Most planning happens forward: starting from where things stand today and thinking step by step toward the goal. The Backcasting Maneuver reverses that direction of thought. You first describe in detail what the ideal end state looks like once it is reached, and the AI works backward from there to today. Steps regularly surface that would never have appeared in a classic forward plan, while intermediate steps that seemed self-evident turn out to be unnecessary.
\nThe skill is suited to strategic planning, ambitious project goals, or situations where it is unclear where to even start. At the end it delivers a backcasting map, a critical path analysis, and concrete actions for the next seven days.
\nIt does not replace a rigorous resource or feasibility assessment. The method works with assumptions about causal dependencies between the intermediate steps; you should check these assumptions against the real situation afterward, before committing significant resources.
\n" }, { "id": "skill-text", "title": "Skill Text", "html": "Copy the prompt below in full into your AI tool. As a file: rueckpfad-manoever.en.json
\n" } ], "schritte": [ { "nr": 1, "titel": "Describe the end state", "beschreibung": "A detailed picture of the ideal end state is provided.", "rolle": "mensch" }, { "nr": 2, "titel": "Ask follow-up questions", "beschreibung": "The skill deepens the description with targeted questions.", "rolle": "automatisch" }, { "nr": 3, "titel": "Provide details", "beschreibung": "The follow-up questions are answered, together with the desired time horizon.", "rolle": "mensch" }, { "nr": 4, "titel": "Backward mapping", "beschreibung": "Starting from the end state, the calculation works backward step by step to today.", "rolle": "automatisch" }, { "nr": 5, "titel": "Critical path analysis", "beschreibung": "Non-negotiable and surprising intermediate steps are worked out.", "rolle": "automatisch" }, { "nr": 6, "titel": "7-day actions", "beschreibung": "Concrete first steps for the coming week are ready.", "rolle": "ergebnis" }, { "nr": 7, "titel": "Implement", "beschreibung": "The first action is started this week.", "rolle": "mensch" } ], "herausgeber": "Voyage Digital", "version": "2.0", "stand": "2026-07-26", "umsetzung": [ { "titel": "Describe the end state", "text": "Draw as accurate a picture of the ideal state as possible, including processes, team, and outcome for customers." }, { "titel": "Trace it backward", "text": "Recognize the path that is actually necessary, rather than the steps that look obvious at first glance." }, { "titel": "Start today", "text": "Set the identified first action in motion this week." } ], "zutaten": [ "Ideal end state", "Time horizon" ], "beispielSzenario": "A founder wants to be running, in eighteen months, a company in which artificial intelligence is fully integrated into every workflow. Instead of drafting a classic roadmap with milestones, she first describes this end state in detail: which processes run automatically, how the team works by then, what has changed for customers. From there, the skill works backward, quarter by quarter, to today, and reveals the single first step that must have set this whole chain in motion.", "eingaben": [ { "feld": "Time horizon by which the end state should be reached", "pflicht": true }, { "feld": "Detailed description of the ideal end state", "pflicht": true } ], "ausgabe": "The fully articulated end state, a chain of backward steps to the present, an analysis of the most critical transitions, and concrete actions for the coming week.", "prompt": "# DESCRIPTION\nYour task is to start from a well-defined ideal end state and work backward to the present, identifying the critical path along the way.\n\n# INPUT\n- Time horizon (required)\n- Detailed ideal end state (required)\n\n# OUTPUT\nA backcasting map with:\n- Detailed end state\n- Backward steps (from the end state to today)\n- Critical path analysis\n- Concrete next actions for the coming 7 days\n\n# CONTEXT\nForward planning often leads to incremental, obvious steps. Backcasting reveals the path that is actually necessary and shows which familiar steps are unnecessary and which unexpected steps become critical.\n\nIf facts are missing for individual intermediate steps, mark them explicitly as an assumption rather than presenting them as established.\n\n# WORKING INSTRUCTIONS\n\n## Step 1: Clarify the end state\nIf the user only outlines the end state roughly, ask targeted follow-up questions: What exactly has been achieved? How does it feel? What would others say about it?\n\n## Step 2: Backward mapping\nWork backward step by step:\n- Step -1: What had to happen in the month or quarter before?\n- Step -2: And what had to happen before that?\n- Step -3: Further back...\n- ...\n- Step -N (today): What is the very first step to take right now?\n\n## Step 3: Critical path analysis\n- Which steps are non-negotiable?\n- Where are the most critical transitions and turning points?\n- Which steps that you would normally plan for do not appear here?\n- What is surprising about this backward path?\n\n## Step 4: Next actions\n- Formulate concrete first steps for the coming 7 days.\n\n### Rules\n- Each step must follow logically from the next one, thought through in reverse.\n- Stay specific and time-bound, not generic.\n- Surprising intermediate steps are welcome, they demonstrate the strength of the method.\n- Address the user in a professional manner throughout.\n\n### No-gos\n- No standard project-plan logic that simply reverses a forward plan.\n- No vague steps such as \"develop a strategy.\"\n\n# DEFINITION OF DONE\n[ ] End state is described in detail\n[ ] At least 5 backward steps to the present\n[ ] Critical path analysis is provided\n[ ] At least one surprising step is named\n[ ] Concrete actions for 7 days are formulated\n\n# CONVERSATION START\nWelcome to the Backcasting Maneuver. Describe your ideal end state to me, in as much detail as possible. By when should it be reached? What exactly is different then? What does a typical day look like inside it? I will then work backward to the step you need to take this week.", "einrichtung": { "intro": "Step-by-step guides for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot Studio and Langdock.", "plattformen": [ { "plattform": "ChatGPT", "anbieter": "OpenAI", "schritte": [ "Copy the skill text above using the copy button.", "Click your profile picture and select \"Skills\".", "Click \"Create skill\" and paste the copied text as the instruction.", "Adjust inputs, outputs and format where your case requires it.", "Save the skill. It is available in all chats from that point on." ], "doku": { "label": { "de": "OpenAI Dokumentation: Skills in ChatGPT", "en": "OpenAI documentation: Skills in ChatGPT" }, "url": "https://help.openai.com/de-de/articles/20001066-skills-in-chatgpt" } }, { "plattform": "Claude", "anbieter": "Anthropic", "schritte": [ "Copy the skill text above using the copy button.", "Open claude.ai and go to \"Skills\" in your profile.", "Create a new skill and paste the copied text as the instruction.", "The skill works in claude.ai, in Claude Code and through the API.", "Available on the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans." ], "doku": { "label": { "de": "Anthropic Dokumentation: Benutzerdefinierte Skills erstellen", "en": "Anthropic documentation: Creating custom skills" }, "url": "https://support.claude.com/de/articles/12512198-benutzerdefinierte-skills-erstellen" } }, { "plattform": "Copilot Studio", "anbieter": "Microsoft", "schritte": [ "Copy the skill text above using the copy button.", "Open Copilot Studio and create a new agent.", "Paste the copied text as the instruction.", "Connect knowledge sources and tools where needed.", "Publish the agent for yourself or for your organisation." ], "doku": { "label": { "de": "Microsoft Dokumentation: Einen Agent erstellen und bereitstellen", "en": "Microsoft documentation: Create and deploy an agent" }, "url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/microsoft-copilot-studio/fundamentals-get-started" } }, { "plattform": "Langdock", "anbieter": null, "schritte": [ "Copy the skill text above using the copy button.", "Open the sidebar and click \"Add skill\".", "Paste the copied text directly as the instruction.", "Connect the skill to integrations such as Gmail or Slack where needed.", "Save the skill and release it for yourself or your team." ], "doku": { "label": { "de": "Langdock Dokumentation: Skills", "en": "Langdock documentation: Skills" }, "url": "https://docs.langdock.com/de/product/chat/skills" } } ] }, "itemIcon": "corner-up-left", "recommended": [ { "slug": "ideen-sparringspartner", "category": "assistent", "name": "The Idea Sparring Partner", "teaser": "Turns any stuck problem into at least seven concrete ideas from three distinct angles, plus one reframe and a 24-hour test for the strongest options.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "lightbulb" }, { "slug": "chancenraum-konzept", "category": "skill", "name": "The Opportunity Space Concept", "teaser": "Turns a seemingly disadvantageous situation into its own opportunity space, working out what becomes possible precisely because of it instead of searching for the obvious problem solution.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "map" }, { "slug": "entscheidungs-raster", "category": "skill", "name": "The Decision Grid", "teaser": "Guides you through a decision before it is made, while you are wrestling with it, or in retrospect, and records the insights as a journal entry.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "table-2" }, { "slug": "fundament-geruest", "category": "skill", "name": "The First Principles Framework", "teaser": "The First Principles Framework strips an existing solution or industry practice down to its fundamental truths and rebuilds it from zero, free of convention.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "blocks" }, { "slug": "ideen-manoever", "category": "skill", "name": "The Idea Maneuver", "teaser": "Generates at least 10 ideas for a given question across multiple creativity techniques and rates each one for feasibility and impact.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "lightbulb" }, { "slug": "umkehr-manoever", "category": "skill", "name": "The Reversal Maneuver", "teaser": "The Reversal Maneuver takes your biggest business constraint and inverts it completely into a concrete competitive advantage, target audience, and business model, instead of merely softening the disadvantage.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "undo-2" }, { "slug": "widerspruchs-schema", "category": "skill", "name": "The Contradiction Resolver", "teaser": "Finds a solution that fully satisfies two seemingly contradictory requirements by questioning the premise behind the conflict and testing sequence, level, and system-redesign approaches instead of settling for a compromise.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "split" }, { "slug": "zeitachsen-manoever", "category": "skill", "name": "The Timeline Maneuver", "teaser": "Places the same problem on a timeline and questions it three times, in the past, present and future, to reveal patterns, blind spots and courses of action.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "calendar-range" }, { "slug": "gegenargument-sparringspartner", "category": "assistent", "name": "The Counterargument Sparring Partner", "teaser": "Tests a thesis or decision by formulating well-founded counterarguments and systematically questioning assumptions, evidence and logic.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "shield-half" }, { "slug": "strategie-sparringspartner", "category": "assistent", "name": "The Strategy Sparring Partner", "teaser": "Checks strategy drafts with the same rigor you would apply to code before a release, systematically attacking assumptions instead of confirming them.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "milestone" }, { "slug": "debatten-drehbuch", "category": "skill", "name": "The Debate Playbook", "teaser": "Has three AI experts with opposing convictions debate each other in a structured format and derives a resilient synthesis for strategic decisions with no clearly right answer.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung", "itemIcon": "speech" }, { "slug": "grill-me", "category": "tool", "name": "grill-me", "teaser": "grill-me is an external skill repository by Matt Pocock that clarifies plans and designs through persistent questioning, branch by branch, before any code is written.", "domaene": "Strategie & Entscheidung" } ] }