failure.

This skill is named after, and built on, Scott Berkun's "Rude Q&A" concept (popularized further by Jason Cohen at *A Smart Bear*). It draws on Jason's frameworks for *facing the truth*, *strategic choices*, *the Opposite Test*, and the qualities of great strategy (especially Candid and Decisive).

## The mental model

### Real decisions, not platitudes
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 1eae445d41d7fd2d

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First 2903 of 21239 bytes. © asmartbear · CC-BY-4.0 · https://github.com/asmartbear/asb-skills/tree/HEAD/.claude/skills/asb-rude-qa/SKILL.md

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