Builtgtm Content Structure

builtgtm-content-structure

The forcing function for any Built GTM piece, before a word gets written or after a draft sprawls. The brand skill (builtgtm-brand) owns the voice. This skill owns the shape: what type of piece this is, what question the reader is asking, and the exact structure that answers it without thrash.

Adapted from the strategic-plan-structure discipline (verdict-first, no thrash, receipts, defensible) and re-rooted for the operator brand: one person, content that ships to Ghost and LinkedIn, the Build Log / Lens / Field / Signal pillars. No departments. No reports dashboard. The owner is always the operator. It also governs Company Impacts: the three biggest areas as STAR examples, built to reference and speak to, with the receipts holding the detail.

The one rule above all others

One piece, one spine. A Built GTM piece carries one claim, backed by one scar and one receipt, ending in one thing worth stealing. The Mixmax plan caps at two bets to kill thrash. Content is stricter: more than one thesis and the reader leaves with none. If you wrote three claims, you have three pieces. Split them.

STEP 0. Triage the piece type

Before structuring anything, name the type. The reader's question and the right shape both flow from it.

If you are unsure, ask. If you cannot ask, default to Build Log. It is the spine of the brand.

Universal rules. Every piece, no exceptions.

1. The hook is the verdict. First sentence is the most interesting one. No context-bombing, no runway.
2. One spine. One claim, one scar, one receipt, one steal. Cut the rest.
3. Receipts over claims. Every instructive line carries a receipt: a tool named, minutes saved, dollars moved, or what broke. No receipt, cut the claim.
4. Scar before lesson. The failure comes before the instruction. Self-implicating first.
5. Frequencies, not percentages. 47 percent becomes "about 1 in 2." Weekly targets become daily rituals.
6. Cut 30 percent. If you can remove a third and lose nothing, you have not shipped yet.
7. No bow. No "in conclusion," no neat wrap. End on the steal or the open question.
8. Voice lock. Run builtgtm-brand, then builtgtm-voice-checker. No em dashes, no emojis (arrows are fine), none of the SaaS-press-release words.
9. Ships to a channel, not a dashboard. Built GTM publishes on Ghost and LinkedIn. No reports index, no departments, no leadership banner.

If any of these fail, it is not shipped. Apply them before the type template.

The scroll test (the 30-second test, operator version)

Open the draft. Read only the first line and the subheads. Ask:

• Do I know the claim from the hook alone?
• Is there a scar I can feel?
• Is there a receipt I can check?

If any answer is no, the piece is buried, theoretical, or thrash. Fix that before writing the body.

Templates by type

Build Log

1. The problem. Specific and costed. What it cost in minutes or dollars.
2. What I tried first and why it failed. The scar.
3. What I actually built. The move.
4. The receipt. Minutes saved, dollars moved, and what still breaks.
5. The stack. Copy-pasteable. Named tools.
6. The one thing worth stealing. One line.

Present tense only. No "journey." No future-tense speculation.

Lens

1. The claim. One declarative sentence. The position.
2. The old way and why it fails. Receipted.
3. The three reads. Where AI helps, where AI hurts, where AI optimizes. A position, not balance.
4. The better way. Receipted.
5. The implication for the operator. What they do Monday.

Field

1. What another operator shipped. Named and credited.
2. The receipt. Their number, not yours.
3. Why it matters now.
4. The steal. What to lift into your own seat.

Signal

One claim. One reason. One bet. One "ignore this." Four lines maximum. No hedging.

Playbook (the strategic spine, closest to a strategic plan)

This is the Built GTM analog of the Mixmax strategic plan. Same discipline: verdict first, no thrash, receipts, defensible.

1. The hero line. The outcome in one line. Example: "Cut SDR research from four hours to eighteen minutes."
2. The verdict box, above the fold. What this builds, what it costs to NOT build it, who it is for. Not collapsible.
3. The one-sentence spine. "This playbook is N steps. Each one has a trigger, a build, and a failure point." Keep N small. If N is over 7, it is two playbooks.
4. Prerequisites. The stack and access you need before step 1. Honest. A working ugly thing beats a perfect plan.
5. The steps. Each step: the trigger, the build (named tools), the failure point (the scar, what breaks here and how to know), and the check (how you know it worked). Numbered. Motion verbs.
6. The receipt. What it returned, with the scar of what it cost to get there.
7. The one thing worth stealing, if they build nothing else.
8. Optional: what I would do differently. The next-version note. No bow.

Hard rule: one outcome per playbook. Two outcomes is two playbooks.

Impact (a company or career record. Built to reference and speak to, not to read.)

Three jobs:

1. Give a model or a teammate instant context on a company you were at.
2. Let you reference your three biggest impact areas and speak to each as a STAR example: Situation, Task, Action, Result.
3. Show your range as a sales leader, a revenue leader, and a GTM leader.

The narrative, the detail, and the source documents live in the receipts file. This file is the scannable index, not the essay. If you find yourself reading it instead of scanning it, it is too long.

Structure:

1. Frontmatter, machine-readable. Company, website, company size, ARR range, the teams you managed and their sizes, title, dates, leadership tags, and a one-line summary that names the three areas. This is the company-facts block a model reads first.
2. The verdict. One line. The headline result, with the swing.
3. The impact areas, ordered as a story arc (the sequence you would walk someone through, not strictly biggest-first). Three to six. Fewer for a focused role, more for a cross-functional leader showing range across functions. One area per major motion or function you owned. Each is a STAR block:
   • A title and a leader tag (Sales leader, Revenue leader, or GTM leader).
   • Situation. What was broken. One line, with the number that proves it.
   • Task. What you owned. One line.
   • Action. What you did. One or two lines.
   • Result. The numbers. Scannable.
   • Receipts. A pointer to the detail: the receipts section and the named source reports.
4. The numbers. One quick-reference table of the headline figures.
5. Receipts pointer. The detail layer lives in the receipts file, not here.

Rules:

• One area per major motion or function you owned. Three to six. Fewer is tighter; more shows range for a senior cross-functional leader who does not want to read as one function only. The test is not a number, it is this: can you speak to each area cold? If not, it is a receipt, not an area. Avoid the resume trap of fifteen bullets.
• STAR, not prose. Each area is scannable in ten seconds. The reader speaks to it. They do not read it.
• Every Result carries a number. Every area maps to a leader identity.
• Humanize the numbers. Speak in human scale so anyone gets it. "Nearly $1M in losses to a positive contribution in a year." "Nearly half our users were on free; I got it under one in six." "A dollar of pipeline booked 1 in 5, now better than 1 in 3." Keep one precise anchor where it lands. Push the exact ledger to receipts. A number attached to a behavior is a story; a number alone is data.
• Keep this file thin. The receipts file carries the depth and the proof.

Newsletter (the weekly edition)

One story (the scar or the build). One build (what to steal this week). One signal (what is coming). No fluff. No motivational content. Receipts only.

How to apply this skill

1. Triage the type (STEP 0). If unsure, ask.
2. Run the scroll test on the hook and subheads before writing the body.
3. Lay out the type template.
4. Enforce the universal rules. Cut to one spine.
5. Final pass: builtgtm-brand, then builtgtm-voice-checker.
6. Output: the structured piece, or a flagged edit that names each violation and its fix.

Relationship to the other skills

• builtgtm-brand. The voice. Load first.
• This skill. The shape. Load before structuring or auditing a piece.
• builtgtm-post-writer, builtgtm-article-writer, builtgtm-newsletter-writer. The generators. They write inside this structure.
• builtgtm-voice-checker. The final gate.