/cs:vpe-review <plan

/cs:vpe-review — VPE Forcing Questions

by alirezarezvani · MIT license · ★ 26,349 on GitHub · updated Aug 30

/cs:vpe-review <plan> — Throughput-first VP of Engineering interrogation of any plan that touches delivery, eng hiring, team structure, or production discipline. Use when cycle time balloons, DORA metrics slide, or before committing to…

---
name: "vpe-review"
description: "/cs:vpe-review <plan> — Throughput-first VP of Engineering interrogation of any plan that touches delivery, eng hiring, team structure, or production discipline. Use when cycle time balloons, DORA metrics slide, or before committing to an eng hiring wave or a reorg."
---

# /cs:vpe-review — VPE Forcing Questions

**Command:** `/cs:vpe-review <plan>`

The throughput-first VPE pressure-tests any plan touching eng operations. Six questions before any delivery commitment, eng hiring expansion, team restructure, or production-discipline change.

## When to Run

- Before quarterly delivery commitment (sprint planning, OKR review)
- Before approving an eng hiring plan
- Before restructuring eng teams (splitting/merging squads, adding tribes)
- Before deciding whether to hire a VPE separately from CTO (or merge them)
- When production incidents are increasing

Overview

The throughput-first VPE pressure-tests any plan touching eng operations. Six questions before any delivery commitment, eng hiring expansion, team restructure, or production-discipline change.

Manual install (npx, ZIP)

Claude Codenpx skills add alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill vpe-review -g -a claude-code

Claude Code (manual)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && curl -sL https://codeload.github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills/tar.gz/19392f7a0826 \
  | tar -xz -C ~/.claude/skills --strip-components=3 claude-skills-19392f7a0826/c-level-agents/skills/vpe-review

Windows (PowerShell)

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null; Invoke-WebRequest "https://m.agentalley.io/zip/c6a6d395204b65da3cfb/vpe-review.zip" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\vpe-review.zip"; Expand-Archive "$env:TEMP\vpe-review.zip" -DestinationPath "$HOME\.claude\skills" -Force

Claude.ai / desktopDownload the ZIP and upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Codex, Cursor, other agentsPoint them at SKILL.md. The other files are plain text.

Connects with Agent Alley MCP · agentalley.io/mcp

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/cs:vpe-review — VPE Forcing Questions

Command: /cs:vpe-review <plan>

The throughput-first VPE pressure-tests any plan touching eng operations. Six questions before any delivery commitment, eng hiring expansion, team restructure, or production-discipline change.

When to Run

Before quarterly delivery commitment (sprint planning, OKR review)
Before approving an eng hiring plan
Before restructuring eng teams (splitting/merging squads, adding tribes)
Before deciding whether to hire a VPE separately from CTO (or merge them)
When production incidents are increasing
When sprint velocity is dropping but everyone says "we're working hard"

The Six VPE Questions

1. What's the cycle time, and where does work wait?

No DORA, no diagnosis.

Lead Time for Changes is the single best health metric
If you can't decompose cycle time into stages, you can't fix the bottleneck
Run delivery_throughput_analyzer.py

2. What's the DORA performance level on all 4 metrics?

One Elite metric and three Lows = bad. Four Highs = healthy.

Deployment Frequency, Lead Time, MTTR, Change Failure Rate
The worst metric defines overall level
Fix lead time first; everything else follows

3. Where is the hiring funnel leaking?

"Can't find good engineers" is wrong.

Specific stage is over-filtering OR top-of-funnel volume is too low OR offer-to-accept is broken
Run eng_hiring_funnel_calculator.py
If offer-to-accept < 70%, comp is below market or close discipline is weak

4. Is the team structure healthy for the headcount?

5-9 ICs per squad; 5-8 ICs per EM; 4-6 EMs per director.

Run eng_team_structure_designer.py
Manager-trigger fires when 5+ ICs have no dedicated EM
Director-trigger fires when 3+ EMs report directly to VPE/CTO

5. What's the production discipline maturity?

Level 1-5; aim for Level 3 at growth stage.

On-call rotation ≥ 6 people
Severity-defined incident response with blameless postmortems
SLOs on customer-facing services (pair with engineering/slo-architect/)
Continuous deployment OR scheduled — not "usually one, sometimes the other"

6. Are we adding a VPE separately, or is CTO doing both?

If CTO is spending > 50% on management vs strategy, VPE is needed.

Or: VPE complement when CTO is co-founder more comfortable with strategy
VPE owns operating model; CTO owns architecture
At small scale (< 20 eng), one person can do both

Workflow

# 1. Delivery throughput
python ../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/scripts/delivery_throughput_analyzer.py sprint_metrics.json

# 2. Hiring funnel
python ../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/scripts/eng_hiring_funnel_calculator.py funnel.json

# 3. Team structure
python ../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/scripts/eng_team_structure_designer.py team.json

Output Format

# VPE Review: <plan>
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD

## The Decision Being Made
[throughput | hiring | structure | production | VPE-vs-CTO]

## Delivery Throughput (if applicable)
- DORA overall: Elite / High / Medium / Low
- Worst metric: <DF | LT | MTTR | FR>
- Bottleneck: <stage> (X% of cycle time)
- Top fix: <action + owner>

## Hiring Funnel (if applicable)
- End-to-end conversion: X%
- Weakest stage: <stage>
- Pipeline gap: +N candidates needed
- Top fix: <specific action>

## Team Structure (if applicable)
- Recommended: <informal pods / squads / tribes>
- Manager trigger fired: yes/no
- Director trigger fired: yes/no
- Action: <hire EM | hire director | split squad>

## Production Discipline (if applicable)
- Current maturity level: 1-5
- Next practice to add: <specific>
- SLO coverage: X / Y services

## Verdict
🟢 SHIP | 🟡 SHARPEN | 🔴 BLOCK

## Next Steps
[3 concrete actions]

Routing

/cs:cto-review — for architectural causes of throughput problems
cs-chro-advisor agent — for hiring funnel comp/leveling issues
/cs:cfo-review — for cost-per-hire envelope and eng budget
/cs:ciso-review — for production discipline + compliance overlap
/cs:decide — log the verdict
/cs:freeze 30 — on multi-year hiring commitments

Agent: cs-vpe-advisor
Skill: vpe-advisor
Adjacent: ../../../engineering/slo-architect/, ../../../engineering/feature-flags-architect/, ../../../engineering/chaos-engineering/

Version: 1.0.0

1	---
2	name: "vpe-review"
3	description: "/cs:vpe-review <plan> — Throughput-first VP of Engineering interrogation of any plan that touches delivery, eng hiring, team structure, or production discipline. Use when cycle time balloons, DORA metrics slide, or before committing to an eng hiring wave or a reorg."
4	---
5
6	# /cs:vpe-review — VPE Forcing Questions
7
8	Command: `/cs:vpe-review <plan>`
9
10	The throughput-first VPE pressure-tests any plan touching eng operations. Six questions before any delivery commitment, eng hiring expansion, team restructure, or production-discipline change.
11
12	## When to Run
13
14	- Before quarterly delivery commitment (sprint planning, OKR review)
15	- Before approving an eng hiring plan
16	- Before restructuring eng teams (splitting/merging squads, adding tribes)
17	- Before deciding whether to hire a VPE separately from CTO (or merge them)
18	- When production incidents are increasing
19	- When sprint velocity is dropping but everyone says "we're working hard"
20
21	## The Six VPE Questions
22
23	### 1. What's the cycle time, and where does work wait?
24	No DORA, no diagnosis.
25	- Lead Time for Changes is the single best health metric
26	- If you can't decompose cycle time into stages, you can't fix the bottleneck
27	- Run `delivery_throughput_analyzer.py`
28
29	### 2. What's the DORA performance level on all 4 metrics?
30	One Elite metric and three Lows = bad. Four Highs = healthy.
31	- Deployment Frequency, Lead Time, MTTR, Change Failure Rate
32	- The worst metric defines overall level
33	- Fix lead time first; everything else follows
34
35	### 3. Where is the hiring funnel leaking?
36	"Can't find good engineers" is wrong.
37	- Specific stage is over-filtering OR top-of-funnel volume is too low OR offer-to-accept is broken
38	- Run `eng_hiring_funnel_calculator.py`
39	- If offer-to-accept < 70%, comp is below market or close discipline is weak
40
41	### 4. Is the team structure healthy for the headcount?
42	5-9 ICs per squad; 5-8 ICs per EM; 4-6 EMs per director.
43	- Run `eng_team_structure_designer.py`
44	- Manager-trigger fires when 5+ ICs have no dedicated EM
45	- Director-trigger fires when 3+ EMs report directly to VPE/CTO
46
47	### 5. What's the production discipline maturity?
48	Level 1-5; aim for Level 3 at growth stage.
49	- On-call rotation ≥ 6 people
50	- Severity-defined incident response with blameless postmortems
51	- SLOs on customer-facing services (pair with `engineering/slo-architect/`)
52	- Continuous deployment OR scheduled — not "usually one, sometimes the other"
53
54	### 6. Are we adding a VPE separately, or is CTO doing both?
55	If CTO is spending > 50% on management vs strategy, VPE is needed.
56	- Or: VPE complement when CTO is co-founder more comfortable with strategy
57	- VPE owns operating model; CTO owns architecture
58	- At small scale (< 20 eng), one person can do both
59
60	## Workflow
61
62	```bash
63	# 1. Delivery throughput
64	python ../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/scripts/delivery_throughput_analyzer.py sprint_metrics.json
65
66	# 2. Hiring funnel
67	python ../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/scripts/eng_hiring_funnel_calculator.py funnel.json
68
69	# 3. Team structure
70	python ../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/scripts/eng_team_structure_designer.py team.json
71	```
72
73	## Output Format
74
75	```markdown
76	# VPE Review: <plan>
77	Date: YYYY-MM-DD
78
79	## The Decision Being Made
80	[throughput \| hiring \| structure \| production \| VPE-vs-CTO]
81
82	## Delivery Throughput (if applicable)
83	- DORA overall: Elite / High / Medium / Low
84	- Worst metric: <DF \| LT \| MTTR \| FR>
85	- Bottleneck: <stage> (X% of cycle time)
86	- Top fix: <action + owner>
87
88	## Hiring Funnel (if applicable)
89	- End-to-end conversion: X%
90	- Weakest stage: <stage>
91	- Pipeline gap: +N candidates needed
92	- Top fix: <specific action>
93
94	## Team Structure (if applicable)
95	- Recommended: <informal pods / squads / tribes>
96	- Manager trigger fired: yes/no
97	- Director trigger fired: yes/no
98	- Action: <hire EM \| hire director \| split squad>
99
100	## Production Discipline (if applicable)
101	- Current maturity level: 1-5
102	- Next practice to add: <specific>
103	- SLO coverage: X / Y services
104
105	## Verdict
106	🟢 SHIP \| 🟡 SHARPEN \| 🔴 BLOCK
107
108	## Next Steps
109	[3 concrete actions]
110	```
111
112	## Routing
113
114	- `/cs:cto-review` — for architectural causes of throughput problems
115	- `cs-chro-advisor` agent — for hiring funnel comp/leveling issues
116	- `/cs:cfo-review` — for cost-per-hire envelope and eng budget
117	- `/cs:ciso-review` — for production discipline + compliance overlap
118	- `/cs:decide` — log the verdict
119	- `/cs:freeze 30` — on multi-year hiring commitments
120
121	## Related
122
123	- Agent: [`cs-vpe-advisor`](../../agents/cs-vpe-advisor.md)
124	- Skill: [`vpe-advisor`](../../../c-level-advisor/skills/vpe-advisor/SKILL.md)
125	- Adjacent: `../../../engineering/slo-architect/`, `../../../engineering/feature-flags-architect/`, `../../../engineering/chaos-engineering/`
126
127	---
128
129	Version: 1.0.0
130