icp-research — Stage 1 + 2 research skill
The article's Example 1 Day 5 skill. Reads your website + win-loss patterns (if available) + competitor outputs (if locked) and writes a structured ICP to marketing/icp/ICP.md. This file is canonical from creation — every downstream skill reads it.
When to use
- Day 5 of Example 1: after competitor research + win-loss data exist, build the ICP synthesis
- Quarterly refresh of ICP (markets shift)
- New segment exploration ("we're adding a healthcare vertical — re-run ICP for that segment")
- After major win-loss shift (5+ recent losses in a segment → re-run ICP)
When NOT to use
- For behavioural simulation of an ICP buyer (use
/icp-behavioural — not in V2 quickstart)
- For interview prep against a single account (use
/customer-interviews — not in V2 quickstart)
- For competitor research (use
/competitor-research)
- For positioning strategy (use
/positioning after ICP locks)
How it works
- Inputs: your website URL (required). Optional: list of representative customer URLs, win-loss patterns from prior cycle, competitor aggregate.
- Reads (Exa MCP for fresh data): website case studies, customer pages, testimonials, blog posts, About / Solutions pages.
- Optionally reads:
marketing/competitors/aggregate.md (if locked) to inform "anti-ICP" framing; recent win-loss data from marketing/win-loss/win-loss.md (if /win-loss-analysis has run).
- Produces a structured ICP with these sections (matches the PulseAnalytics example at
marketing/icp/ICP.md):
- Firmographics — company type, revenue stage, team size, funding, geography, industry
- Champion persona — title, tenure, reporting, owns, their week, JTBD, job-context triggers, pain points (priority order), decision criteria
- Economic buyer persona — title, motivation, decision criteria
- Anti-ICP — who NOT to sell to + why
- Where they hang out — acquisition channels with rationale
- Customer proof points — populate as real customers ship (start empty with
[UNAVAILABLE] notation)
- Voice of customer — verbatim quotes by theme (populate from
/win-loss-analysis over time)
- Every claim tagged with confidence per
.claude/rules/ontology.md. Invented metrics forbidden — use [UNAVAILABLE] instead.
- Writes to
marketing/icp/ICP.md (overwrites prior canonical; git history preserves prior versions).
Invoke
/icp-research https://yourdomain.com
Or with optional inputs:
/icp-research https://yourdomain.com + read these 3 case studies: [URLs]
Example output
See marketing/icp/ICP.md for the PulseAnalytics example seed. Notice the structure repeats per persona (champion + economic buyer); pain points are priority-ordered; anti-ICP is explicit; VoC + proof points start [UNAVAILABLE] and fill as data lands.
Dependencies
- Reads from: your website URL (required);
marketing/competitors/aggregate.md (optional, recommended); marketing/win-loss/win-loss.md (optional, recommended — produced by /win-loss-analysis)
- Reads via Exa MCP (optional): website + recent customer-facing pages
- Writes to:
marketing/icp/ICP.md (canonical, every downstream skill reads here)
Customization
Add a custom segment (e.g., "Enterprise tier") by extending the firmographics section with a segment-table — different revenue/team-size cuts get different champion personas. The Genesys-internal version supports segment-by-segment ICPs; the quickstart simplifies to one ICP and one champion.
Edit pain-point priority order based on real customer conversations as they happen. Pain priority drives messaging hierarchy downstream.
Where this fits in the Example 1 chain
Day 1-3: /competitor-research × N → per-competitor files
Day 3: /competitor-aggregate → competitor canonical
Day 4: /win-loss-analysis → win-loss canonical (marketing/win-loss/win-loss.md)
Day 5: /icp-research (THIS SKILL) → canonical ICP
Week 2: /positioning reads ICP.md + competitor aggregate
Refresh cadence
Quarterly. Trigger sooner on major win-loss shift, new segment entry, or major change in champion-persona vocabulary.
1---2name: icp-research3description: Build structured ICP documentation by scraping case studies, testimonials, and solutions pages from your website. Produces firmographics, champion + economic buyer personas, pain points, decision criteria, anti-ICP, customer proof points, and voice-of-customer synthesis. Writes to marketing/icp/ICP.md as the canonical ICP every downstream skill reads. Triggers - "icp research", "ideal customer profile", "persona research", "customer segments", "who are our customers", "build ICP"4---5
6# icp-research — Stage 1 + 2 research skill
7
8The article's Example 1 Day 5 skill. Reads your website + win-loss patterns (if available) + competitor outputs (if locked) and writes a structured ICP to `marketing/icp/ICP.md`. This file is canonical from creation — every downstream skill reads it.
9
10---
11
12## When to use
13
14- Day 5 of Example 1: after competitor research + win-loss data exist, build the ICP synthesis
15- Quarterly refresh of ICP (markets shift)
16- New segment exploration ("we're adding a healthcare vertical — re-run ICP for that segment")
17- After major win-loss shift (5+ recent losses in a segment → re-run ICP)
18
19## When NOT to use
20
21- For behavioural simulation of an ICP buyer (use `/icp-behavioural` — not in V2 quickstart)
22- For interview prep against a single account (use `/customer-interviews` — not in V2 quickstart)
23- For competitor research (use `/competitor-research`)
24- For positioning strategy (use `/positioning` after ICP locks)
25
26## How it works
27
281. Inputs: your website URL (required). Optional: list of representative customer URLs, win-loss patterns from prior cycle, competitor aggregate.
292. Reads (Exa MCP for fresh data): website case studies, customer pages, testimonials, blog posts, About / Solutions pages.
303. Optionally reads: `marketing/competitors/aggregate.md` (if locked) to inform "anti-ICP" framing; recent win-loss data from `marketing/win-loss/win-loss.md` (if `/win-loss-analysis` has run).
314. Produces a structured ICP with these sections (matches the PulseAnalytics example at `marketing/icp/ICP.md`):
32 - **Firmographics** — company type, revenue stage, team size, funding, geography, industry
33 - **Champion persona** — title, tenure, reporting, owns, their week, JTBD, job-context triggers, pain points (priority order), decision criteria
34 - **Economic buyer persona** — title, motivation, decision criteria
35 - **Anti-ICP** — who NOT to sell to + why
36 - **Where they hang out** — acquisition channels with rationale
37 - **Customer proof points** — populate as real customers ship (start empty with `[UNAVAILABLE]` notation)
38 - **Voice of customer** — verbatim quotes by theme (populate from `/win-loss-analysis` over time)
395. Every claim tagged with confidence per `.claude/rules/ontology.md`. Invented metrics forbidden — use `[UNAVAILABLE]` instead.
406. Writes to `marketing/icp/ICP.md` (overwrites prior canonical; git history preserves prior versions).
41
42## Invoke
43
44```
45/icp-research https://yourdomain.com
46```
47
48Or with optional inputs:
49```
50/icp-research https://yourdomain.com + read these 3 case studies: [URLs]
51```
52
53## Example output
54
55See [`marketing/icp/ICP.md`](../../../marketing/icp/ICP.md) for the PulseAnalytics example seed. Notice the structure repeats per persona (champion + economic buyer); pain points are priority-ordered; anti-ICP is explicit; VoC + proof points start `[UNAVAILABLE]` and fill as data lands.
56
57## Dependencies
58
59- **Reads from:** your website URL (required); `marketing/competitors/aggregate.md` (optional, recommended); `marketing/win-loss/win-loss.md` (optional, recommended — produced by `/win-loss-analysis`)
60- **Reads via Exa MCP (optional):** website + recent customer-facing pages
61- **Writes to:** `marketing/icp/ICP.md` (canonical, every downstream skill reads here)
62
63## Customization
64
65Add a custom segment (e.g., "Enterprise tier") by extending the firmographics section with a segment-table — different revenue/team-size cuts get different champion personas. The Genesys-internal version supports segment-by-segment ICPs; the quickstart simplifies to one ICP and one champion.
66
67Edit pain-point priority order based on real customer conversations as they happen. Pain priority drives messaging hierarchy downstream.
68
69## Where this fits in the Example 1 chain
70
71```
72Day 1-3: /competitor-research × N → per-competitor files
73Day 3: /competitor-aggregate → competitor canonical
74Day 4: /win-loss-analysis → win-loss canonical (marketing/win-loss/win-loss.md)
75Day 5: /icp-research (THIS SKILL) → canonical ICP
76Week 2: /positioning reads ICP.md + competitor aggregate
77```
78
79## Refresh cadence
80
81Quarterly. Trigger sooner on major win-loss shift, new segment entry, or major change in champion-persona vocabulary.
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