Navigating The Initiative Funnel Agent Skill

Phase-by-phase guidance for participating in Bitwarden's Software Initiative Funnel.

Context cost
3k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 12.1 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
Source-availablethe author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Phase-by-phase guidance for participating in Bitwarden's Software Initiative Funnel. Covers shepherd vs tech-lead ownership, running an epic breakdown after Scoping & Commitment handoff, sizing, cross-team dependency tracking, and escalation paths that protect team autonomy. Use when receiving an initiative epic, participating in an Architectural Assessment or PoC, preparing the Scoping & Commitment breakdown, or surfacing concerns to the shepherd or engineering leadership.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

collaboration

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md12.1 kB · preview
--- name: navigating-the-initiative-funnel allowed-tools: Read, Skill, Bash(git clone https://github.com/bitwarden/tech-breakdowns*), Bash(git clone git@github.com:bitwarden/tech-breakdowns*), mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_issue, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_issue_comments, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_issue_remote_links, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__search_issues, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_confluence_page, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_confluence_page_comments, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__search_confluence, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__search_confluence_cql ---
7Bitwarden runs cross-cutting technical work through the [Software Initiative Funnel](https://bitwarden.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EN/pages/584515614). A senior engineer — typically Staff+ for cross-team initiatives, sometimes a tech lead for smaller-scope work that lives largely inside one team's domain — shepherds each initiative through five phases: Identification, Research, Proof of Concept, Scoping & Commitment, and Implementation. The tech lead participates throughout, but most heavily in Scoping & Commitment and Implementation. This skill is the working playbook for that participation, written from the perspective of a tech lead working alongside a separate shepherd; when the tech lead is also shepherding the initiative, read the phase descriptions for both roles and run both. When the canonical reference is needed, fetch the funnel page via the get_confluence_page MCP tool; this document is the operating summary.
8
9## The Rule of Ownership
10
11Every phase has a single sentence to remember: **the shepherd owns the initiative; the tech lead owns how their team executes its part**. The moment that line blurs, one of two failure modes shows up — either the shepherd starts writing the team's stories (and the team doesn't own the work), or the tech lead starts making cross-team decisions that aren't theirs to make (and the initiative drifts).
12
13## Phase-by-Phase: Who Does What
14
15### Phase 1 — Identification
16
17The shepherd creates a BW Initiative issue, documents the problem, and gets a go/no-go from engineering leadership.
18
19**The tech lead's role is light here.** If the shepherd reaches out because the team's domain is affected, provide context, known history, and stakeholders. Flag prior attempts. Don't pre-scope — the research hasn't happened yet.
20
21### Phase 2 — Research
22
23The shepherd interviews stakeholders (the tech lead is a likely one), surveys the codebase, and produces an Architectural Assessment with 2–4 solution options.
24
25**The tech lead's role:** be interviewed well. Share the team's pain points, workarounds, and the constraints the shepherd won't see from outside. Quantify where possible ("this causes ~3 bugs per sprint"). If the shepherd proposes a direction that would conflict with work already on the team's roadmap, surface it now — not after commitment.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md1,697 words
Files1
LicenceSource-available
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈330
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
2,695
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
1.5%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 15% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

3k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Middling. Fine to keep on in a project where you use it weekly, worth unloading in one where you never do.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md asks for Bash, which can write files and reach the network alike, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

The allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md asks for Bash, which could do either, so neither is ruled out. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 12.1 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md12.1 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing. The Source-available licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Navigating The Initiative Funnel · 3k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/navigating-the-initiative-funnel" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel ] || { mv .claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/navigating-the-initiative-funnel" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add bitwarden/navigating-the-initiative-funnel

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/navigating-the-initiative-funnel" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/navigating-the-initiative-funnel" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/navigating-the-initiative-funnel/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencebitwarden/navigating-the-initiative-funnel

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

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