---
name: analytics-request-intake-triager
description: "Triages an inbound analytics request into a structured intake ticket — classifying request type (ad hoc, dashboard, or model), assigning a priority tier, mapping required data domains, estimating effort, and routing to the right owner with clarifying questions the requester must answer before work begins. Use when processing incoming stakeholder analytics requests, standardizing a messy intake queue, or deciding what to build versus decline."
argument-hint: "[request-text] [team-context]"
allowed-tools: ["Read"]
---

# Analytics Request Intake Triager

## Purpose
Convert a raw, often-vague stakeholder analytics request into a fully classified intake ticket — type, priority, data domain, effort estimate, owner, and the exact clarifying questions needed to unblock it. Eliminates the back-and-forth and the "everything is urgent" problem that clogs analytics queues.

## When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Triage or classify an incoming analytics or data request
- Turn a Slack message, email, or ticket into a structured intake
- Decide the priority of a stakeholder request against existing work
- Determine whether a request is ad hoc, a dashboard, or a model
- Identify what data domain or tables a request touches
- Draft the clarifying questions to send back to a requester before starting

## Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- **Request text**: The raw request as received (paste the Slack message, email, or ticket verbatim)
- **Requester and role**: Who asked and their function (e.g., "VP Sales," "growth PM")
- **Stated deadline**: Any date the requester mentioned, or "none given"
- **Team context**: Data domains your team owns and current queue load (e.g., "revenue, product, marketing tables; 6 open tickets")
- **Available owners**: Who could take the work and their specialty, if relevant
- **Existing assets**: Whether a dashboard/model/table that answers this may already exist

If team context or owners are missing, triage the request fully and flag routing as "assign at standup." If deadline is absent, infer urgency from the request language and note the assumption.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Classify the Request Type
Assign exactly one primary type. Use the decision cues below.

- **Ad hoc analysis** — a one-time question needing a number, chart, or explanation. Cues: "can you pull," "what was," "how many," a one-off decision, no mention of recurring monitoring.
- **Dashboard / recurring report** — an ongoing view someone will check repeatedly. Cues: "track," "monitor," "every week," "so I can see this over time," multiple stakeholders named.
- **Model / data asset** — new pipeline, dbt model, table, or metric definition that other work will depend on. Cues: "we need a source of truth," "define [metric]," "clean up," "so future requests can use," downstream reuse implied.

If the request straddles two types, name the primary type and note the secondary as a likely follow-on (e.g., "ad hoc now → dashboard candidate if repeated").

### Step 2: Map Required Data Domains
Identify which data domains the request touches, based on the team context provided.
- List each domain the request reads from (e.g., revenue, product events, marketing, finance, support).
- Flag any **cross-domain joins** — these raise effort and often require a definitional decision (e.g., "which customer ID is canonical?").
- Flag any domain **your team does not own** — this becomes a dependency or a decline.
- Note whether an **existing asset** likely already answers this; if so, redirect rather than build.

### Step 3: Assign Priority Tier
Score on two axes, then place in the tier.

**Impact** (High / Medium / Low): How many people, how large a decision, and how much money or risk rides on the answer.
**Urgency** (High / Medium / Low): Is there a real external deadline (board meeting, launch, regulatory) or is the deadline self-imposed?

Map to a tier:
- **P0 — Drop everything**: High impact + hard external deadline within 48h. Rare. Requires a real reason work is being displaced.
- **P1 — This sprint**: High impact, or medium impact with a firm deadline.
- **P2 — Backlog, scheduled**: Medium impact, no hard deadline.
- **P3 — Nice to have / batch**: Low impact or purely exploratory.

State the tier and one sentence defending it against inflation ("marked P2 not P1 because the deadline is self-imposed and reversible").

### Step 4: Estimate Effort
Give a T-shirt size with the reasoning driver.
- **S (≤ half day)**: single domain, existing tables, simple aggregation.
- **M (1–2 days)**: cross-domain join, new logic, or a first-pass dashboard.
- **L (3+ days)**: new model, metric definition work, or ambiguous scope requiring discovery.
Name the single biggest effort driver (e.g., "L — no clean customer-to-account mapping exists").

### Step 5: Draft Clarifying Questions
Write the exact questions the requester must answer before work starts. Only ask what genuinely blocks the work — 2 to 5 questions.
- Pin down the **decision** the output supports ("what will you do differently based on this?").
- Resolve **definitional ambiguity** (which metric, which date range, which segment, active vs. all).
- Confirm **format and destination** (one-time number, chart, live dashboard, table).
- Confirm the **real deadline** if inferred.

### Step 6: Recommend Routing and Next Action
State the owner (or "assign at standup"), the tier, and the immediate next action: build, redirect to existing asset, request clarification first, or decline with reason.

## Output Format
- **Structure**: A single structured intake ticket for the request
- **Length**: 250–450 words
- **Format**: Labeled fields at top (Type, Data Domains, Priority, Effort, Owner) followed by a short Clarifying Questions list and a Next Action line
- **Sections**: Classification summary block → Data domains & dependencies → Priority rationale → Effort estimate → Clarifying questions → Routing & next action
- **Tone**: Analytics team lead — decisive, defends against priority inflation, protects the queue

## Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Exactly one primary request type is assigned (ad hoc / dashboard / model)
- [ ] A priority tier (P0–P3) is set with a one-sentence defense against inflation
- [ ] Every data domain touched is listed, with cross-domain joins and non-owned domains flagged
- [ ] Effort is a T-shirt size with the single biggest driver named
- [ ] Clarifying questions number 2–5 and each one genuinely blocks the work
- [ ] A concrete next action is stated (build / redirect / clarify / decline)

## Notes
- The most common miss is treating a self-imposed deadline as external — always ask what happens if it slips a week before granting P0/P1.
- If an existing dashboard or model likely answers the request, redirecting is the highest-leverage outcome; check before building anything new.
- Ad hoc requests that arrive a third time are dashboard candidates — note the repeat pattern so the queue surfaces recurring work worth automating.
- Declining is a valid triage result; when declining, always name the reason (out of domain, duplicate, no clear decision attached) so the requester understands the boundary.

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## How to use this skill

This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.

**Installing in Claude Code:**
- `~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)
- `<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)

Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.

**Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:**

1. Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
2. Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits

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