matteotitta /niche-signal-discovery — Buying signals, timing triggers, intent intelligence
Find the signals that tell you WHEN to reach out — not who. Signal-based outreach achieves ~18% response rates vs ~3.4% for generic cold email. First responder post-trigger event is 5× more likely to win the deal.
Research substrate (Exa): primary tool web_search_exa for company news / fundraising / hiring confirmation. Citations per .claude/rules/exa-protocol.md. Date-filter mandatory for any "recent" claim.
Extracted from: /deepline-enrich Phase F split (2026-04-04). Apify slot integration aligns with .claude/rules/apify-credits.md.
When to use this vs. other skills — voice-locked routing
| Skill | Question it answers |
|---|---|
/clay-search or /build-tam |
Who should we target? (People discovery) |
/deepline-enrich |
How do we reach them? (Emails, phones, enrichment) |
/niche-signal-discovery |
When should we reach out? (Timing + intent) |
/lead-scoring |
How ready are they? (Qualification + prioritization) |
/outreach-emails |
What do we say? (Personalized sequences) |
Handoff pattern: /deepline-enrich (enriched list) → /niche-signal-discovery (signal overlay) → /lead-scoring (prioritize) → /outreach-emails (write sequences)
Signal categories — 9 total
Hiring · Fundraising · Competitive displacement · Champion tracking · Deal risk · Company news · Ad intelligence · Closed-lost recovery · Signal classification (custom).
Each category has a Deepline play + MCP alternative + signal strength + output shape. Full catalog with commands in the premium reference.
Signal stacking — voice-locked decision logic
Individual signals are noisy. Stacking multiple signals creates high-confidence triggers.
| Signal combo | Confidence | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring + Fundraising | Very High | Immediate outreach — budget AND need confirmed |
| Competitor engagement + Champion move | Very High | Warm intro via champion at new company |
| Job change + ICP fit | High | Personalized re-engagement |
| Fundraising alone | High | Outreach within 30 days of announcement |
| Hiring alone | Moderate | Monitor for additional signals |
| Company news alone | Low | Add to nurture, don't cold outreach |
| Competitor engagement alone | Moderate | Personalized displacement pitch |
Thin-input guard — voice-locked safety rule
Rule: If the signal inventory for a segment has fewer than 3 active (STRONG or MODERATE recency) signals across 5+ sampled accounts, do not recommend a signal-based outbound play for that segment. Report the thin-signal finding back to the user and suggest either (a) broadening the segment, (b) switching to /build-tam for fit-based targeting, or (c) waiting for signal density to build.
Adopted from Gooseworks industry-scanner (via /steal 2026-04-21). Forcing a signal-based play on sparse data produces false-confident campaign plans — the signals exist, but they're too thin to justify the strategy hanging on them.
Credit gate — voice-locked
Signal discovery uses the same Deepline credit system as /deepline-enrich. Apollo enrichment overlays follow .claude/rules/apollo-credits.md. Apify scrapes follow .claude/rules/apify-credits.md.
| Batch size | Gate level | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 1-10 accounts | No gate | Run immediately |
| 11-50 accounts | Soft gate | Show estimate, proceed unless user objects |
| 51+ accounts | Hard gate | Show estimate, wait for explicit approval |
Inputs
| Input | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Target account list | Domain + company name, ideally ICP-fit pre-filtered | /build-tam, /clay-search, /deepline-enrich |
| Pipeline deal list | Active deals (for deal-risk plays) | CRM export (Attio, HubSpot, Salesforce) |
| Competitor list | 2-3 key competitors (for displacement) | /competitor-research upstream |
| Lost deals | Closed-lost recoveries (90+ days) | CRM export |
Process
Three primary workflows: Signal-based outbound campaign (classify → category-specific plays → merge → score → personalize), Competitive displacement campaign (Mentions + Intel + Email waterfall + Displacement angle), Pipeline risk monitoring (CRM export → Deal Risk Combos → Champion Tracking → risk report). Step-by-step + MCP integration in the premium reference.
Anti-Hallucination Guardrails
- Never invent signals. Cite source per
.claude/rules/exa-protocol.mdfor any external evidence. - Don't fabricate recency. Always include the signal date; mark
[UNAVAILABLE]if unknown. - Verify ICP fit before signal harvest. Signals on bad-fit accounts = wasted credits.
- Don't escalate single weak signals to outreach. Stack first per the matrix above.
- Respect signal decay. Stale signals get demoted, not surfaced as fresh.
Quality
Pre-delivery checks cover coverage (≥80% classified, CONTRACTION filtered), quality (stacking applied, thin-input guard tested, citations present), and cost discipline (gates respected). Common-mistakes table (single-signal escalation, stale signal acted-on, force-fit on thin data) + worked example (3-signal Series B / hiring / competitor-engagement stack) + anti-examples + quality gate (active-signal density ≥60%, ≥20% Very High band) in the premium reference.
Integration with the engagement workflow
Assigned to the Researcher role-agent (or Operator for batch runs). Slots into:
- Context refresh: Monthly signal refresh on active target accounts
- Outbound: Signal overlay step between enrichment and sequence writing
- Sales pipeline: Pipeline risk monitoring as recurring task
Handoff Patterns
| From | To | What passes |
|---|---|---|
/deepline-enrich |
/niche-signal-discovery |
Enriched account list for signal overlay |
/build-tam |
/niche-signal-discovery |
Target account list for signal classification |
/niche-signal-discovery |
/lead-scoring |
Signal-enriched accounts for prioritization |
/niche-signal-discovery |
/outreach-emails |
Signal context for personalization angles |
/niche-signal-discovery |
/abm-campaign |
Tiered signal accounts for ABM tiers |
/niche-signal-discovery |
/battlecards |
Competitive displacement intelligence |
Final ship gate
Run /premortem --output before ship. See /premortem skill for the 5 execution domains (will-it-resonate / will-it-convert / will-it-stay-on-brand / will-stakeholder-push-back / will-it-degrade-over-time) and output template.
Trivial-case escape: ## Premortem\nNo failure modes — trivial change satisfies the contract for genuinely trivial outputs.