Gtm Plan

Go-to-Market Skill

This skill structures a launch plan for a new product, service, feature, or market entry, and optionally hands off a brief.md-compatible campaign brief as a by-product.

This skill follows the shared step sequence in ../_shared/skill-contract.md. Steps below add only GTM-specific behavior.

Step 0–1: Recall learnings and load context

If .claude/learnings.md exists, read it silently. Apply relevant entries — in particular, launch-type preferences, rejected frameworks, or discovered strategy constraints. Do not announce this step. If the file is absent, continue normally.

Read the ## Context files table in CLAUDE.md. Match the following needs against the Summary column semantically — never against a label or filename:

• Business goals/KPIs — launch objectives, business targets, success metrics, growth stage, revenue targets
• Target audience — positioning, audience profile, customer segments, buyer personas, organization background (prefer a positioning output file if registered)

Note silently if present (do not ask about): competitive landscape, current marketing channels, existing positioning depth, and a prior strategy performance review (strategy-performance-review output) if registered — factor validated/invalidated milestone bets into the plan.

Step 2: Gating — Three-State Model

This skill gates on exactly two needs: business goals and target audience. For each, resolve one of three states:

1. Covered — present in the context table (Summary match) → use silently, no ask.
2. Absent-but-supplied — ask once (never twice in one invocation); user answers → use, non-degraded.
3. Absent-and-unanswered — asked once, no usable answer → that section is labelled ⚠ DEGRADED, never fabricated, and the rest of the GTM plan still generates.

Check business goals

Search the context table Summary column for semantic matches: business goals, KPIs, objectives, targets, growth stage, success metrics.

If covered, use silently.

If absent, ask once:

"I need to understand what this launch should achieve. Briefly: What are your primary business goals or KPIs for this launch? (e.g. revenue growth, lead volume, market share, brand awareness) Is there a specific target or metric this launch should move?"

If the user provides usable answers, proceed non-degraded. If the user declines or the answer is too vague to use, label the section ## Business Goals ⚠ DEGRADED in the output and continue.

Check target audience

Search the context table Summary column for semantic matches: target audience, positioning, organization background, customer segments, buyer profile.

Prefer a positioning output file's Summary if one is registered; else fall back to organization background.

If covered, use silently.

If absent, ask once:

"I need to understand who this launch is for. Briefly: Who is the target audience? (role, company type/size if B2B, or demographic if B2C) What stage are they typically at when they encounter this launch? (just learning you exist, actively comparing options, or already a customer)"

If the user provides usable answers, proceed non-degraded. If the user declines or the answer is too vague to use, label the section ## Target Audience ⚠ DEGRADED in the output and continue.

Step 3: Calibrate

If --type was passed in $ARGUMENTS, use it directly and skip the launch-type question. Otherwise infer the launch type from loaded context; where inference isn't confident, ask directly rather than guessing. Present a one-line inference summary and wait for user confirmation or correction before drafting.

• product-launch — full-depth treatment across all output elements.
• feature-release — lighter treatment; assumes existing audience and positioning are already known, focuses on messaging and milestones.
• market-expansion — emphasizes audience redefinition and channel sequencing for the new market.

Step 4: Generate

Apply SOSTAC, RACE, and Message House from ../_shared/campaign-frameworks.md per that file's facet mapping. State the mapping being applied before generating. Example:

"Structuring with SOSTAC; sequencing channels with RACE; messaging with Message House."

Produce a GTM plan that includes:

• Target audience definition — the specific segment(s) this launch addresses.
• Positioning statement for the launch — derived from loaded positioning context if present; otherwise generated fresh by following the selection process in ../_shared/positioning-frameworks.md.
• Channel sequence with timing — proposed channels sequenced by RACE stage, with a rough timeline.
• Key messages — Message House pillars grounded in loaded context.
• Launch milestones — at least three, tied to the Control facet of SOSTAC.

Step 4a: Generate Success Metrics

Before moving to the quality check, generate an upfront Success Metrics section that commits to measurement before the launch runs.

Use the resolved launch type from Step 3 and the launch's stated business goals to select 2–4 leading/lagging metric pairs from the following table. For each pair keyed to a milestone:

Output format: For each selected metric pair (one per milestone or strategic goal), emit:

Bet: <specific milestone claim and what signals its success> | Expected signal: <what success looks like numerically, e.g. "achieve 40% user activation within 30 days of launch"> | Source: GTM plan §Success Metrics

Include exactly 2–4 bets (one leading metric per pair, paired with its lagging outcome).

After the metric bets, add one sentence naming the attribution approach (e.g., "We will track last-touch attribution for paid channels and self-reported 'How did you hear?' responses on demo-request and sign-up forms") and one sentence naming the review cadence (e.g., "We will review leading KPIs daily during the launch window and weekly for 90 days post-launch, then transition to monthly reviews").

The Success Metrics section becomes part of the delimited output in Step 6; it will be recognized by /strategy-performance-review without modification.

Step 5–6: Quality check and delimited output

Review the generated GTM plan for:

• Completeness: All five elements above are present (target audience definition, positioning statement, channel sequence with timing, key messages, launch milestones).
• Milestone count: At least three milestones are listed.
• Framework alignment: SOSTAC structures the plan; RACE sequences the channels; Message House anchors the messaging.
• Consistency: All sections reinforce the same launch positioning and objective.
• Success Metrics present and in bet-shape: The Success Metrics section includes 2–4 bets in the format Bet: [milestone] | Expected signal: [result] | Source: GTM plan §Success Metrics, plus sentences on attribution and review cadence.

Fix any gaps before proceeding.

If Step 2 ended in a degraded state for one or both gated needs (business goals and/or target audience), prefix the output with:

⚠ DEGRADED OUTPUT — generated without: <comma-separated list of unmet needs>

For example, if target audience is degraded but business goals are not, prefix with: ⚠ DEGRADED OUTPUT — generated without: target audience

If both are degraded, prefix with: ⚠ DEGRADED OUTPUT — generated without: business goals, target audience

If neither need is degraded, omit the prefix.

Return the GTM plan inside clear delimiters:

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
## Go-to-Market Plan: [Launch Name]
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[Generated GTM plan here]

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Step 6.5: Offer to save as brief.md

This is a Could-priority by-product (FR-072) — the GTM plan's key messages and channel mix, packaged the same way campaign-concept packages a campaign brief.

After showing the delimited output:

1. Check if brief.md exists in the working directory (the project root — not under context/). Run ls brief.md from $PWD.
2. If it exists: read it, extract the campaign name (or first heading) and the file's last-modified timestamp, and show both to the user. Ask: overwrite / save under a different name / cancel.
3. If the user chooses save under a different name: ask for a filename (or propose one derived from the launch name), write to that filename instead, and do not touch the existing brief.md.
4. If the user chooses overwrite or if no brief.md exists: write directly to brief.md, covering the launch's key messages and channel mix.

Do not register brief.md in the ## Context files table in CLAUDE.md — it is a handoff artifact, not persistent context, the same rule campaign-concept follows.

Step 7: Feedback

Store learnings tagged [cc-concept:gtm-plan] in .claude/learnings.md. Examples:

[cc-concept:gtm-plan] client's feature-release launches skip the audience-redefinition step entirely, existing segments always apply — 2026-07-19
[cc-concept:gtm-plan] client wants milestone dates expressed as week-of-launch offsets (T-4, T-2, T0) rather than calendar dates — 2026-07-19

If the session revealed a launch-type preference, framework override, or project constraint that future runs should apply, record it now.