Content Funnel Design

content-funnel-design

When to use

• A team has content but no funnel — each asset is shaped to its author's preference, not to the funnel stage the audience is in.
• The cadence (editorial-calendar) is locked but one funnel stage is leaking and there is no content shape that would catch it.
• A new ICP requires re-mapping content shapes per stage because the previous mapping was inherited from a previous segment.

Do NOT use to plan publishing cadence (route to editorial-calendar), diagnose quantitative drop-off (route to funnel-analysis), or draft the asset itself (downstream of this skill).

Cognition cluster

• Mental model 14 — Meadows leverage points. Some funnel stages are parameters (small change, small ripple) and some are structure (small change, system-wide ripple). The content funnel design is the discipline of placing the heaviest content investment at the structural leverage point, not the parameter one. See docs/contracts/mental-models.md § 14.
• Mental model 6 — Theory of constraints. The slow funnel stage caps the whole pipeline. Adding content elsewhere does not loosen the constraint. See mental-models.md § 6.
• Mental model 16 — Leading vs. lagging indicators. Time-to- proof (asset → activation question) is leading; pipeline lift is lagging. The funnel design is gated on leading signals, not on the lagging ones the board sees a quarter later. See mental-models.md § 16.
• **Context-spine — funnel-stage + channel-stage + customer-segment
  • product.** Read funnel-stage for which stage owns each content shape, channel-stage for where the audience meets the asset, customer-segment for whose questions the asset answers, and product for the proofs the asset can actually back. See context-spine.

Procedure

Step 0: Inherit the funnel diagnosis

Identify the leaking stage from funnel-analysis and the cadence classification from editorial-calendar. The content funnel design is a response to a diagnosed leak — without the diagnosis, content investment is uniform and the constraint stays where it is.

Step 1: Analyze the inherited shapes

Review existing assets stage-by-stage. For each, identify shape (awareness explainer, comparison, deep-dive, demo, case study, calculator, onboarding walkthrough) and whose question it answers. The output is a stage × shape grid with current investment weight. Most teams discover their grid is bottom-heavy or middle-empty.

Step 2: Place the leverage-point bet

The leverage point is the structural stage, not the leaking one. (The leaking stage is the symptom; the leverage point is where the design choice ripples.) Often: mid-funnel proof is the leverage point when the leak is decision-stage, because mid-funnel proof loads the decision-stage call with conviction. Name the leverage point explicitly; document why it is structural, not parameter.

Step 3: Map shape per funnel stage

For each funnel stage in the spine slot, lock the load-bearing content shape:

• Top — awareness: one explainer per segment-question that earned pull last quarter (Pareto cut from editorial-calendar).
• Mid — consideration: one comparison or deep-dive per load-bearing proof from the message stack.
• Bottom — decision: one calculator, demo, or reference quote per audience-matrix cell that signals economic-buyer fear.
• Activation: one onboarding walkthrough keyed to the first switch-event the customer faces.

Step 4: Design the conversion pathway

A pathway is two assets in sequence that an audience plausibly walks. For each pathway, name the first-asset → second-asset edge and the question the second answers that the first surfaced. Pathways without a credible edge are wishful inventory, not a funnel.

Step 5: Validate against constraint and leverage

Validate the design on three checks:

1. Constraint coverage. Verify the leaking stage from funnel-analysis has a shape designed for it — not just more content, but the shape the audience asks for at that stage.
2. Leverage-point investment. Verify the heaviest authoring investment lands at the leverage point, not at the leak.
3. Pathway plausibility. Walk three of the designed pathways end-to-end with the audience-matrix lens. Verify each second asset earns the click; if it requires a buyer leap, the pathway is fiction.

Step 6: Hand back

Hand the artefacts to editorial-calendar for cadence assignment, to funnel-analysis for a re-diagnosis four weeks after launch, and to activation-design for the activation-stage handoff.

Related Skills

WHEN to use this

• The unit of work is the funnel-stage × content-shape grid, not a single asset.
• A diagnosed funnel leak needs a content shape, not more authoring volume.
• The team is investing uniformly across stages instead of at the leverage point.

WHEN NOT to use this

• Planning publishing cadence and content-debt management — route to editorial-calendar.
• Quantitative funnel-stage diagnostics and leak detection — route to funnel-analysis.
• Activation-event selection inside the product — route to activation-design.
• Drafting the asset copy itself — out of scope; downstream of this skill.

When the agent should load this

• "Mid-funnel leaks — design the content funnel to fix it."
• "Map our content shapes to the funnel stages for the new ICP."
• "Was ist unser Leverage-Point in der Content-Funnel?"
• "Build conversion pathways from top-of-funnel to decision."
• "Why is content investment uniform across stages?"

Output

1. stage-shape-grid.md — stage × shape matrix, current investment vs. designed investment, leverage-point cell marked.
2. conversion-pathways.md — one row per pathway: first-asset → second-asset edge, question the second asset earns, audience-matrix cell it serves.
3. leverage-point-rationale.md — named leverage stage, why structural, not parameter argument, and the leading-indicator threshold the design will be re-checked against.

Gotcha

• The leaking stage is rarely the leverage stage; treating them as identical concentrates content where it does not move the constraint.
• "More mid-funnel content" is not a design — it is volume. The shape and the question both have to land.
• Pathways are usually fictional on the first draft because the second asset assumes a buyer leap. Walk them.

Do NOT

• Do NOT prescribe channel-specific tactics (subject lines, ad placements, video specs) — channel ownership is downstream and out of scope.
• Do NOT design uniformly across stages; uniform design encodes uniform leverage, which is leverage-blindness.
• Do NOT skip Step 0 — content funnel without a funnel diagnosis is content-as-impulse with extra steps.

Runnable example

Mid-market HR analytics, funnel-analysis diagnosed mid-funnel leak (decision-stage conversion is fine, but mid-funnel disqualifies before reaching it):

• Stage-shape grid — top: 2 awareness explainers (current); mid: 0 comparison deep-dives (gap); bottom: 3 ROI calculators (over-invested).
• Leverage point — mid-funnel proof, because the decision-stage call is starved of conviction; structural ripple.
• Pathway — "How HR directors lose 7 hours per board-quarter" (top) → "Cohort-retention deep-dive vs. spreadsheet rebuild" (mid) → ROI calculator (decision).
• Hand-off → editorial-calendar re-allocates campaign weight to mid-funnel; funnel-analysis re-diagnoses at week 4.

→ Final prose pass for audience-facing output: humanizer — remove AI-writing tells before delivery.