A Claude Skill for Consulting-Grade Problem Solving
A single skill that walks an ambiguous business question through eight partner-led stages — from decision question to board-ready recommendation — using MECE issue trees, hypothesis-led analysis, and 80/20 prioritization.
Free skills and prompts for Claude and strategy work
Templates for Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity — from diagnostics to board-ready decks.
What this is
One skill. It gives Claude a structured strategy consulting workflow for complex business questions — the kind that don't have a clean answer at the start: why enterprise churn is rising, whether to enter a market, how to lift margin without hurting growth, which operating model should sit under a new strategy, how to turn a pile of analysis into a board-ready recommendation.
The dynamic is partner and associate. Claude acts as a sharp engagement associate — framing the question, building the logic, drafting the analyses, writing the recommendation. You play the partner — setting direction, adding context, making the trade-offs, and approving each stage before the work moves on. The method leans deliberately on consulting-style habits: issue-led framing, MECE logic, hypothesis testing, 80/20 prioritization, answer-first communication, and evidence-backed recommendations.
Mechanically, it's a small bundle of markdown files: a top-level SKILL.md plus a references/ folder with one file per stage. You drop it into a Claude project, point at the skill, and the workflow runs end to end.
Download the skill
SKILL.md plus the references folder, in one zip. Free, no signup.
The 8 Stages You Get
Each stage has two gates. An input gate where you provide context, judgment, constraints, and preferences. A review gate where you approve or revise the deliverable before the workflow continues. The result is a clean trail from the original question to the final recommendation.
Frame & Plan
Frame the Question
Lock the work to one decision question
Map the Logic
Build a MECE issue tree with testable branches
Focus the Work
Apply 80/20 to the few branches worth deep analysis
Plan the Analyses
Turn priorities into workstreams, data, and dependencies
Analyze & Deliver
Run the Analyses
Test hypotheses with evidence and confidence levels
Integrate the Answer
Pull findings into a single, coherent point of view
Shape the Recommendation
Translate the answer into actions, economics, and risks
Package the Story
Prepare approved content for a deck, memo, or board paper
Stages 1 to 4 sharpen the question and the plan before any analysis runs. Stages 5 to 8 carry the answer through to an approved recommendation and packaged content.
Setup Guide
Download the skill
The zip holds the top-level SKILL.md and the references/ folder beside it. Together they make up the skill: one file per stage, plus the orchestrator. Unzip it anywhere.
Create a Claude Project
Go to claude.ai, open the left sidebar, click Projects, then Create Project. Name it something like "Problem Solving" or "Strategy Workflow" so you can reuse it for every new question.
Add the skill as Project Knowledge
Inside your project, open Project Knowledge, click Add Content, and upload SKILL.md together with every file from the references/ folder. Claude will pick the right stage file automatically as the workflow advances.
Start using the skill
Open a new conversation inside the project, give Claude the business question and whatever context you have, and ask it to run the problem-solving workflow. It will start at Stage 1, draft the deliverable, and wait for you at every review gate before moving on.
Tip
You can also run a single stage on its own. Phrases like "Build a MECE issue tree for our churn problem" or "Turn these findings into an executive recommendation" point Claude straight at Stage 2 or Stage 7 without forcing it to start from the top.
Example prompt
"Use the consulting strategy problem-solving skill. We are seeing margin compression in our enterprise segment. Help me understand what is happening and what we should recommend to the leadership team. Walk me through the eight stages — start with the decision question. I'll provide context at each input gate and approve each deliverable before you continue."
Why it works
1. Partner-led by design
You stay in control of direction and judgment. Claude structures, drafts, tests, and revises — but never bypasses you. Every stage has two gates: an input gate where you provide context, constraints, and preferences, and a review gate where you approve or revise the deliverable before the workflow continues.
Use whenever you need the analyst hours of a junior associate without losing the judgment of a partner.
2. consulting-style logic baked in
The workflow uses MECE decomposition, hypothesis-led analysis, issue trees, and 80/20 prioritization end to end. It starts with a decision question, breaks it into testable branches, writes hypotheses before any analysis runs, and focuses effort on the work that can actually change the answer.
Run on any business question where you need the answer to be defensible to a sceptical executive room.
3. Built-in challenge review
Before final content is drafted, an independent reviewer stress-tests the storyline, evidence, logic, and recommendation. Weak claims get flagged, missing branches get surfaced, and the recommendation has to survive hostile questioning before it leaves the workflow.
Run before any partner review, steerco, or board update where you can't afford an obvious hole in the argument.
4. Builder-ready final content
The skill separates thinking from rendering. It decides what to say, structures the logic, and writes the approved content — then hands off visual design and file rendering to downstream builder skills, so the same content can be reused across slides, memos, and reports without rework.
Pair with a slide builder like Oria when the approved content needs to land in PowerPoint without manual rebuilding.
The principles under the hood
Every stage is grounded in a specific working principle. No generic "think strategically" prompts. Each principle is named, applied at the right gate, and traceable from the recommendation back to the original question.